Andrew Spooner writes:
Mention Thailand and most people will think of
beaches, backpackers, Buddhism and its famous tourism industry. But you can bet
as British tourists pack their sun-cream and beach-towels for a Winter holiday
they won’t be thinking of one particular ‘F’ word – fascism.
Yet, last week, amidst the worst
violence Thailand has witnessed in several years, the
word ‘fascism’ was uttered by a leading group of progressive Thai thinkers
and academics.
In the shadow of protests led by Suthep
Thuagsuban, a former ‘Democrat’ party deputy prime minister who is tainted not
only with highly
credible claims of corruption dating back to the 1990s, but who is also awaiting
to be indicted for the murder of pro-democracy protesters in 2010, these
thinkers/academics had come together to form the Alliance
For the Defence of Democracy (AFDD).
Suthep, who resigned from the Democrat Party only
last month, is still closely allied to his former boss and former PM, the
present Democrat Party leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva (Abhisit, who is also a British
citizen and Old Etonian, is a
close friend of London Mayor, Boris Johnson), who was himself indicted
for the 2010 murders only last week.
It is quite easy to see how the AFDD came to use
the ‘F’ word. Suthep’s People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protest
movement is made up of senior Democrat Party figures, Thai aristocrats, the
super-rich and Bangkok’s middle classes all of whom are desperate to cling onto
the status and power they’ve enjoyed for so long.
The PDRC’s avowed programme has morphed from
preventing a controversial amnesty bill – the bill was dropped in
mid-November – through to its present aim of ‘stopping’ the February 2014
general election called by the 2011
general election-landslide-winning Thai PM, Yingluck Shinawtra.
Instead the PDRC is seeking to impose a ‘People’s
Council’ – a wholly appointed body drawn from Thailand’s elite – on the
country in order to enact what the PDRC calls ‘reforms’. These reforms include,
among various vague proposals to ‘stop corruption’, forbidding what the PDRC
calls Yingluck’s ‘populist policies’ or, more accurately, what The Economist
calls good old-fashioned Keynesian
economics’.
In an article in the Bangkok Post entitled ‘Academics
brand people’s council ‘fascism‘, the AFDD were damning in their analysis
of the PDRC. The Post quoted Piyabut Saengkanokkul, an AFDD member, who said
that
“The idea of setting up a people’s
council comprising members of various professions was an idea inherited from
fascist corporatism, as seen in Italy during the period of Benito Mussolini’s
fascist dictatorship.”
You don’t have to delve too deep to see who is
backing the PDRC’s “fascism”. In fact, many Thai aristocrats and super-wealthy
openly boast of their disdain for democracy, accompanying this derision with sneering
contempt for ordinary Thai voters.
A recent Reuters
article examined the Thai aristos and billionaires who have taken a full
and active part in the PDRC protests. Reuters’
damning expose partly focuses on one Chitpas Bhirombhakdi an “heiress to a
$2.6 billion family fortune” and a Democrat Party spokesperson who has been in
the forefront of the protests. Recently Chitpas was quoted in another newspaper
stating that ordinary and poor Thais don’t have a “true understanding of
democracy…especially in the rural areas”.
Of course Chitpas’ Democrat Party – the absolute
bastion of the Thai establishment – have never won a parliamentary majority
with their last semblance of success coming over twenty years ago when they
managed to become the largest
party in the Thai parliament with 21 per cent of the vote.
Since then Abhisit seized power in what was
widely termed a ‘judicial
coup’ in 2008 – an act which later led to huge pro-democracy protests in
2010 and the brutal slaughter of
almost 100 Thai civilians of whose murder he know stands charged – which
was followed by PM Yingluck’s huge landslide election victory in 2011.
And now, unable to win an election, this once
seemingly ‘liberal’ party – it’s simply shameful that the UK Liberal Democrats
are allied and connected directly to the Thai Democrat Party via the Liberal
International – have now veered towards political extremism.
Once the darlings of Bangkok’s notoriously tepid
international media corps, articles are now appearing in the global media
exposing the Abhisit-led ‘Democrats’ as the anti-democracy activists they’ve
become. Time magazine ran a searing article entitled ‘Thailand’s
Democrat Party Is Hilariously Misnamed’, whilst Associated Press speared
Abhisit’s party with this single line – ‘The
enemy of the Democrat Party? It’s democracy’.
So what next? Suthep has now taken to
threatening PM Yingluck’s 11year old son from the protest stage whilst his
acolytes have said they
will lead a mob to ‘storm’ the US Embassy. The PDRC, who have vowed to stop
the February 2014 general election, still rely on the support of Abhisit’s
Democrats who look increasingly likely to boycott the elections. And, waiting
in the wings, is the notoriously
coup-happy Thai Army.
The experienced and widely-published
Bangkok-based German photojournalist, Nick Nostitz,
who has been covering Thailand’s political upheavals for the last decade – he
was recently singled out for physical
attack by the PDRC and then later produced an
exceptional report on PDRC attacks on a pro-democracy Red Shirt rally –
told me this about possible future Thai Army involvement.
“After the PDRC met the top brass on
Saturday, it looks that presently the military still refuses to intervene any
further than offering itself as a facilitator for possible negotiations.
However, the Thai military is notoriously secretive in their decision making
processes, next week the configuration could completely change again.”
Thailand stands at crossroads – the potential for
civil war is now obvious and fascism is rearing its ugly head. It’s time for
the global community of democrats – whether on the left or the right – to stand
shoulder to shoulder with those battling extremism in Thailand.
Congratulations.
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