Prominent academic Thirayuth Boonmee has called for a peaceful mass revolution to rid the country of the "Thaksin regime".
Thiratyuth Boonmee calls for peaceful revolution to rid the country of the 'Thaksin regime'. (Photo by Panumas Sanguanwong)
The director of the Sanya Dharmasakti Institute for Democracy and former leader of the protests that culminated in the Oct 14, 1973 student uprising voiced his call in an article on rebuilding the "foundations of Thailand".
The article, published on Wednesday in a Thai Journalists Association forum, says the great mass of people or muan maha prachachon led by Suthep Thaugsuban and the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) must fight for the eradication of the Thaksin regime through reform.
Mr Thirayuth describes former premier Thaksin Shinawatra as an anarchist exploiting state power as a tool for corruption, who he says divided Thai people and took total control of state personnel, causing widespread graft.
He accused the former premier of changing laws to benefit his businesses, running the questionable rice-pledging scheme with little transparency and interfering in government offices and state enterprise appointments to put "his men" in important positions.
The article argues that widespread corruption has caused Thai society to become anarchistic, while Thai people no longer trust one another and fight for their self-interest.
Mr Thirayuth predicts that the PDRC's efforts to reform the country mark the start of a fresh beginning for Thai politics, arguing that the likelihood of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra regaining public support is slim, because the influence of the Thaksin regime is waning.
Mr Thirayuth admits most of the muan maha prachachon are urban and middle class, but says low-income people from almost every province are joining the PDRC's ranks.
The urban middle classes are blowing whistles because of the economic problems they are facing and concerns about "uncontrollable widespread corruption", not because they stand against the rural people, he claims.
Mr Thirayuth argues that a new form of "peaceful revolution" which involves people from all walks of life who have the consensus to press for legal and structural changes is necessary to end the current political crisis, as opposed to a bloody revolution or ineffective military coup.
The article urges the PDRC to persist in a peaceful struggle and strive to attract more support from people in rural areas, regardless of how long it takes.
The PDRC's proposals to decentralise power through provincial governors and local administrations chimes with the concept of a "peaceful revolution", Mr Thirayuth said, but will only be possible if all Thai people participate in the country's reform without vying for power or self-interest in return.