RAWBangkok

I just wanted to share a couple of things that came from the online newspapers in the past half a day or so.

A survey from Suan Dusit Rajabhat University’s Suan Dusit Poll revealed that many people wanted to see a change in political power.
The survey was conducted from last Thursday to Monday with 3,003 respondents across Thailand.

57.82 per cent wanted to the next government to be set up by a new ruling party.

39.73 per cent perceived that the new prime minister should be a moral and honest person who is respected by the general public

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So, are you wondering the same thing as me?

If roughtly 40% of the people wanted a respected and morally honest person, what kind of PM did the other 60% want?

A morally bankrupt, corrupt, lying, cheating thief who lacks any public appeal whatsoever?  That seems to fly in the face of the first result asking for a change to the ruling party.

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The body of a man found at Don Muaeng airport is believed to be a guard of People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), Deputy police chief Jongrak Chuthanont said Wednesday.\

The body was found inside an abandoned cargo building on Tuesday.

PAD occupied the airport for about a week last month.

My first thought was that the poor buggar must have had a heart attack and died sometime during or after the time that the PAD pulled out of the airport.

Then I read this line.

The body of the man, wrapped inside a plastic bag, was believed to have died a week ago.

So much for that theory.

And so much for the idea of the “peaceful” PAD protesters.

Oh yeah. Before I forget, these items have been widely quoted across blogsites in Thailand already, but worth a mention:

Bangkok Pundit reports:

Thai Rath reports on what was found – ie what PAD didn’t take with them:

110 Pingpong bombs and molotov cocktails, 280 incidenary bombs and firecrackers, 55 parts of incidenary bombs, 10 bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer used for explosives, 105 bullets for use in a .38 calibre gun, 75 bottles of acid, 312 small iron bars, 150 wooden sticks, 55 golf clubs, 16 slingshots, 497 items used in slingshots etc.

And from the Bangkok Post:

Government House will reopen in about two weeks but investigators now believe that PAD protesters stole sensitive national security files.

Data including computer and server hard disks from National Security Council offices were stolen and damaged during the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s occupation of the seat of government from late August until last week.

The PAD is a group of thugs.

When I say this, I’m not talking about the many genuinely motivated people at the grassroots level who go to peaceful rallys to applaud speeches against corruption. I’m talking about the leadership, the professional “guards” and the people carrying and using bombs and loaded weapons.

Thailand is being ripped apart by leaders competing for the spoils. But then that’s been true for 600 years or more, and somehow the country seems to continually limp along… two steps forward, one step back.

Tonight I went to see the newest Tony Jaa movie titled Ong Bak 2. The movie is set in the year 1471 a.d.

Early in the movie there is a report of a new political leader on the rise who gives a set of orders. When these orders are reported in a conversation between two people, the listener proclaims (according to the subtitles anyway) “Why didn’t the general resist the orders of the Crowned Prince?”

I suspect that this idea is historically accurate, but whether it is or isn’t, the concept of the military opposing the power and orders of it’s civilian masters whenever it believes the masters to be wrong is one that is offered again and again to the Thai people.

In this respect, military coups are an accepted part of the culture. The army is doing its duty and protecting the people from the actions of bad civilian leadership when it rebels.

This ongoing idea of a moral military taking action against corrupt civilian government is one of many factors that is helping to keep Thailand — politically, at least — locked at least a century in the past.

In a very real way, Thailand won’t be able to move forward until it changes its mind about such concepts. With the concept of life and art imitating one another, I feel confident that real change won’t come about in Thailand until messages like the one I saw in the movie tonight disappear from popular culture like movies, books and TV dramas.

In other words, no time soon.