Where lies the truth amid the mendacity?

If you are trying to understand what the conflict in Bangkok is about this editorial written by someone who experienced Tiananmen is very accurate and useful.

In the meat of the editorial he observes "One can spend all day and night looking at everything in English and Thai on the ``red shirts'' on the internet, and end up feeling one knows even less than before . ."

This is something that anyone who has studied Thai politics can affirm to be true about its politics at any time but is particularly true now.

I have tried to follow what has been going on in Thailand, and like the author said, often come away feeling as though I know less. This helps, at least, put the movements and their various claims in perspective.

is a retired interpreter from the embassy.

His job was to read all of the newspapers and listen to all of the news broadcasts and put them into english for everyone from the CIA to the state department to read.

He is now retired and does it as a subcontractor. CNN is one of his clients.

He reads everything.

He went to school with Taksin.

He would admit that the more he reads the less he knows!!

Long story short Taksin is an evil meglamaniac. He has had B 76 billion baht judgement against him for money he got when he was Prime Minister. Yesterday B 46 billion was transferred from his accounts to the government for payment.

There has been a B 5 billion in withdrawals from Taksin's relatives in the last two months to help bankroll the demonstrations.

While Prime Minister Taksin did have some poverty elimination plans that were popular in the poor rural areas, however so did Mussilini and Peron. It is an old trick of dictators to camoflauge your power grab by throwing pennies to the poor.

There are some here who consider Taksin a good guy but he is not.

His health care proposal was basically an unfunded government program where he took credit for it, did not tax the rich for it and allowed his family to make more billions of baht.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaksin_Shinawatra

Healthcare policies
Thaksin initiated two key healthcare policies: subsidized universal health care and low-cost universal access to anti-retroviral HIV medication (ARVs). Thaksin's 30-baht/visit universal healthcare program won the applause of the general public, but was criticized by many doctors and officials.<63><64> Prior to the program's introduction, a large portion of the population had no health insurance and only limited access to healthcare. The program helped increase access to healthcare from 76% of the population to 96%.<65> The program also increased workloads for health care employees, and caused many doctors to change to higher paying careers. It has also been criticized for being underfunded by the government. The program caused some hospitals to seek alternative sources of income, leading to a boom in medical tourism, with 1.3 million foreign patients earning Thailand 33 billion THB (approx. 800 million USD) in 2005.<66><67>


What is not often discussed at DU by Taksin supporters is his human rights record:

He had a very effective drug policy, it included extra judicial summary executions.


In the first three months, Human Rights Watch reports that 2,275 people were killed.<72> The government claimed that only around 50 of the deaths were at the hands of the police. Human rights critics say a large number were extrajudicially executed.<73><74> The government went out of its way to publicize the campaign, through daily announcements of arrest, seizure, and death statistics
.


The problem is that when you give police a license to kill that will mean that corrupt police will use it to take care of people they are afraid know too much (and while many corrupt police exist in Thailand many are not, like my wife's first husband who was killed in the line of duty).

It is estimated that about 2,000 people were killed by the police that HAD NO CONNECTIONS TO THE DRUG TRADE.


And for those DU apologists for Taksin there is the Tak Bai incident.

If Taksin were ever to return as PM the Muslims in the South would erupt in full civil war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tak_Bai_Incident




What has complicated the issue further is that the King (who is universally respected) is very ill and not going to live longer and there is a general angst that the Crown Prince who, as the Thais are prone to say, suffers from 'terminal pussy sickness', might become the next king, although passing the crown from father to the son is the exception rather than the rule in this dynasty.



The irony is that everyone knows what is likely to happen. Taksin has probably made an agreement with the UDD leaders that they will receive a huge pay off on the condition that they do not leave the streets until the provoke the government to take military action. Certainly there are a few mid level police and military officers who are on his payroll and are waiting for an outbreak of violence so that they can roll in and declare a coup and bring Taksin back.

This is why the military is taking such a patient approach and allowing the protesters to takeover parts of the city for over a month, they want the UDD to expose their ambitions and their penchant for violence. The UDD 'invasion' of Chulalongkorn Hospital was a significant event and you now have elderly grandmothers in Thailand swearing like sailors with hatred for the UDD.

In the meantime Taksin is traveling on a Montenegro passport and was last seen in Moscow and is reported heading for Uganda.

And if you read this reply you now know less than you did 5 minutes ago.