For those of you in a reflective mood this is the first anniversary of Thailand’s troubled May 2010. A year ago New Mandala, and everyone else committed to understanding Thailand’s ongoing political strife, faced one of the busiest times on record.
To revisit that tragic and violent period this selection of New Mandala posts is particularly relevant:
- 17 May 1992 and 17 May 2010
- Bangkok: This is a massacre
- A Sunday morning look at Bangkok
- Nick Nostitz in the killing zone
- Bangkok at war
- Reds’ fatal flaw: Thailand’s fatal flaw
- What next for Thailand?
- On Bhumibolists and Royalists
- 20 May 1992
- Chaos, curfew and confusion
If you have even a quick look at any of those posts what you will see is widespread debate about Thailand, its immediate prospects, and the distant future. Everything was happening quickly and it was often difficult to keep up.
A year later I think many of the comments made during those hectic days, and many of the issues canvassed, deserve fresh attention. There are also plenty more New Mandala posts from May 2010 if you are inclined to trawl through the archives.
Please feel free to offer your comments on this first anniversary of May 2010. It marks a sad milestone in Thailand’s political history.
I’m watching live broadcasting from Ratchprasong. The Red shirts are gathering to pay respect to those who lost their lives during the crackdown.
It’s useless to say who killed those protesters because people who is behind the scene. It’s interesting to see the new government will dig this up and re investigate.
Thailand has been in the dark age during past few years.
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Was in Bangkok last year during this terrible event and state media were blaming the reds for “arson”. One year later, they keep on blaming the reds for burning buildings but hardly mentioned the fact that soldiers and snipers killing unarmed civilians inside a Buddhist temple. There must be something wrong with this country when the same government remains in power despite the massacre.
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Athita. Thailand has always been in the dark ages as far as governance is concerned. Grace is not something that the so-called amaat have ever been any good at. The inevitable landslide victory of those allied to the redshirts will change nothing, since the primary intention of almost all current politically-active locals is to feather their own nests at the expense of us mere mortals. To picture any other outcome for this election would be to perpetuate a centuries old lie. This country’s elite, and their aspiring usurpers, rule this country in the most medieval of fashions. We will not beat them if we continue to dance to their puppeteers’ tunes.
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Do we really expect this to change when absolutely nothing has been done to address the deaths in the numerous other earlier conflagrations? One of the ways we can begin (the very long-term process) to bring significant change here is by refusing to be goaded into acting as the richman’s chattel. To hark back to an earlier crisis, which clearly holds lessons for this one – why should I get myself killed or maimed storming the barricades just to bring glory, profit and power to that ambitious bastard Chumlong? I feel exactly the same way about his erstwhile allies, who continue to dog us with their unsustainable fantasies of THEIR future role in this country. We need to enter into conflicts with our own winning strategies, rather than just be eternal losers for the benefit of others.
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It’s all about the 1812 Overture. The orhestra is dilly dallying and the final movement, where eveyrone trots on, seems so distant. I want it to hurry up and be over with, but the conductor shall not be rushed!
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Most of the Reds believe that the King ordered the military to kill them. Whether he is the one who ‘ordered’ or not, I do not know. But what I know is that he remained silent despite realising that his army was out killing his own people, yet he did nothing to stop them despite the fact that it is his duty to stop. Thus his silence, or his acquiescence to the killing (if you want to put it that way) has shamed the Monarchy beyond repair. My mum used to love the King very much. Up until last year she hung the pictures of the King and Queen on the wall. After all these events, however, she threw those pictures in a bin.
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And most westerners didn’t even know that Redshirts died last year. As one thai writer says, ‘ Maybe 91 death just isn’t enough’….
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‘We’ probably don’t want to start talking about the collateral damage figures when ‘we’ are (a) keen to gloss over our own bloodstained notions of justice, but (b) already promising to expend a few more. Of course, ‘we’ know that there is a wierd contradiction in those two desires, but the personal profit at stake is just too huge to dwell on a few minor ethical considerations.
Do we seriously believe that an amnestied PM has any vested interest in shitting on the very same institution that will provide him with the key for further future plunder?
Dream on dreamweavers! Your free tablet computer will eventually seem pretty small change when you one day wake up and realize just how much you have been scammed for.
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