Duncan McCargo explores some of the deeper currents motivating Thailand’s ongoing political crisis. Among them is “the growing political chasm that separates greater Bangkok and the country’s south from its less affluent but more populous regions in the north and northeast”:
Because of Thailand’s hidden “caste system” — which is linked to popular Buddhist notions that the poor deserve their lower status because of accumulated demerits from previous lives — Bangkokians typically have a profoundly paternalistic view of the masses. [Former PM] Thaksin [Shinawatra]’s populist, can-do message, the stuff of self-help books, resonated deeply with many voters in the north and northeast. The leaders of the current anti-government protests — many of whom come from Bangkok — constantly deride these voters as ignorant and susceptible to electoral manipulation and vote-buying. Worse still, these anti-government protesters accuse pro-Thaksin voters of disloyalty to the Thai nation and the monarchy. On Jan. 26, I heard one rally speaker declare that those who had taken part in advance voting did not really love Thailand, and were probably in fact Cambodians casting fake ballots.
Meanwhile, current PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, is facing corruption charges and more violent protests, raising the odds that the crisis will come-8 to a head:
There’s still a possibility of a Yingluck ouster that doesn’t involve once again tearing up the Thai constitution. In a major step toward impeachment, the kingdom’s National Anti-Corruption Commission said on Tuesday it has enough evidence to charge Yingluck with graft associated with her ill-fated program to buy rice from farmers at above-market prices. Thailand has spent 689 billion baht ($21.2 billion) on the program, resulting in rice that the government cannot sell. The stockpile now weighs 14.7 million tons, compared with just 6.1 million tons in 2010.
The opposition has long denounced the rice program as an ill-disguised scheme to reward Yingluck voters in rural areas, and the anti-corruption commission now alleges that graft took place at all stages of the program. Yingluck did nothing to stop it, the commission claims, “which shows that she was negligent in her duty or corrupt and abused her power under the constitution, which may be a cause for impeachment.”
Previous Dish on Thailand here.
(Photo: A policeman observes a demonstration by anti-government protestors in Bangkok on February 14, 2014. Thousands of riot police were deployed in the Thai capital on February 14 to clear areas occupied for weeks by opposition protesters seeking to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office. By Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images)
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