Phil Cunningham เดิน เดิน เถิดรา นิสิตมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์ 3:10 AM (2 hours ago) จากอดีตอาจารย์คณะนิเทศศาศสตร์ to me, Kamala ถึงผู้ที่เคยหักด่านสพานมัฆวาน และพังประตูทำเนีบย มีนาคม ๒๕๐๐ The sooner Thai politics is finished with the man from Dubai, the better. It’s inspiring to see people assemble peacefully in the streets, rallying against injustice, protesting in record numbers against a phony amnesty bill; a so-called amnesty that is a transparent ploy to exonerate that which cannot be easily forgiven or forgotten, turning the law upside down to benefit a billionaire fugitive with a besmirched past. There’s so much that needs to be done, problems of poverty, problems of pollution, problems of miscarried justice and problems of communal violence that one can get the feeling that Thailand’s best days are in the past, that things are breaking at the seams. Does the nation really need to waste more time and more effort to tell the scheiming billionaire once and for all to stop hijacking the ship of state in order to satisfy his big head and swollen ego? The psychological roots of this individual’s pathological inability to stop stalking the body politic are probably not known outside his family, but the damage suffered by the tyrant as a young boy, a hurt boy, a goofy Spongebob Squarepants of a lad, has come back to haunt all who come in touch with him in his mercurial career as political Pied Piper. He is homely, but not without charisma, like other charismatic leaders with a tyrannical bent, he wraps himself in the invisibility cloak of democracy while manipulating people with Machiavellian expertise. He has boundless energy for self-promotion, but shows little common sense and no compassion. The damage his psychological issues have wreaked upon the nation is plain for all to see. When behind the reins of power he made a career of violating the peace and private lives of others, whether it was the unnecessarily gruesome drug war, or the unnecessarily cruel and provocative crackdowns on southern militants, whether it was tapping phones and collecting pressure-point information through telecoms, or the unnecessarily greedy application of political clout to bolster an already huge family fortune. Even in exile the restless one has been a pest second to none, using his illicit treasure chest to fund and foment divisive social unrest, using his relatives to run interference and his willing co-conspirators to ruin things, by remote control. Why is it so difficult for such a wealthy man to whom much good fortune has accrued to leave well enough alone? I once asked the man why he stayed in the hard-knock boxing ring of politics when he seemed to have it all, material wealth, a healthy family and more money in the bank than could be spent in a lifetime? He said he had a “commitment” to Thailand because Thailand had been good to him. That much is true. But what if the country that has been so good to him needs more than anything else is for him to retire quietly and stop meddling with affairs of state? Can he do that? Does his so-called sense of commitment allow him to recognize that he is part of the problem, not the solution? His pathology is such that he will never feel that he has enough, even though he has more than most and nothing to complain about. When he sang the song “Let it be” to his followers in Cambodia, he sang the song poorly, not just because his voice was hoarse from excessive chattering and self-promotion, not just because his ears are incurably tone-deaf, but because he is constitutionally incapable of “letting it be.” He’s the kind of guy who always has to poke, to probe and violate. He’s the kind of guy who always to has mess, meddle, and take things that are not his to have. He’s the ultimate drama queen, never content to be ignored, never content to be outdone, and when he is, or thinks someone else might have the upper hand, he’ll try every trick in the book to get back to number one, to be a sty in the public eye, a whine in the public ear. He’s been known to cry, he’s been known to beg, he’s been known to play humble, he’s been known to play dumb. Always playing, always probing, always quick to see the affairs of state as being all about him. Always tooting his own horn, always quick to play victim, always trapped, lost, confounded and confused inside his own gigantic ego. How much more national attention must wasted on combating the unwanted advances of this pushy man? Never has Thailand been more full of promise and more full of peril. A tipping point is near, a sea change that will define politics for generations to come. Will Thailand become one giant hacienda for him and his rich and power-hungry cronies? Will it change its name again, this time to his name, ushering in an era of multi- generational rule? Or will Thailand prove to the world that it really is the land of the free, the independent, the proud and the brave. Will the much put-upon citizenry finally retake the day, retake the night, retake the streets and alleys and farms and fisheries of Thailand to make it even more beautiful, even more free, free for justice to reign supreme, free for all the people, high and low? A Reuters photographer recently captured an iconic shot of a truck full of anti-amnesty protesters waving the national flag and Buddhist flags against a blue sky, an uplifting image if there ever was one. The gesture of reaching upward in unison suggests there really is hope, and with hope there is a future again. May the protests remain peaceful and politicians listen to the people! Chaiyo!
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 22:40:08 +0000
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