Loyalty & Sympathy

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As previously blogged, Abhisit & his minders are playing hardball with the old royalty card trick - it's worked before, so they are trying it again.

As far as I know all red leaders, and Thaksin, have continiously expressed loyalty and admiration for the King, and have never expressed any desire to remove the monarchy.
Likewise the red rank and file express their love for the king.

The $64,000 question is whether the love is genuine, or enforced?
A sub question might be: Would the love be genuine if all sides to the story were allowed to be aired?

The only way to know the answer would be to remove to LM law.
(Did I just explain why the LM law hasn't been removed? :)

Anyway, here's some interesting quotes from a great essay and comments on New Mandala:

Thongchai Winichakul: "The mass base of the Reds is people who remain deeply religious, nationalistic, and royalist, although with some disappointment at the royals. The leaders of the UDD reflect the politics of their people. They have not shown any signs of anti-monarchy but to the contrary. The strongest comment is disappointment and they beg for some royal sympathy"

Aladdin: "I believe that the lese majeste law and the incessant propaganda about the monarchy may be leading to an underestimation of the real extent of “anti-monarchy” feeling in Thailand. This is very dangerous for the future of the monarchy.
The sooner that the problem of the monarchy can be talked about openly, and proposals discussed to reform it, the safer its future"

Food for thought :)