Reader Submission: What's been happening in Thailand lately?
(Adirach Toumlamoon / Shutterstock.com)
When the mass protests against the current government and for modernizing the monarchy started about a year and a half ago, it was initially peaceful and non-violent, until the police started using violence.
Then came Covid-19, and the mass protests fell somewhat silent, but due to the closure of Thailand, which caused many people to get into trouble, the protests flared up again recently.
A lax government that apparently thought that closing the borders would also keep the virus out and ordered no vaccines, or ordered them much too late, was getting worse and worse for the common man. This forced the people to take to the streets again to demand the resignation of the government, the answer from this government was not an answer, but shipping containers, barbed wire and many, many police who blocked their way again and again and often deployed the water cannons with lots of tear gas and rubber bullets.
If, as a government, you do not want to enter into a constructive conversation with the demonstrators, and there are also well-educated and reasonable people among them, then people will not feel heard and you can expect that things will slowly get out of hand, if only out of frustration. especially among people who are at the bottom of society and who are not offered the prospect of a better life by the government.
Young people who then bombard the police at Din Daeng with fireworks, which I also think is completely pointless, but who will probably see that as “at least I am doing something”. Then a police apparatus that actually seems to have no better answer to this than to pull out every time with enormous force majeure, with luck then pick up some people, leave and the game starts again from the beginning.
With astonishment I follow the live streams as much as possible and then see how hundreds of police officers can't handle a few dozen very young demonstrators. I think this has to do with the poor level of education of the ordinary cop who cannot or is not allowed to think.
(Adirach Toumlamoon / Shutterstock.com)
I've been thinking for weeks why don't the police occupy some strategic places with a few officers so they can no longer throw fireworks, but much more importantly start the conversation and try to de-escalate, but they probably see that as a loss of face. After a policeman is shot on October 6, it seems that a conversation can finally be reached with the residents and suddenly the riot police are no longer present, but the regular policeman, and peace seems to return to that area.
Incidentally, it is not clear to me whether the officer in question was shot by a demonstrator or by his own colleague, because if you later see how many holes there are in the windows of the 7-Eleven, for example, you can ask the necessary question marks with the police statement. to make.
From this I will draw tentative conclusions, or the police are so incapable that they themselves cannot think that weeks of unrest in the Din Daeng area could have been prevented by simply being present with the flat cap and possibly starting the conversation, because because I have not yet seen a demonstrator use violence against an officer when he or she was arrested. Or the police have planned this in order to get everyone back in line by an enormous display of force. Because the police do have an image problem, firstly that they are generally assumed to be corrupt, and on the other hand they are not taken seriously because they do not actually enforce laws and regulations consistently.
In recent weeks, after the curfew went into effect, they could have arrested anyone who was on the street for no good reason, ticketed anyone driving without a helmet, ticketed anyone who drove against traffic. So with that you create a situation that is actually completely unclear, and also makes yourself completely unbelievable. Subsequently, as a corps, you should not only state that 2 of your officers were injured, but also remain open and honest about the ongoing investigations (if they are already underway) into the victim who received a bullet in the neck, which was hit by a police car, to Jo Ferrari etc. etc.
The videos below show how harshly the police are acting, in this video it is at 43 minutes where an already arrested detainee is kicked in the head.
https://www.facebook.com/RatsadonNews/videos/1243610666099641
In the video below you can see after 49 minutes 30 seconds how a passing motorcycle is pushed down, this would be an attempted manslaughter in the Netherlands
https://www.facebook.com/TheReportersTH/videos/582222062917424
They do give several shows every day, but ultimately mostly meaningless shows about all kinds of things, but that is more for the stage, and especially for TV.
All in all, we will have to wait and see what will happen in the near future, I hold my breath, because with a prime minister who does not give way, and who always thinks he is right on his side, who says that people should just going to pray not to be hit by floods instead of taking forceful action and thinks I'm dry and safe behind my sea containers, the Thai are going to have an exciting time.
Submitted by Rob
I've known this charade for 30 years now and somehow it doesn't interest a lot of people. It's internal posturing where it doesn't matter who is in power because left or right it will be distributed anyway and when the borders are open the tourists will come anyway and then there is just that extra to be earned so that everyone is satisfied again.
Every time I read a comment from you, I check my globe just to be sure, whether another Thailand has been added by chance.
It may come as a surprise to you, but making money is not the main thing in life.
Then I also look at the globe to see if a second Thailand has been added. “Making money is not the main thing”??? Real? Status, bling bling is really a main thing in Thailand and having a lot of money (whether or not borrowed) helps enormously!
The inequality in Thailand, also in the economic field, is indeed the basis of the protests and if the country does not reopen soon, those protests will only become more intense and bigger.
The above also applies to the whole world, as all the conflicts in the world prove. Only people in rich countries, such as the Netherlands, can say that making money is not the most important thing. Because we already have it.
@GeertP,
I don't know other than when you have no money that life is quite difficult. In NL there is a social system and then that does not seem to be enough. In TH, that system is the family and quite annoying if the family also has no money. You don't need it from the government and perhaps therefore an easier attitude to life. The question for the vast majority of the population is not what they will do after retirement. The question is how they have accrued as little debt as possible at the end of the month.
Thailand is not a fairytale country but a country where you can win but also lose and losers are simply less admired.
It's okay with me, but as a resident I can't do much else than what is in my power. With pity you won't win the fight here so it's always "cost for what"
And so the system continues to exist.
Don't shoot the messenger 😉
Pinned below the second video from The Reporters is the following text (alongside 7.400 other comments):
Image caption More information More information more
Translation:
“Please let everyone express their opinion in a civilized way and respect other opinions so that we can create a safe environment and give everyone the opportunity to deal with the problems in a peaceful way. '
Indeed, it is my firm impression after having seen many videos and read many reports that the police act very harshly and with a lot of violence. In addition, many peaceful demonstrators have to deal with all kinds of charges, of which those for lèse majeste are the most serious and the most serious.
The protesters in Din Daeng are often desperate young people who are no longer able to get an education or find a job.
See an interview with 5 of these demonstrators here:
https://prachatai.com/english/node/9481
Let me add this:
The demonstrators are often very young pupils and students. The youngest to be arrested was a 14-year-old girl. I saw images of a 17-year-old student who shaved her hair completely in protest. An elderly lady, affectionately known as Aunt Pa Pao, stripped naked and stood naked in front of the police lines.
Many protests are playful, expressive, with music and poetry. Unfortunately, they don't get much press.
Sorry…another improvement:
….so that we can create a safe environment..and then it says ”for the media…
I have known Thailand since 1998. That year I met my wife, who came to the Netherlands in 2003 and whom I married in 2006. We have a building in Chiangmai and are there regularly. But I have stopped following the political development of that country. It makes you despondent. It doesn't change. There is an upper layer full of privileges led by a supreme one, which upper layer does not care about what is going on below them. It does not matter that protests resound from lower and middle layers. A police force is deployed against it and a game takes place that generates no attention worldwide. In which (South) Asian country is no opposition suppressed? In Thailand there is no analysis or explanation regarding social dissatisfaction. Thailand is a society in which everyone has his or her place. Otherwise you would have had a different place. And no matter how you look at it: political and religious people report this message every day through the media and that's the end of it. No past crisis has had any positive democratic effect. Neither the Asian crisis of 1997 caused by Thailand, nor the Tsunami of 2004, nor the global financial crisis of 2010, nor the military crisis of 2014, and certainly not the political crisis of 2019 and the current corona crisis. . The upper class keeps its ranks closed, as do their purses, and that's it. All those crises fade away, followed by all the eruptions.
I understand that, Marcel, that you have stopped following political developments. Until now, the citizens have been beaten bloody back into their cage time and time again, it seems that there will be no change. But at a certain point there is no way back, you would think, no matter how much the dino elites would like that. Interesting, that choice of the word crisis. That reminded me of capitalism: Thailand is a heavy capitalist country with hardly any mitigating factors for the plebs. Now it is inherent in capitalism, which plunges into crisis again and again due to its internal contradictions. If the country continues like this, it will have to wait for the next crisis, and the next and the next… If the thinking of the youth really seems to have changed now, no longer bow blindly and no longer question the person higher up the ladder, then a of the regurgitation no longer quietly or bloody extinguish?