What is a fact however is that Taksin has supported the enemies of progressive politics in Thailand.
I lived in Thailand for 20 years and have passed the Pah 6 literacy test. I have relatives in the Mae Sai area, and Bangkok of course.
1) This is accurate. However like the Tea Party movement in the US they are united against but divided for. The most respected leaders like Veera have already left the movement because control of the movement is still held by Taksin and he has only one thing in mind.
2) If you think that the leaders who are involved are only receiving a few hundred baht then you are mistaken. But it is true that once people became invested in one side or the other then it grew beyond money.
3) Like Peron he has ignited the population. Unfortunately Taksin is something of a meglamaniac and for him it is only about him.
4) As everyone knows Taksin's has developed the most effective vote buying machinery in modern Thai history, and that is saying something. My relatives regularly collected their B 500 and surrendered their ID cards for a day. It was a good investment. Taksin has been found to have taken B 76 Billion and his assets are being seized. That is what these demonstrations are all about.
5) Vote buying does not occur everywhere. It doesn't exist in much of the central region and the South. Vote buying doesn't happen in Bangkok. There is a long tradition of vote buying in the North and Northeast and all political parties that have sizeable numbers of Reps in those areas are involved in vote buying. Taksin came to power with support from both areas however when his true self was identified he lost support in the areas outside of the
Nothing speaks more to the dishonesty of red shirt supporters than the comparison of human rights records. They are night and day different.
Taksin's wasn't "bad" he authorized the extra judicial killing of thousands of people.
Most of them were in the dead of night when Police claimed that the suspect was killed "trying to escape from arrest"
Some were done in the light of day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Thailand_insurgency#Tak_Bai_incidentHundreds of local people, mostly young men, were arrested. They were made to take off their shirts and lie on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs. Later that afternoon, they were thrown by soldiers into trucks to be taken to the Ingkayutthaboriharn army camp in the nearby province of Pattani. The prisoners were stacked five or six deep in the trucks, and by the time the trucks reached their destination five hours later, in the heat of the day, 78 men had suffocated to death.
Abhisit's human rights problem on the other hand? Not accepting the Royhinga or repatriating Lao refugees.
The Thai response has been the same for 30 years. Thailand is happy to give temporary asylum to any refugee that the US or anybody else will give permanent resettlement to.
I posted in depth earlier on the Rohinga problem here
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7937901Here is the bottom line. Rohinga are a 'stateless' tribe that Burma has long abused. If the US wants to accept a hundred thousand Rohinga then Thailand will give them temporary asylum. Thailand will not give peremanent resettlement to refugees outside of Thailand.
Unless you are advocating that the US should take tens of thousands of refugees then you have the same HR record as Abhisit.
Now much of the rest of the OP we are in agreement. There are no pure angels in Thai politics although the Democrat Party makes the greatest effort to mirror an outside party. All parties receive a kickback (usually 3 %) but that is what makes Taksin seems like a meglamaniac - he wants it all and he won't compromise.
While much of the aspirations that have been used by the leaders of the red shirt are noble Taksin's interest is in getting his B72 billion back and if you speak Thai you heard him openly state that he is going to 'share it' with the red shirts.
The situation has changed dramatically however because a militant group led by Seh Daeng has taken over the site after Red Shirt leaders agreed to the compromise
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/05/04/politics/Reds-conditionally-agree-to-the-road-map-30128574.htmlThe four conditions are a clear date for the dissolution of Parliament paving way for the November 14 poll, a show of sincerity by stopping all types of intimidation, no amnesty on criminal charges related to terrorism and anti-monarchy offence and immediate stop to involving the monarchy in the political conflict.
Veera said the red-shirt leaders had formed an unanimous decision for the conditional acceptance of the road map for reconciliation in order to prevent further loss of life.
Red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua said the red shirts were prepared to fight their charges to the fullest extent of the law and that he challenged the government and the authorities to face up to the same legal treatment if found to have involved in the killings of innocent people in the April 10 violence.
Of course after Seh Daeng threatened these leaders of the Red Shirts then they left the movement and renounced the continuation of the protests in Bangkok.
Seh Daeng isn't the only terrible guy that was in the Red Shirts.
Samak Sundaravej had his hands full of hundreds of murdered college students (he died of natural causes last year)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samak_SundaravejFollowing the coup of 6 October 1976, Samak became Minister of the Interior in the administration of Tanin Kraivixien, a royalist anti-Communist with a reputation for honesty. Samak immediately launched a campaign which saw hundreds of alleged leftists, many of whom were writers and other intellectuals, arrested.<7>
In 1979 Samak founded the right-wing Prachakorn Thai Party. In the 1979 General Elections it defeated the incumbent Democrat Party by winning 29 of the 39 seats in Bangkok. In the 1983 General Elections it extended its base to 36 seats, and did not suffer too greatly from the Democrat surge in 1986.<9>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samak_Sundaravej There has been no greater enemy to the progressive forces in Thailand than Samak over the last 40 years. He is one of the ones responsible for progressives having to flee for their lives and join the communists in the jungle.
Samak was Taksin's choice to take over as PM. This is why the progressive community never embraced the Red Shirts even as their leaders were given token support to progressive policies. It would be as if the black listed actors joined with Senator McCarthy.
Thailand has an 800 year history of compromising through conflict. Even with the Communist Party of Thailand negotiation and compromise is possible.
The reason that Thais are going to be killed today is that Taksin wants to come back and get his money. The politicians who joined the Red Shirts have largely left because they recognize that Taksin refuses to compromise and in doing so is losing support even among those that used to support the red shirts.
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