Date: 13 Nov 92 00:06:52 GMT
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: What's behind the scene? (Was Re: Post Nov 10: Tribunal rules..)


In <1992Nov11.043645.17376@engage.pko.dec.com> trin@tlaeng.enet.dec.com
(Trin Tantsetthi) writes: 

>In article <toaa.721435442@unixg.ubc.ca>, toaa@unixg.ubc.ca (Somchai
Jitsuchon) writes...
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Chaun (PM and lawyer) : "System must be system", "We must obey laws"
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>What if the current system is a bad one, do we have to sacrifice every
>>thing just to maintain it?  Come on, Thailand needs too much changes,
>>don't be so conservative. 
>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>I think Thais have been waiting for too long for the knight on a white horse
>to step in and take care of us like raising babies. Such a thought is too
>naive and is voluntarily open for the next coup d'etat.

Thank you for your comments.  But I am afraid you misunderstood my points.
Let me clarify them.

First,  I never believe in any knights or heros (I doubt which part of my
article implied that).  My real concern is to seek better understanding of
how these miserable things come out.  It is clear now that the present
government choose to play soft role towards those military giants
who ordered the killings, while (at least in my "initial" belief) they had
enough supports to do the opposite.  I asked for any explanations (or
imaginations) from all of you so as to be able to identify the real
factors underlying these "coward" decision.  Without such knowledge, no
one can make any educated suggestions to correct our system.  Do I sound
so passive like a baby who need raising?  Here are some alternative
explanations I could think of.
  - The government is really the same sort of people like those ordering
killings.  This is (too) simple explanation, anyway, although it may hold
some truth.  If it is the case, then we actually need a real "hero" which
I doubt if we have one in our society  
  - The government has (or think they have) insufficient political
support.  They may believe military-based political power is too strong to
be ignored, especially in the long-run when Thai people begin to forget
the May crisis (which is unfortunately true historically).  They won't
take this risk.  It this is the case, we either have (1) a 'too soft'
government who is not prepared to take any risks or (2) a 'stupid'
government who fails to see the payoff of more aggressive strategy.  If it
can set out new rule of the game that every one who conducts coup and uses
force against democratic demonstrators must be penalized, then the
opportunity of next coup could be minimized, which will secure the
democratic governments including the present one.  The old (and probably
the current) rule of the game is that dictators never pay back and live
enjoyably today.  I believe Chaun government falls in the latter category. 

Second, I mentioned about the use of laws just to remind that only laws can
not solve this problem.  As one netter pointed out (I don't remember that
gentleman's name, sorry), we should not tie to the laws' literal meanings
but must give respect to their ultimate objectives.  This needs
interpretations which in turn depends on political standpoints of the
"interpretators" like the Tribunal in this case, and also depends on the
standpoints of the government.

Third, I criticized Khun Chaun's characteristics and attitudes not because
I am dreaming about an ideal hero and prepare to do nothing on my part. 
Criticism is one of the most important contributions any laymen like us can
do to foster democracy.  We may not have a hero but we can force heroic
spirits into our political leaders and, again, our government.  The simple
fact that a PM and government has many legal/political power make it
impossible to ignore their roles. 

>Whatever democracy means in Thailand, it won't be what we want it to be
>unless each of us takes an active part in the process. 

>The parliament has set up a committee to seek public opinion on how the
>Constitution should be amended. I will find more info and will post whatever
>I can find here. The remaining actions will be yours.

Your info is welcome.  But I really doubt how impressive this amendment
could be.  Given the political structure that yielded the decision on the
Amnesty decree, I am afraid either the amendment is hard to reached or its
context might be less democratic than expected.  Even it is done
successfully, who can guarantee that the next "coward interpretation"
will never repeat. 

>Trin Tantsetthi                           trin@tlaeng.enet.dec.com
>Digital Equipment (Thailand), Ltd.        ...!decwrl!tlaeng.enet!trin

Somchai, UBC.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai