Thailand, Other Countries And The Lie About Democracy
In Thailand you have a corrupt police force that owes allegiance to the ousted and discredited Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatre who was once, himself, a senior police officer. Expect little or no support from them. You have an army mainly conscripted from the same areas of the country that the 'red-shirt' protesters come from and who are reluctant to move against their own. You have rent-a-mob, a group of protesters all self-employed or unemployed whom Thaksin is paying to be there. Why else would they still be there after 8 weeks?
You have Thaksin himself, a convicted felon who, along with his cronies, stole billions of dollars of public funds, pulling the strings from his hole in Montenegro.
You have a deep suspicion amongst educated Thais that, at that point in the future, Thaksin will return, abolish the monarchy that has held Thailand together for so long, and make Thailand a Republic with himself as President – probably for life if he can get away with it.
Finally, you have an incumbent government caught between a rock and a hard place. If they do capitulate and call fresh elections the 'red-shirts' (the UDD) will undoubtedly win. Then the 'yellow-shirts' (the PAD) will return to the streets and the country will be right back to square one again.
As I see it, the King commands so much respect and the answer can only be a Government of national unity directly appointed by the King. Forget democratic elections. Thailand is nowhere near ready for 'one man one vote' whilst corruption at all levels of society is endemic. There is nothing more to add about Thailand, except Thailand has never been a true democracy.
Is Thailand really any different from Myanmar? To answer that you need to look at Thai political history? But Thailand is a confirmed friend and Myanmar is a confirmed enemy, clearly the answers would be biased. I have yet to see the Ministers of Myanmar crawl on there knees in front of the Chief Honcho as I have seen Ministers crawl in front of the King, I guess that’s a democratic Thai thing?
In fact Asian countries in general simple pretend democracy for the sake of the westerners, like Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Pakistan, India-where you don't have to vote formally, you can delegate someone to vote for you by simply giving your name to that person, who knows maybe they give you back something in return? Is this a true democracy-voting by delegation-the Indians must be very honest to have that system in place? But still those countries’ work, even Myanmar works very well from my visits there, not at all as the west portrays. In relation to Myanmar I would like to say as well, the fatal mistake the NLD has made in supporting sanctions, stopping tourism from making the lives of the ordinary People of Myanmar better. The sanctions do not hurt the generals one bit, but the people aplenty. Indeed after 20 years it’s about time the UK/marionette along with her paid CIA stooges outside of Myanmar are neutralized one way or the other.
The true intention of the West is about exploitation (see Afghanistan, a proven fraud election, heavily supported by the USA – a pipeline war, nothing to do with human rights) failed color revolutions are part of it.
The USA want to contain China by the militarization of Myanmar by having a foreign military force perhaps with Nuke weapons poised to threaten not only China, but India, Laos, Bangladesh among other & controlling the straights of Malacca which is the oil lifeline of many nations. I believe ASSK is what the generals describe a puppet of the UK/USA that would give her mentors anything they wanted even if it means civil war, which soon would follow helped and assisted by nearby country's who would not want to be threatened by a chain of foreign military bases in Myanmar, I am not mentioning the thief, exploitation of Myanmar's natural resources that's a plus & a given. This election no matter how flawed is HOPE, a hope of a better future for the good people of Myanmar, Not Democracy, this has been tried from 1948 and has proven to be a complete failure. My personal observations are the people of Myanmar want jobs, a better life for their children, they care little about democracy, it's the same in China, Vietnam many others, let us hope for the liberalization of Myanmar and this election being the first step.
I am not surprised the NLD boycotted the elections, after 20 years of achieving nothing they are a spent force, a whole generation has grown up since those heady days of the 90's, I suspect they would have been thrashed at the polls. They had nothing to loose other than their stipends from the CIA.
The Philippines, the shinning light of American democracy is nothing but a vassal state like Puerto Rico. Where every member of the Philippines Congress has dual citizenship (mostly US-Both the president Gloria Arroyo and the Current president Aquino are US Citizens… the result? This country is a failed state in Asia, poor, very poor, starving, and corrupt, taking there orders from Washington since before Independence, what has changed in the Philippines since it was occupied by the Americans? Only the lie of an independent democratic state!! At least Thailand has its own mind and unique culture.
The more I travel these days the more I am cynical about democracy; just to vote does not mean you are democratic.
In my opinion, the basis of a true democracy is an informed politically minded population along with a truly free judiciary, which in itself is far more important than the TV concepts of Democracy. In ending, can any sensible person truly admit to himself that Iraq, Afghanistan, Albania are now democratic. If the judges are from the Supreme Court of America the answer would be; yes.
I rest my case.
Stickman's thoughts:
There are too many points here to comment on and to be frank, too many I have no real feelings about.
