Abstract
The protracted political crisis in Thailand from 2006 onward has become an astonishing phenomenon among Southeast Asian countries. To many political analysts, the experience of Thailand goes against the regional trend of peaceful conflict resolution (e.g., Aceh in Indonesia, Mindanao in the Philippines, and Myanmar’s recent political reform). Thailand was once at the forefront of democratic transformations, and a positive example of ethno-political conflict containment in regard to the southern border provinces during the 1990s, and the settlement of a partial civil war over communism in the early 1980s. However, the country’s image has been turned upside down, and now its growth rate ranks at the bottom of the region. In less than ten years, there have been two military coups, seven governments (including two military juntas), extreme political activism and violence, thousands of injuries, and hundreds of lives lost. During 2008–09, political protests by rival camps blocked public spaces for lengthy periods at Government House, in front of the parliament building, at the international airport, at the ASEAN Summit Venue in Pattaya, and on the main shopping streets around Rajaprasong Intersection. In the year 2010 alone, political turmoil saw a major shopping arcade in the center of Bangkok go up in flames, several provincial offices burned down, and unprecedented car bombs and grenades detonated in the middle of crowds. In 2014, protesters’ actions (including building encampments) in the ‘Bangkok Shutdown’ caused sporadic blockages in several areas around the city.
This chapter was first presented for its thought on political crisis at the International Conference at Chulalongkorn University on 21st Globalization: Alternative Future and Democracy, on October 15, 2014; and the second time with an expansion on politics of distrust at the International Conference on Southeast Asian Studies in Asia, Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia, Kyoto University, in December 2015.
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Notes
- 1.
Information on human casualties of political violence in 2010 can be found at People’s Information Center http://www.pic2010.org/death-footnote/and the official report of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand http://www.slideshare.net/FishFly/2553-2554-14315242. Other recent information on political and security-related court cases and cases of Article 112 of the Criminal Code concerning lèse majesté can be found at the Freedom of Expression Documentation Center ILaw http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/#.
- 2.
Pheua Thai is a new party, but its members more or less moved from Palang Prachachon (2007–08) and Thai Rak Thai (1995–2006) after these two parties were banned by rulings of the Constitutional Court in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
- 3.
For more information, see สาส์นจาก พลเอก ประยุทธ จันโอชา หัวหน้า คณะรักษาความสงบแห่งชาติ [Message from General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the Leader of the National Peace and Order Maintenance Committee] http://ict.prd.go.th/ewt/region8/download/article/article_20140916104831.pdf accessed October 20, 2015.
- 4.
More information is available from the website of the Parliament http://www.parliament.go.th/english/and the Senate http://www.senate.go.th/w3c/senate/main.php accessed October 20, 2015.
- 5.
The four bills are (1) community landholding, (2) land bank, (3) progressive land taxation, and (4) justice fund for the poor. More information is available from the ILaw website http://4laws.info/tag/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%8E%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A2%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B7%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%99-4-%E0%B8%89%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%9A/.
- 6.
Information was reflected by nonviolent activists and scholars in the focus group discussion on ‘the role of nonviolence in political crisis,’ held on April 24, 2012 at Sasa International House, Chulalongkorn University.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
- 9.
This is based on my own perception and it is not exhaustive. To learn more about each camp, find information from different sources: Enlightened Jurists (McCargo and Tanruangporn 2015); Siam Prachapiwat (Rattanadilok Na Puket 2013); Santi Prachatam and nonviolent groups (Wun’gaeo et al. 2013); legitimacy crisis (Askew 2010); social transformation (Saxer 2012); class war (Bello and Foreign Policy in Focus 2014). The international community of scholars was also active in campaigning against the military coup d’état and lèse majesté prosecutions under Article 112 of the Criminal Code; see, for example, New Mandala http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/category/thailand/.
- 10.
Personal communication with Chamnan Chanrueng, one of the key persons of the network, November 5, 2015.
- 11.
Social capital was promoted under the Social Investment Fund of the World Bank after the 1997 financial crisis in order to help restore the social security network. A recent study on social capital, for example, by Surichai Wun’Gaeo, Surangrut Jumnianpol, Sayamol Charoenratana, and Nithi Nuangjamnong, ‘Social Capital in Thailand: Unraveling the Myths of Rural–Urban Divide,’ The Senshu Social Capital Review, No 5 (2014), pp. 93–108.
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Wungaeo, C.B. (2016). Thailand’s Political Crisis: The Perplexities of Democracy and Society. In: Banpasirichote Wungaeo, C., Rehbein, B., Wun'gaeo, S. (eds) Globalization and Democracy in Southeast Asia. Frontiers of Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57654-5_11
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