a look at the leaders of the anti-Thaksin opposition

Arun's column fills in some holes in the reportage about the movement to oust Thaksin. Selected excerpts:

ARUN'S VIEW

Here are some ironically humorous "catches" from the ongoing anti-Thaksin demonstrations:

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3. The new administration

In case you missed it, Thailand already has a new administration, even before the April 2 snap election - composed of five leaders, to be exact. They meet in closed-door secrecy and decide what the anti-Thaksin demonstrators ought to do on each particular day or night. If they decide the people should march, so the people shall march. If they say squat, so they will squat.

A little over a week ago, media firebrand Sondhi Limthongkul, one of the five, responded to The Nation's question about whether they would march that evening or not by answering, "When we march, you will know."

Another member, Piphop Thongchai, accused this writer of writing news he labelled "divisive" when all this writer tried to do was inform the public that the PAD was in fact a hotchpotch of people with widely disparate ideologies, often conflicting. Some are pro-monarchist and seek royal intervention in politics, others are not and still a few others are not quite sure how they want Thaksin ousted.

Piphop said he would no longer entertain any such "divisive" questions. Hail the five supreme leaders! At least they must be better than Thaksin.

Former Thai Rak Thai Party senior honcho Snoh Thienthong recently lashed out at Thaksin, saying the regime was not a one-party government, but rather a "one-man regime". Now we have five! That must be considered positive evolution in Thai politics.

4. The truth

Thaksin has been criticised for lying, because he told the public only days before he dissolved the House that he would neither dissolve it nor resign. Now, the PAD promised that this past Sunday's protest at Sanam Luang would be "the last day of protest", Phujatkan daily reported on Saturday. Phujatkan was founded by Sondhi and is now owned by his son. (Sound familiar?) Sondhi is one of the PAD's five fantastic supremos, which makes the paper the de facto official newspaper of the PAD.

5. Exaggeration and omission

Many liberal anti-Thaksin newspapers are reminding readers how the entire nation is sick of the CEO prime minister and up in arms. Hoping for Thaksin's meteoric demise, some of these papers have forgotten or omitted the fact that a good chunk of Thailand's rural poor - two-thirds of the Kingdom's population - remain very happy with the man and his populist freebies and cheap healthcare. Indeed, there are two Thailands at odds with each other at the moment, and any solution for the country cannot omit either one.

By the way, don't you think Thaksin would make a hugely popular leader in a purely Fourth World country? Should we try to send him to one, or to Singapore - before he turns Bangkok, and the rest of Thailand, into Singapore?

6. The senior social thinker

Reading and listening to Prawase Wasi's recent criticisms of Thaksin, one may have totally forgotten that once upon a time, some five years ago, Prawase was one of the key supporters of Thaksin's rise to power. Now Prawase says Thaksin is so corrupt that he should resign or the whole family should even be executed. No repentance or explanation to the public for his change of heart has been given. Prawase went straight from being a firm supporter to a fierce critic of Thaksin. How then can we trust that he's talking straight now?

Or was it part of this famous social thinker's grand design for Thailand for all along? Last week, Prawase put a positive spin on the current political crisis by writing the same commentary in at least two local papers on the same day, saying that through crisis and chaos a better Thailand would emerge, so fear not.

7. The book

"Why We Supported Thaksin (for So Many Years): An Anthology of Famous but Disillusioned Former Thaksin Supporters and Cheerleaders". Have Sondhi, Thaksin's former mentor and current PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang, Prawase and others, such as social critic Sulak Sivaraksa and former political scientist Chai-anant Samudvanija, write the entries in a bare-all tell-all style. It would surely be a best seller not just at Sanam Luang, but at Government House, as well.

8. The future

In the final analysis, since Thaksin's rule has so deeply polarised Thai society, he must go, say the current anti-Thaksin diatribes.

Nevertheless, Thaksin's rule has also had a unifying effect. Die-hard royalists, self-styled "pro-democracy" activists, anti-free-trade-agreement lobbyists, not-too-leftists and pragmatists of all shades (some of whom would normally never speak to one another) now find themselves united in a lowest-common-denominator struggle to dump Thaksin. Along the way, transparency, the participatory process and accountability may suffer (a little), as the PAD's five supremos continue their crusade.

But this is no cause for alarm. A senior adviser to the alliance told me on the phone last week that this is no time to worry about such trivial matters.

"Lets get rid of Thaksin first and we'll discuss the rest later".

A toast to a brave new Thailand!

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

As we're several months into the protest, it might be good to hear from the opposition what exactly they are for instead of merely who they are against.