Where is the PAD going this time with its protests?

POLITICS

Where is the PAD going this time with its protests?

Published: 8/02/2011 at 10:15 AM
Newspaper section: News

As the drumbeat of war intensifies over the Thai-Cambodian border issue, the People's Alliance for Democracy is engaging in a new phase of political brinkmanship, much akin to its antics in 2008, but this time aimed at very different targets.

It is a measure of irony and political karma that the PAD should now be railing against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the ruling Democrat Party and their establishment backers. The evident fragmentation of the "yellow" coalition is crucial and portentous for Thailand's political direction.

In 2008, the PAD's marathon street protests that featured the takeover of Government House and later Bangkok's two airports were designed to create conditions of ungovernability in an attempt to undermine and overthrow governments that were loyal to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Back then, the PAD seized on the Joint Communique former foreign minister Noppadol Pattama signed with his Cambodian counterpart to list Preah Vihear Temple as a world heritage site to spearhead its attack. The Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries that was signed in 2000 by the Democrat-led government was absent in that round of brinkmanship.

Relate Search: Thai-Cambodian, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Democrat Party, People's Alliance for Democracy

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About the author

: Writer: Thitinan Pongsudhirak; Position: Director of the Institute of Security and Internat

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johninbkk
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Discussion 37 : 11/02/2011 at 11:57 AM37
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spiceman D36 - I see the PAD as people who can overthrow a tyranny to install a new tyranny. I also see them as the people who installed Abhisit as PM. If the UDD/PTP take on 'anti-war' as an election platform, I think they'll have a good chance at winning the next election. I just don't trust a prime minister preaches peaceful negotiation, but in reality uses the military to solve both internal and external political conflicts.
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spiceman
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Discussion 36 : 11/02/2011 at 09:49 AM36
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Khun Johninbkk #35, you can almost equate Aphisit as the English (absolute) monarchy, Sondhi Lim as Samuel Adams, and PADs as the Sons of Liberty. It is "the Boston Tea Party" all over again!

Do you think people love Freedom & Liberty, or tyranny? And without the Rules of Law, can Freedom & Liberty exist? PADs are laying down a new and better foundation so the House of Freedom & Liberty can be built upon for our future generations.
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johninbkk
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Discussion 35 : 11/02/2011 at 06:55 AM35
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spiceman D33 - "I believe that to be the same values PADs are fighting today, to embrace Liberty under the Rules of Law, over Tyranny because of the lack of it."
Please re-read D22, a list of ingressions committed by the British before the American Revolution that closely match those committed by the PAD.
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spiceman
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Discussion 34 : 11/02/2011 at 05:46 AM34
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Khun Justfacts #32, #A well regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." (Article II) So can you tell me where did it get it wrong?

Of course, there are exceptions to those Rights, as Lincoln put it "The Constitution is not a suicide pact." There are a few cases where crooked municipalities tried to use Public Domain Law to cease private properties, in order to turn them over to private entities, like developers. The Law only works if the private properties are needed for public works like roads, and bridges, not shopping malls.
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spiceman
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Discussion 33 : 11/02/2011 at 05:33 AM33
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Khun Eggmeng #31, those American Founding Fathers believed in their Creator, and they invoked Him and His Law as a reason for independence. If American Revolution failed, I say, they're beside themselves, but it didn't, and the founding documents they created has been the guiding light for the US until today, more than 230 years ago, since the ink dried. Therefore, I believe, there must be a God, who made it all possible.

True, unlike many countries including Thailand, for example, the UK where there is a Church of England with the Queen, herself, as its head, the US Constitution prohibits such direct tie between church & state. Thailand has gone as far as making Buddhism the only state religion. However, there are more churches, temples, mosques, per capita in the US than anywhere else in the world.

What made the US great is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." I believe that to be the same values PADs are fighting today, to embrace Liberty under the Rules of Law, over Tyranny because of the lack of it.
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justfacts
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Discussion 32 : 10/02/2011 at 11:04 PM32
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spiceman . you should quit while you were ahead, god had nothin g to do with it....and your misinterpatation of the 2nd ammendment shows a lack of understanding. As well as you are wrong in property rights as it can be overruled by public domain...
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Eggmeng
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Discussion 31 : 10/02/2011 at 05:33 PM31
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@discussion 30

The US constitution was conceived and drafted by men, not by "God." Moreover it guarantees the separation of church and state, one of the things that makes it great.

Please do not attempt to misinform this readership on such a fundamental aspect of American history.
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spiceman
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Discussion 30 : 10/02/2011 at 01:15 PM30
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Khun Johninbkk #28, freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and the press, as well as, the private property's right are all guaranteed by the US Constitution. In addition, the American Founding Fathers threw in the right to bear arms as the ultimate guarantee of those rights. They knew that without the Second Amendment, all the rights would be meaningless. And no matter, how big is the majority, it can never take away those rights, because they came from God.
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justfacts
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Discussion 29 : 10/02/2011 at 12:02 PM29
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Spiceman, I am so glad you apparently passed your citizenship to become an american,with flying colors, as witnessed by your constant refering to US constitution, which as a former thai you should know has nothing to do with thailand or its laws. However you are wrong about certain rights can never be taken away...for example the right to vote can be taken away from a convicted felon. My question to you is did you renounce your thai citizenship to becone an american citizen?
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johninbkk
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Discussion 28 : 10/02/2011 at 10:06 AM28
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spiceman D27 - The 'super majority' requirement to enact/alter major laws can exist in a Parliament, and I agree with you that it should exist in Thailand. But this is semantics, and off topic of the article.
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Where is the PAD going this time with its protests? | Bangkok Post: opinion