.
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 :)
14 comments:
Here is the way I weigh loyalty to the monarchy. Look at the number of pictures of the Royal Family in a home or hut as it may be. Every time there are more pictures in the poorer household than the richer. Not very scientific but very accurate, you be the judge.
Nice observation Ricefield Radio :)
It's a shame it's such a sensitive subject, IMO.
I like your observation, too, Ricefield, but I suggest a different explanation.
Rich people can afford to have more variety in their interior decorating, while the poor have to rely on freebies from banks and insurance companies.
Both sides have equally strong motivation to show public support for the crown, so I wouldn't read too much into it.
As for the future, I think the sooner the problems are resolved, the more likely the monarchy will survive unscathed. If the country goes to civil war without royal intervention, there may be resentment on both sides, and the more likely changes will cut deep.
Poor people buy more lottery tickets too. When reason dictates that there's no way up and out for you, you look for deus ex machina.
“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”
Frederick Douglas said that. Take it from a man who knew exactly what he was taking about.
My view of the personalities of the royal family have been evolving in response to the egregious abuse of the institution by the "royalists" and "monarchists" of late. But I think that criticism of this or that monarchic personality misses the point. There is no "there there" in reality, it's all the sizzle and not the steak. The problem is not the monarch it is the monarchists.
Newin is a "monarchist" for goodness sake. So is the King Power syndicate. The bald-faced exploiters hangers-on are the boosters up.
That HM the King walks on water is as patently false as that the reds are a "virus" attacking the Thai body politic.
The minority in power is at long last being challenged by the majority. They don't like, feel threatened and insecure... are desperate enough to do the (the usual and customary) unspeakable things necessary to hang on to power.
The only "problem" to be solved according to the "elite" is to put an acceptable face on the unacceptable, once again.
I have just returned from the North. A house I visit occasionally was on my itinerary, and I noticed that the 2 large pictures, one of the King and one of the King and Queen had been taken down. I enquired where they were and was taken out the back into the chicken shed. I discovered them in the outside toilet - not poetry but utility - they were both filling a couple of spaces in the wall caused by recent high winds.
I really do doubt this is unique, or even rare. Make no mistake, the people up there, stupid and uneducated buffaloes that they are considered, know very well who is the blame for the worm eating at the core of the Thai apple.
I'm not really surprised if they do have a sense of 'disappointment' - especially after the emdorsement of the military coup that disenfranchised their votes, the apparently one-sided funeral attendances, and the apparent lack of sympathy shown for their cause (and the silence shown on the draconian LM jailings)
I should have added the various hospital visits (and non visits) to the above list.
Make no mistake, the people up there, stupid and uneducated buffaloes that they are considered, know very well who is the blame for the worm eating at the core of the Thai apple
Funny - if there's no anti-monarchy element to UDD propaganda, how on earth would they have discovered this "supreme truth"?
You guys want to have your cake and eat it too, denying UDD involvement and celebrating their achievements in the same breath.
'Wanting to have their cake and eat it too'
Sounds like you are describing the Thai ruling elite there StanG - they have been having their cake and eating it for decades now - aided and abbetted by guys like you who continue to provide cover for them by playing along with the charade, when you know that Thailand has never been a democracy! (if anything it's been an experiment in implementing Plato's philosopher kings concept, but the noble lie is being exposed and people are waking up to the idea that the 'philosopher kings' might not be so wise or benevolent as the ones Plato imagined)
I have no involvement with reds/UDD, so don't try to link what I say to them.
(I speak for myself, and they can speak for themselves)
Some musings, feel free to edit at will…:
One of the more bizarre things one learns to live with in Thailand, is the incidence and level of cognitive dissonance that Thais can live with.
Someone once defined an artist as someone who can hold to fundamentally opposing views at the same time and still function (Scott Fitzgerald as I recall). Thais must be great artists by that definition.
One of the major contradictions in Thailand is the fiction that is peddled that the 'institution' is 'universally revered' and is the 'heart and soul of all Thais'.
Yet, it needs protecting. From whom? Non-existent people?
Yet it is Abhisits main function in life to protect it from the none existent people who would attack it or fdrag it kicking and screamnginto politics, God forbid. (Note Abisit's main job is not to run the country or anything as you would have a right to expect).
Yet it is Newin's main goal in life to go around protecting it at all times from non-existent people.
Yet Thailand has among the most draconian laws in the world are in place to protect it from the slightest slur or criticism from the non-existent people who would slur or criticise it.
Yet non-existent dissenters are regularly sentenced to long jail terms for daring to question the propaganda.
Yet the Government creates complex and elaborate conspiracies created up by dastardly non-existent people to scare the children with.
Yet the Government openly declares that the UDD is there to 'bring down the monarchy'.
Odd isn't it?
BTW, I was hugely entertained to hear Abhisit, fresh from his snubbing by the army who (quite properly) refused to wage war agains the Thai people, once again resort to the only impotent weapon he has left - legal action - a weapon he has already threatened to use to the sound of laughter echoing around the world.
What a sorry state this man is in. What a complete laughing stock, what a sad figure of ridicule.
And lastly of course we have (from BP), the concept that the quisling Newin the betrayer is all upset because he fears Abhisit want to form a coalition with Phuea Thai.
Abhisit, the consummate artist, he can apparently hold any number of conflicting fantasies in his mind at the same time and still function. Sort of. What a city banker this man is.
Anonymous Hieronymous
"I have no involvement with reds/UDD, so don't try to link what I say to them."
And at the same time you accuse me of "aiding and abetting"...
StanG: But it's true, isn't it?
(You are clearly not dumb, so why else would you be so stridently defending the LM laws and draconian sentences etc on the various sites - particularly Prachatai when you went under the name of Trep?)
The whole country is built on the patronage system.Even LM law is abolished, patron-client culture remains,permeating the workplace and personal life. The more i live in this country the more i feel whatever one does here is meaningless because most people are just concerned about how to build up their own network of patrons or clients and acquire fame and money for themselves while pretending to be selfless.If they are honest abt what they want, maybe it's not that bad but people here are so good at convincing themselves that they are doing something for 'noble' goals (when in fact they mostly do things that make themselves feel important). Anyway, i see lies and pretensions everywhere here (except among those closest to you) so i don't believe that there is much genuine loyalty or symapathy for anything or anyone.
But look on the bright side, Joy:
There are fish in the water and rice in the fields...
:)
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