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Thai govt fails to defeat the shadow of Thaksin
In a number of locations in the Rajprasong area in Bangkok’s commercial area, groups of people kept their eye on their 14-inch TV to watch a recorded speech of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the sidelines of their demonstration
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n a number of locations in the Rajprasong area in Bangkok’s commercial area, groups of people kept their eye on their 14-inch TV to watch a recorded speech of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the sidelines of their demonstration.
The DVD was not part of the propaganda for the demonstration but actually was an advertisement to attract the “Red Shirts” to buy the DVDs being sold in the area.
“Thaksin is our true leader and hero. All our problems actually stem from the Army,” Sapchai Nirat, a Bangkok resident who joins the protests everyday after work, said Sunday.
All Red Shirts or the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) members and their leaders that have occupied parts of Bangkok for eight straight weeks are loyal followers of Thaksin, who governed Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
The Red Shirts, who view the government as an illegitimate puppet of Bangkok’s urban elite and the military, are demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resign, dissolve Parliament and call new elections. Abhisit has rejected these demands.
The Red Shirts, drawn mostly from the rural and urban poor, seem to remember what Thaksin has done for them.
After a landslide victory in the 2001 election, Thaksin, one of country’s richest businessmen, became prime minister, the country’s first to serve a full term as all his predecessors failed to complete their term either because of being forced to resign or having been ousted by a military coup.
During his administration, Thaksin introduced a range of relatively effective policies and was recognized as having reduced Thai poverty by half in only four years, making him highly popular among the rural poor, especially in the populous Northern part of the country.
Thaksin’s 30-baht universal healthcare program also won the applause of the general public. Prior to the program’s introduction, a large portion of the population had no health insurance and only limited access to healthcare. The program helped increase access to healthcare. Previously only 76 percent of the population could access healthcare and this rose to 96 percent according an official source.
His re-election in 2005 attracted the highest voter turnout in Thai history.
The Thaksin government, however, also faced allegations of corruption, authoritarianism, treason and opposing the monarchy from the Bangkok elite and military, leading to protests by the People’s Alliance for Democracy, or the Yellow Shirts, culminating in a military coup on Sept. 19 while he was abroad.
Analysts have said that the Red Shirt’s protests were largely revenge for the military coup against Thaksin.
Speculation have even been circulating that the Red Shirt’s movement is financed by Thaksin’s money, and that he is still in control of the movement from abroad.
Most Thai leaders have generally agreed that the only way any Thai government can last long enough is to overcome inequality and poverty, something any Thai prime ministers after Thaksin, including Abhisit, have shown no ability to do.
