Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!
The deceptions started a long time ago. Wikipedia's sources would have it that the Thai Rak Thai Party was formed to bring social justice to the poor in the North and Northeast. Not so: I have seen no evidence that there was such an agenda before 2000. TRT was formed to run government business and large infrastructure projects for the benefit of the party leadership, with some crumbs for MPs who sacrificed their honour for cash, and the 2000 election result followed.
The proof of that pudding was in the eating. There were populist policies during the 2001 administration, when coalition parties were brought in to share the gravy and inject much-needed talent that the drafted foot-soldier MPs could not provide. The 2004 election was a forgone conclusion (victory by village fund), and in plenty of time MPs were given the opportunity to jump ship to TRT, and victory followed.
After the great satellite swindle, later exposed by the Constitutional Court, things started to go awry and the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) was formed to oppose and harry the government. The bully-boy red shirts were hired at this time to attack the PAD. This is today hailed as the starting of the "we want our democracy" red-shirt movement, even by Dr Weng, who spoke at a yellow-shirt rally. How could that be? They were in power. The WWOD red shirts only appeared after the money gained from the great satellite swindle was confiscated.
This is the background. Today there is talk of amnesty. In a spirit of amnesty, Deputy PM Chalerm offered southern insurgents justice (in Thailand this means being let off, guilty or not) if they confess they were "misled" concerning the reason for their attack. This can be extended to the WWOD red shirts, who were led into danger and failed to get a result because democracy was not at issue. They should get justice (let off)? This leaves their leadership to face injustice (lifetime bail). No need for amnesty bills. Crimes by people in Thai politics are not in most cases anything to do with politics, and a lot to do with money.
Richard Bowler
Bangkok
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/03/16/amnesty-is-not-the-same-as-justice/
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