(PROGRESS) Thai crisis exposes class struggle

Thai crisis exposes class struggle

Can economic justice resolve political conflict? What if a divided country were to try geonomics? They’d pay no taxes on their labor. They’d pay land taxes or land dues, but get back a fair share. Would that strengthen a shared identity? We trim this 2008 article from BBC News of November 8.
By Jonathan Head

With the backing of powerful military and palace figures, they have helped unseat one prime minister and two members of his cabinet.

The embattled government, led by allies of controversial former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has in vain protested that it was popularly elected less than a year ago. Now it has started fighting back with a series of mass rallies by its own red-shirted followers.

This is a dangerous contest between two power-hungry political factions who see it as a zero-sum game, in which they either win everything, or lose everything.

But it has become much more than that. The rift has split Thai society, along regional and especially along class lines.

In a north-eastern province bordering Laos and a known Thaksin stronghold, callers to talk radio are fired up. An old lady says, "Listen to me, soldiers, if you dare try another coup, forget about getting roses, because I will dress myself entirely in red -- red hair, red panties, red bra, red fingernails -- and jump in front of your tanks. You will have to run over me, a grass-roots woman, and crush me to death."

The show finishes with a rousing song, scorning "educated people" for their ignorance and lack of manners.

The PAD implies that the millions of rural people consistently vote for pro-Thaksin politicians are either bribed or do not understand what they are doing. It is the justification the PAD gives for demanding a parliament which is part-appointed.

A typical farmer replies, "If the PAD cannot convince me that their version of democracy will help grass-roots people like me, then I will fight them to my last breath," she said. "They should treat us with respect, not as people they can just squash under their feet."

An academic explains, “We have a wide gap between rich and poor. The poor did not receive anything from the state for a long time. Then, for the first time, Thaksin gave this opportunity for them."

Local people say the populist policies of Thaksin Shinawatra, like universal healthcare and the village loan scheme, brought big improvements to the quality of their lives.

But time and again they cite something else -- dignity. They told me he offered them the hope of improving themselves, without making them feel small, or humble.

His darker sides -- abuses of power, human rights violations, arrogance -- were brushed aside as less important.

The northeast province of Isaan has long been the butt of jokes in Thailand. It has a culture and language closer to that of neighboring Laos than the central plains around Bangkok. It supplies much of the cheap, migrant labor to the capital.

In the late 1990s, Thaksin Shinawatra was the first politician to court rural voters directly, with appealing policies, rather than relying on the local godfathers to deliver their support. In doing so, he has awoken a new political self-awareness in a previously passive region. And Isaan people are furious about the comments they are hearing from the PAD in Bangkok.

At the first of the big rallies in Bangkok, when the former prime minister phoned from somewhere overseas, a huge roar went up from the 60,000 red-shirted faithful. There were more than a few tearful faces in the crowd, far larger than any the PAD has managed to attract this year.

Thaksin, stuck in exile, faces a two-year prison sentence if he comes back.

The demonstrators held up a banner with the words "NO MORE COUP" in bold red letters. It seemed more of a warning than a plea. One man turned to me and said: "If the military mounts another coup, this time the country will split, and there will be civil war."