Thailand’s Political Crisis Creating Social Rift

By HTET AUNG

BANGKOK — Thailand’s political crisis is deepening divisions at all levels of society, especially since a violent police crackdown on anti-government protesters on October 7, according to academics, activists and others who have watched events unfold in recent months.

Tensions have been rising in Bangkok and around the country since the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), an anti-government group, began staging massive rallies in the Thai capital in May. On October 7, police attempted to break up the protests, killing two and injuring more than a hundred others.

For months, the government, which critics accuse of being a mere proxy for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had been careful to avoid using violence against the PAD. But that hasn’t prevented strong feelings from coming to the fore in Thai society, which is facing its worst political crisis in decades.

“There are conflicts between various groups, and people tend to draw a line between themselves and others with different opinions,” said Panithida, a human rights activist who recently graduated from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

“In my family, my mother is a PAD supporter, but I don’t support the PAD or the government, because both used violent means and should be condemned,” said Panithida.

“My mother and I used to discuss political affairs, but since the October 7 violence my mother has become silent.”

Although the conflict remains far from resolved, the recent escalation has produced a consensus among many observers that both sides are equally at fault. Interviews with academics, social activists, students and workers in Bangkok revealed that many viewed both the government and the PAD negatively for their willingness to use violence.

“It is very problematic and very unprincipled that Thai human rights groups refused to criticize the PAD,” said Pokpong Lawansiri, Southeast Asia program officer for the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development.

Pokpong is now individually participating in a campaign to submit a petition letter to Professor Saneh Chamarik, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, calling for an investigation of human rights violations by the PAD.

The campaign is being spearheaded by a group of human rights activists, academics and students who believe that whoever violates human rights should be criticized and condemned.

A week after the October 7 violence, on October 15, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement urging “Thai authorities and anti-government protesters [to] immediately cease using political violence to resolve their differences.”

In the statement, Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, added that “The PAD’s support for violence, unelected government and military coups threatens democracy and human rights in Thailand.”
“It is the first statement from a human-rights group outside Thailand criticizing the PAD’s violence,” said Pokpong, who declined to comment on the position of his own organization.

Some, however, defended the PAD’s actions, saying that it was unfair to compare its use of force with that of the government.

“The demonstrators, regardless of whether they have weapons or not, don’t have state control,” said Thai Senator Monthian Buntan, a PAD sympathizer who participated in a panel discussion at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on October 15.

Senator Monthian, who was one of 40 lawmakers who boycotted the October 7 parliamentary session to protest the violent crackdown by the police, said that it was more important to break the cycle of state-sponsored violence that has often marred Thailand’s political history.

“If you go back to look at the history of Thailand’s struggles [between] the people and the rulers, you will understand that it is always the ruler who is right, and whoever [rebels] against the ruler is wrong. The ruler can always find [some way] to justify ending the civil unrest by all means. Whichever side takes power, they always go back to the same repeated mistake” of using violence, he said.

Academics and social critics worry that if tensions between the political rivals continue to mount, there could be more violence in store for the country—and that could, in turn, result in another military coup.

But as the outcome of the last coup, in September 2006, attests, there are no guarantees that even such a drastic move would do anything to ease the deeper divisions that are forming in Thai society.