PeaceBlondie, on 2008-11-29 06:23:01, said:
Maybe those 'xenophobic" "nationalist" Thais are reluctant to kill other Thais, face to face. You have to be carefully taught to hate other people, and Thais may not have been carefully taught to kill each other.
This is an interesting point you raise here PB, and may explain why to date bloodshed has been relatively limited, given the level of tension that exists. This distinguishes it from the 1973 and 1976 massacres around Thammasat where the students were labelled as "communists" (and Buddhist monks were exonerating the killing of commies) or "Vietnamese" (who were perceived as both commies and rotten foreigners to the xenophobic right wingers let loose on the students). It also distinguishes the present Bangkok Thai vs Thai Bangkok troubles from the Southern insurgency (= Muslems/terrorists stereotyping) and the low-level genocidal activities against Northern ethnic minorites (= hilltribes/others/non-Thais/drug seller stereotyping). However, it doesn't explain the seeming ease with which Thais killed Thais in Black May 2002, when mostly Border Patrol Police were let loose on protesters with alarming brutality by the Generals, apparently with little or no remorse. General Suchinda and other leaders granted themselves an amnesty and were never brought to book for their crimes, in which at least 200 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. Many bodies were never repatriated to the families and many other people simply disappeared (presumed dead) at the time in one of Thailand's darkest chapters.
Thaksin also seemed to have no qualms about having killed thousands of fellow Thais in his War on Drugs, do not forget. So, the potential is there, so long as the killer is able to dehumanise the victim. Worryingly, many farang posters on this board seem quite happy to do the same, labelling protesters all sorts of perjorative names which simply do not apply, as if they are baying for blood. Rather sad.
The Thais will come up with a solution -- if only temporary. Some say the only longterm solution is something along the lines of what the PAD are proposing, ie, half the national assembly appointed and half elected, like the UK had until relatively recently. Many Thais support the idea while most Western democracy advocates do not.
