Belonging: An offer they can't refuse

COMMENTARY

Belonging: An offer they can't refuse

Published: 22 Jul 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

There's a sense of belonging and purpose, a feeling of family, a direction in life, causes to stand up for and friends who support you.

There's a reason to love, a reason to hate, a reason to get up in the morning and hopes to dream about at night. This is what the red shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) offers and it's enticing, irresistible.

For the moment, forget whether or not they are paid to protest. For the moment, forget that Pheu Thai politicians and Thaksin Shinawatra's business allies finance the movement. For the moment, forget all the political branding and baggage. At the end of the day, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Thais flock to the UDD banner simply because the movement offers that one thing humans crave most _ the feeling that they matter in a society that has always deemed them of very little importance.

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mogy71
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Discussion 53 : 25 Jul 2012 at 09.4653
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Johninbkk, your last remark smacks of the Monty Python 4 Yorkshiremen 'when I were a young lad' sketch
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johninbkk
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Discussion 52 : 24 Jul 2012 at 20.4352
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englishbob 51 - I went to 'mordor' on three separate occasions and never saw anyone searched, beaten, threatened, shot at, etc. I sat at several entrances for half an hour at each, watching the comings and goings and who was searched. No one was. Vehicles drove in without even rolling their windows down. Even police walked in and out casually. One farang I know, as a joke, wore a blue shirt that said 'friends of newin', and even he wasn't even remotely threatened.
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englishbob
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Discussion 51 : 24 Jul 2012 at 17.0751
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I had my vehicle and bags searched three times by Black Guards while on the way to my Thai school which was located inside Mordor. I wasn't beaten because I complied.
I saw an old farang guy beaten on May 12th 2010 outside Dasa Bookstore because he gave the 'thumbs down' gesture to the passing Red Shirt vehicles.
I know two Thais who were beaten by Red Shirts for complaining about road blockages... Do I have to go on, John? From my rooftop I was also an eye witness to Red Shirts shooting at soldiers who were sleeping in bunkers at night time.
One of my friends was at Sala Daeng when a grenade was launched the Multi Shirts.
How many incidents of violence are sufficient for you? 80+ grenades? 39 buildings? Just Google and there are countless scenes.
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johninbkk
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Discussion 50 : 24 Jul 2012 at 09.1650
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englishbob 27 - Of all the times you visited these red shirt protests, how many times have you been searched, beaten, shot at, bullied, and threatened?
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ringmaster
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Discussion 49 : 24 Jul 2012 at 02.3949
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D42: The 2005, 2006 and 2007 elections were meddled with, subverted and overthrown by the nexus of army/elitists. Englishbob wants the electorate to just passively accept this. He, like others, believe that without Thaksin the Thai people would’ve gone home, shut up and simply accepted their lot in life. He has a very low opinion of these people as he seems to be saying they are incapable of independent thought and are doomed to a life of oppression.

People can blame Thaksin all they want but this elitist attitude is the root cause. This elitist attitude is what created Thaksin in the first place.
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englishbob
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Discussion 48 : 23 Jul 2012 at 20.1248
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Disc 38 Robingrant - in a city of 15 million people, the red shirts ran very publicly amok. They launched grenades, attacked hospitals, stormed malls, fired machine guns and terrorised tens of thousands of people.

Absolutely the red shirts are more frightening and violent than the military. They are out of control and attack without warning. Anyone not wearing a red shirt or spouting their doctrine could be attacked... and people know that.

BTW Thaksin oversaw Kru Seh, Tak Bai and the war on drugs... Those are on HIS scorecard.
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mogy71
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Discussion 47 : 23 Jul 2012 at 11.2347
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Domdunn - populist policies do nothing to 'address the imbalances in the country'....
and englishbob is unfortunately correct - not racist I believe...
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englishbob
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Discussion 46 : 23 Jul 2012 at 09.2146
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Disc42 Dom Dunn - The comments are not racist. They are factual and disappointing.
Cheating is rife in every level of the Thai education system - which is a symptom of laziness.
And Thais consistently score lower than average on IQ tests (coincidentally, the North East scores the lowest).
And the 27% of GDP is proof that there is no 'right wing elite' plan to keep the masses uneducated.
Why would they spend that much money to deliberately fail?
It's just another silly conspiracy theory.
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yourdumb
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Discussion 45 : 22 Jul 2012 at 23.1845
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Hello Khun Voranai, can I be your apprentice? I've read a lot of your articles and I think you're the best political writer ever.

If you need any assistant worker, PLEASE PM me. My TOEFL is 625 and TOEIC 895

Thanks you :D
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ricefield
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Discussion 44 : 22 Jul 2012 at 22.5844
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All in all a decent article. One thing missed is that it was Thaksin who gave the rural people hope and a feeling of empowerment to change the political landscape. The UDD have just capitalized on that feeling and that feeling is also why so many rural Thai feel indebted to Thaksin for things like health care, OTOP and the village fund. Things that don't matter to most of us but are huge to them.

It's rural Thai culture at it's best or worst this feeling of indebtedness for many things and it's why may people that don't know the rural people well just can't understand why they do things or support certain people. It's why you go to your worst enemies daughter's wedding, it's why a lot of things are done in Rural Thailand.
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Belonging: An offer they can't refuse | Bangkok Post: opinion