Reds Go Home

Well not much happening here in sunny Trang today so I thought I might as well give my views on recent troubles in Bangkok. By the way Reds Go Home is a statement not an order.

As my wife comes from a working class family who are very similar in many ways to a lot of the Red Shirts a part from they live in the South of Thailand, which is equally poor when compared to Bangkok, I feel I am well positioned to comment on what happened. Thaksin when he was in power saw quite cleverly that if he made policies that helped this large majority of Thais’ he would guarantee his re-election, so he came up with free health and poured money into various schemes in Isaan (north-east).

As many of the rice farmers in that area survive on one harvest a year they are very susceptible to loan sharks and many of them are in debt to these people, so Thaksin’s government gave government money to villages to help reduce the hold these sharks had over the people. So all in all you can see why many poorer Thai people thought Thaksin was their hero.

Of course he wasn’t doing out of the goodness of his heart, it was to effectively buy votes, but having said isn’t that what politicians do, come up with policies that will win them votes. The problem in Thailand is that corruption is rife in just about every area of government from police to prime minister and it was quite obvious that Mr. Thaksin desire to stay in power wasn’t motivated by the need to help these poor farmers, but the need to further increase his personal wealth. Having said that, that’s how the system works here people in power receive back hander’s from companies and the rich, so the desire to go into politics is usually financial.   

I know this to be true because my wife has been approached by a would-be politician to find voters for him, he offered her payment and payment for the votes. So in all honesty if you are prepared to sell your vote to the highest bidder you can’t then start complaining about the government, so what they really need to do is start voting for people based on the manifesto and policies, not because they are friend of the family, pay the most or whatever.

Now in the South the Democrat Party hold the majority, why I honestly don’t know because they never seem to do anything for the South, but most of the Democrats are from the South, including the current prime minister. Thaksin policies helped many people here, my wife’s family now for the first time have free health care and boy do they make the most of it. So I think a good start would for political parties to move away from regional strongholds and making policies that capture voters regardless of where they come from.

The some degree the Reds had the right idea, this country does need some major changes, the gap between have’s and have not’s is enormous. What they need to do is not worry about bringing back corrupt leaders like Thaksin and his cronies, but look at uniting the working classes into a strong political unit. Don’t worry I’m not talking about Communism we know that doesn’t work and it wouldn’t suite Thailand anyway. Maybe they should be looking along the lines of a trade union movement followed by some like the British Labour Party to represent them.

Under the current system there are many middle men making a fortune out of these poor farmers. I can’t speak about rice farmers because I don’t know but certainly in rubber farming the price paid for liquid latex is way below the market value. There are many people in middle making a fortune while the average rubber farmer lives on 1-2 thousand baht a day if he’s lucky. So if they where to come together in a co-operative for example they could probably command a much better price for the products, these co-ops could also wield a certain amount of political power.

Of course the ruling elite don’t want this to happen they to keep all the best schools,  jobs etc for their children, it amazes me that the majority of Thai People have dark skin but do you ever see a dark skinned Thai person on TV, rarely, working in a bank, never, receiving a university degree for the Prince, never. On TV people from Isaan are nearly always depicted as stupid or at best funny, never with respect. So without shadow of doubt people in Thailand are judged by the colour of their skin, so maybe if these poor coloured Thai people got together, not with burning tyres, bamboo stick and firecrackers, but ballot boxes and unity then and only then will they be able to bring about the changes this country so desperately needs.

Just as a side note the Government here has been parading this large cache of weapons on TV claiming they were found in the Reds camp, if the Reds had access to all these weapons why didn’t they use them. They were prepared to burn down large shopping centres; surely they were prepared to fight fire with fire.

Of course the Government faces major problems, at some point someone has to come with an income tax system that works, currently I suspect the majority of the population don’t pay any tax and some that I have met are very proud of the fact. Of course there’s a policy that’s not going to catch anyone’s vote, but unfortunately if they want to move Thailand into a first world country it has to done. Public spending must be increased and not just in Bangkok.

On the whole Thailand is a good country there are many aspect of Thai life that are excellent and with right leadership it could be a great country. These changes can only be brought about by the majority, not by the North or South but together, so come on Thailand do your best.