Thai TV stations make correct choice and broadcast audio of anti-Thaksin demonstration

Yes, we do need to hear it.

By the way, Nikorn Chamnong is sounding like an even bigger ass than Thaksin when it comes to analyzing social policy and democratic theorizing. Is the Thai-Chinese shopkeeper class really incapable of producing better leaders?

from the Nation:

We don't need to hear it

Television channels should have killed the sound on footage of the exchanges between pro and anti-Thaksin demonstrators on Monday as it could lead to greater political confrontations and even killings, Chart Thai Party deputy leader Nikorn Chamnong said yesterday.

"Why did they have to air those words. People who heard them have become even more divisive. They should make an effort to consider the matter," he said, adding the issue was sensitive and should be treated like that of rape victim whose face is normally not shown by the media. [ed. if the 'rape victim' purposefully incited his/her attackers, this would indeed be worth knowing. Cheesy and inappropriate analogy, by the way.]

"The country is being divided into two and civil war could break out if we're not careful.

"I believe from now on, some people could die. Thai society always puts feeling before facts and the exchange of words is about feelings and should have been censored," Nikorn told a seminar on communication and politics at Krirk University. [ed. I agree with the bolded part of Nikonn's statement. The rest of it is nonsensical and sounds like he didn't have a fully formed thought when his mouth started moving]

Nikorn said in the end, nothing was worth the violence. He said politics was just a "sport" in which the winner gets the chance to serve the public and no one should think about killing one another in order to win. [ed. this is totally wrong. Politics is about who gets to make the life or death policy decisions that affect everyone in this struggling 3rd world country. The idea that politics and democracy are just 'play' is sick and wrong. I thought only the most uneducated Thais could be forgiven for parroting this simple-minded notion.]

"It's a family matter," he said of the current social rift, citing the familiar refrain that all Thais belong to one large family with the King and Queen as the father and the mother of the nation.