I might have lost myself two bottles of beer; it doesn’t look like Thaksin will be giving up any power in the coming days. He has a point in not resigning: mob rule isn’t democracy, as much as the protestors state that it is so. It may be freedom of speech, but the disruption by a couple of hundred thousand people shouldn’t by itself overthrow the votes of millions. Of course I’m giving Thaksin the benefit of the doubt. He probably doesn’t want to lose face, or to be stripped of his assets under popular furore if he’s deposed.
These demonstrations are like an encore of those held in 1992. The stage is the same, and the determination the same. What differs is that those in 1992 ended in many killed at the hands of the military. That was the birth of true democracy in Thailand.
Thaksin has done well to become the complementary book-end of 1992, by undermining the institutions put in place after the 1992 demonstrations. (By Anand, the only Thai politician I’ve come across who seems to be an all-round good-guy). All involved are determined that the current situation remains peaceful. Paradoxically, the demonstrations in 1992 were to bring about democracy after a coup that the public would not accept, whilst current demonstrations are an undemocratic force trying to bring down the most democratic government that Thailand has seen.
The Devils and Angels of 1992 were brought to task by the revered King of Thailand, to whom they cowered. Thaksin recently stated (perhaps disrespectfully) that he would resign if the King so much as whispered to him. On Sunday night, on Royal command, the footage of that meeting was shown across all television networks. Did the King just whisper to Thaksin? Here ’s the Nation’s story about it. As far as I’m concerned the King did whisper, and Thaksin owes me two bottles of beer, Chang at that.
As before, the best up-to-date news on this ongoing 24-hour-a-day standoff can be found at The Nation