Page 2 of
3 ASIA
HAND Recollections,
revelations of a protest
leader By Shawn W Crispin
did come out to save me at certain
times through his speech.
You mean His Majesty's
veiled call to Thaksin during his 2005 birthday
address for Thaksin to drop the criminal and civil
lawsuits he had filed against you and your
companies?
No one knows
why the king said that. He just saved me on
that
part, but the rest I had to fight by myself.
So then do you consider
yourself a royalist?
I
have not received any decorations at all, not even
one single medal. And I refuse to get one. I was
doing what I did because I firmly believe and I
still do that the only way Thai society will go
through this transitional period peacefully will
have to involve the monarchy institution. It is a
requirement for a peaceful society of Thailand.
[One] condition is the masses need to be educated
and have understanding about democracy. I have
written this report and I gave it to [Prime
Minister] Surayud when he came up to power.
What are the
recommendations?
The
public and the mass have to be educated by giving
them the proper information through broadcasting.
Remember, I'm a media man. I believe that rather
than satellite television we should have a
television station or we should be able to go on
Channel 7 or Channel 5 on a daily basis and
explain things, what went wrong with Thailand,
etc.
Tell the people to stand up and fight
for their rights. Naively, I didn't know that the
word the "people" is the scariest word for both
Thaksin and the feudalists.
There's a
liberal academic argument that Thaksin's populist
policies actually empowered the rural countryside
and [raised] their political consciousness. The
political consciousness rose to his favor because
he was using money to win over the people. If
Thaksin was doing it in order to build a truly
democratic society, that would have been fine. But
he was doing it in order to maintain power and
monopolize power forever. That's the reason why I
fought against him.
How do you feel in
retrospect that your protests were effectively
co-opted for the political purposes of the feudal
elite?
I'm a
threat to them now. They're very scared of me now.
Why's that?
Well, because I can command the people.
You see I have a different way of looking at
things. Politically, I always believe that if I
can get the middle classes all across the country
to be on my side, the middle classes are the ones
who suffer most, whose rights have been infringed
upon, who have been taxed to the hilt, who haven't
been given a chance or opportunity to get what
they deserve.
Then here I came and they
all came out because I represent them. Ninety
percent of the middle class have Chinese blood.
They look up at me and say, he is my man who dares
to speak on my behalf. And I sincerely believe and
still do that if we can organize this middle class
well, arouse their political rights, telling them
that they have rights as much as the elite have,
it's time to get up and protect our rights, that
is a threat.
So there was an
ethnic-Chinese component to your anti-government
rallies?
Of course. Their biggest mistake after kicking
Thaksin out, instead of allying with me and
agreeing with me that there is a need to reform
the whole country, they look at me as a threat. So
they cut me off.
Who exactly cut you off?
The CNS [the ruling Council for National
Security]?
The whole thing: the CNS, including Surayud. They
put me on Channel 11 for 10 days on a daily basis.
You know what happened? The whole bloody country
was woken up, I brought them the news that they
have never heard before.
And, of course, I
was criticizing [former CNS finance minister]
Pridiyathorn [Devakula]. I was criticizing his
stupidity in defending the baht and the 30%
reserve requirement for foreigners to protect the
baht. I was also criticizing the communications
and transport minister, who happens to be
Surayud's friend.
I was putting forward a
very interesting question: I could never
understand any government that comes to power,
whether they stay long like Thaksin or stay short
like this government, they all want to buy a new
fleet of aircraft. So they were pissed. Surayud
himself called me up and said: "Khun Sondhi, we'll
have to pull you off the air."
I am being
myself, I'm not serving anyone. I thought over the
year that I fought, certain times almost
violently, I almost lost everything that I have, I
fought because I believe in this country. And all
of a sudden I see a new group of people and
they're coming and sucking everything again, and
that pisses me off.
They are not being as
greedy as Thaksin, but they are greedy. It took a
lot of guts and a lot of courage to stage the
coup. When they staged the coup, why didn't they
do it right? Why not clean all the mess on the
table and set new tableware and make the table
clean? Make a better, cleaner, more transparent
society. Give us a good constitution, give us
freedom of speech, get rid of all the wrongdoings.
Now it looks like they are collaborating with
Thaksin's people.
Not only [with former
finance minister and deputy prime minister] Somkid
[Jatusripitak - appointed the government's chief
communicator to explain the new "sufficiency
economy" philosophy to the international
community], but also the way the anti-corruption
commission has not received any cooperation from
the bureaucrats at all - not at all. To sum up the
whole thing: you still have the old system where
the elites rule the country and they are letting
the politicians be the ones who run the country
and they take money from the politicians. You can
call it what you like, concession fee, whatever. I
am letting you run the country, now this is what I
want, give it to me.
It's not much different
in many developing countries, is it?
Right,
and things were running smoothly until a guy named
Thaksin came in. Originally this elite group
thought Thaksin would be no different and play by
their rules. But Thaksin, being a smartass, had
great personal ambition. And he was able to gather
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