Thailand airport protests

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7775749.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7584005.stm
http://www.france24.com/en/20081125-bangkok-airport-closes-protest-turns-violent-thailand

Dear Newsweek,

I suppose your "Conventional Wisdom" section is more meant for eye-catching than delivering concrete news, but I disagree with the comment that the Thailand airport protests were peaceful and pro-democratic. Even your own article titled "Thailand Slides Toward Civil War" (by Wehrfritz and Seaton, Dec. 6 issue) refutes those claims. While it is true that the pro-Thaksin regime was corrupt in some ways, the opposition movement People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has anything but democracy in mind. PAD is directed by Thailand's rich and privileged (military officers, upper classes, royalists), so obviously they were threatened by Thaksin's populism. During his five years in office, Thaksin reformed government to reduce bureaucratic inertia and become more results-oriented. His initiatives increased social services, economic opportunities, and political representation for the poor, rural majority. Thaksin and his successors - all wealthy men as well - were neither saints nor tyrants, but their main political transgression was daring to upset the elite-friendly status quo.


As your own reporters noted: The PAD [...] advocates the transformation of Parliament to one dominated by appointed lawmakers because, as PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul told NEWSWEEK a few months ago, the rural masses "lack intelligence and wisdom" to vote responsibly. The group's guards carry guns, knives and explosives and have fought pitched battles with riot police. [...] Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a foreign-policy specialist at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, says the PAD vision for Thailand is "scarily analogous" to the political system Burma's generals are constructing to perpetuate their own monopoly on power. Rural Thais resent it so viscerally that they're rallying around Thaksin's allies as a point of pride.

And as further proof that the airport protests were not peaceful, France24 reported that PAD supporters opened fire on rival pro-government protesters and assailed them with metal poles (eleven were injured).