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Dr Prawes: Five Types of Red Shirts
13 Apr2010
Dr Prawes Wasi (photo credit: Bangkokbiznews)
Note: This blog post is partly based on Dr Prawes’s article (in Thai, available here) and also on a response to his article by “Nak Pratya Chai Kob” (also in Thai, available here).
Dr Prawes Wasi, a generally well-respected Thai public intellectual, recently argued that we need to see the red shirts as a loose alliance of people with different aims and aspirations. He points out that the reds can be categorised into five groups:
1. Thaksin himself: Prawes speculates that Thaksin seeks to avoid prison sentences and punishment, wants his money back, and wishes to return to power. Thaksin is said to be the main emotional and monetary driving force behind the red shirts since organising such a massive political movement certainly costs a lot of money.
2. Those hired by Thaksin: According to Prawes, it is no surprise that there are people willing to offer their service to a wealthy guy like Thaksin.
3. The “idealist” reds: Here, Prawes refers to the leftists who want a fundamental structural change in Thai society in their quest for fairness. These people, he argues, still bear the pain of the 6 October massacre and need to be rehabilitated. They need to be offered an opportunity to cooperate with the nation as part of our development efforts.
4. The violent extremists: Prawes notes that these are a small minority and their operation needs to be curbed.
5. The poor, both from the countryside and the inner cities, and their sympathisers: The poor, Prawes points out, are typically held in low esteem. They are perpetually trapped in poverty as a result of structural unfairness. Accordingly, when Thaksin came along and offered something to them, they fell in love with him even though his policies did not tackle the true structural problems. Thaksin is their vehicle for their battle. The word prai (commoner) strongly resonates with them. The poor, lacking in opportunities and feeling they are looked down upon, will only continue to join this movement in ever greater numbers. Prawes further argues that unless we reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, one day the poor may murder the rich. Thaksin would not be involved in such a circumstance, however. He is, after all, one of the wealthiest individuals around.
—
My thoughts? One thing is clear: Prawes does not see any true democracy lovers in the reds.
12 Responses to Dr Prawes: Five Types of Red Shirts
antiPADshist
April 14th, 2010 at 12:04 am
thanks for a good post
“unless we reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, one day the poor may murder the rich”
my thoughts exactly, I’ve been telling this (like on NM blog) already quite for a while.
however I think that there is another side to this whole problem, which “politically correct” academic, even liberal one, wold not touch upon.
here is my attempt to explain it !
(it is quite long actually – I got carried away a bit)
Tweets that mention » Dr Prawes: Five Types of Red Shirts TumblerBlog.com – A Thai political and current affairs blog -- Topsy.com
April 14th, 2010 at 12:06 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Panuwat. Panuwat said: BLOG: Dr Prawes: Five Types of Red Shirts http://bit.ly/aOj3Xz [...]
amazingspolitics
April 14th, 2010 at 12:16 am
Thx for translating!
But for your conclusion:
What do average Thai people think about democracy? Do they know what it is, regarding all pro and cons?
Teached in school that some people are always right, money rules and so on. What do they think democracy is? (I am talking about self made experiences).
So what do I have to think about “democracy lovers at the reds” or everywhere else?
Dont misunderstand me.
There are many reds fighting for democracy and I belive they really believe in it.
But do they know what it means?
Respecting the position of the other side, fighting peacefull with democratic measures.
Hard to belive, growing up and beeing told whats right or wrong.
Same happend to eastern countries after the wall break … and what do we see now? Look at Hungary :/
That’s one of the most difficult thing that has to be changed and learned in Thailand.
antiPADshist
April 14th, 2010 at 12:47 am
@amazingspolitics
you’ve raised a good question! well, I’d also like to ask mine:
WHO knows what the “Democracy” is ? do you ? or perhaps Obama ?
to me it is seems like – it is an entirely FALSE PREMISE, which adds up to all those problems in Thailand as well as anywhere in the world.
where in the world there is a real democracy or ever been, since “Athenian Democracy” ( = rule by “Demos”, the slave-owners “citizens” who were only native adult males who served in army, minus women, non native born, half bloods, etc etc) !
thus even this “red-shirt movement”, although fighting for “democracy” – they just don’t know how to call whatever they want to achieve, but main thing they want is – their rights to have equal opportunities.
so, despite being most probably hijacked and / or remotely / indirectly manipulated/ used for someone’s interests (as many say – Thaksin’s), and despite being some sort of silly childish attempt to copy “Yellow” movement (which in turn follows familiar “colored” revolutions of last 2 decades), despite their lack of more clear agenda than so called “Real Democracy” – Thai peasant movement called “red-shirts” is perhaps the only grass-root movement in the whole WORLD world (well, perhaps only “Libertarians” in US are as genuine) which can be considered as true pro-democratic movement. and this fact inspires many people in other countries, even in US itself, who say that “if only we could have such a spirit”.
this is a fact.
and to me, I think in the end they’ll not really win, but at least they are making efforts to fight for their rights and for their development and improvement. that alone is already much better and bigger than what liberals in the West are ever able to do – only talk.
David Brown
April 14th, 2010 at 4:35 am
dear old medical researcher Prawes….
why does he quickly insert the phrase”even though his policies did not tackle the true structural problems.” when discussing Thaksin?
did he suddenly worry that he was making Thaksin sound too good and need some qualifuer even if he doesnt know what it means?
did he mean that Thaksin should have been more socialist, is Prawes anti-capitalist?
meanwhile:
democracy means that the people of the country have the power to choose MPs that form a parliament and a government maintained by majority votes in the parliament.
the government by grace of continued support by the parliament rules the country with the authority of the people until the MPs are individually called to account at the next election.
democracy treats people equally in their power to choose their MPs. because the MPs are accountable to the people there is motivation for the MPs to act in the interests of (to please) the people.
David Brown
April 14th, 2010 at 4:58 am
in a democracy MPs could offer money to people for their votes.
but MPs that do this should be aware rhat, if an MP comes along with something constructive like cheap hospital, free education or better water supply or a way to escape from loan sharks, the people might still take his money but instead vote for the MP with policies.
democracy is a good thing except for the people that lose in an election… its always frustrating to lose, but there is a solution… try harder to please the people!
Venie
April 14th, 2010 at 8:02 am
It’s interesting to see the great Dr. Prawes does not mention/use the words “double standards” and “injustice” in his classification of red shirt types.
If I mention two names: Thanpuying Viriya and Momluang Malini — these two ladies do not fit into any of the five red shirts groups but both appeared at the reds’ rallies because they see double standards and injustice in society. Both ladies are not poor, not hired by Thaksin, are not idealists or extremists, but they decide to join the reds movement. Hope Dr. Prawes can see the light of the day. Thanpuying even declared on the stage that she is richer than Thaksin.
antiPADshist
April 14th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
someone has posted sort of response to Wasi’s analysis, I think it is cool :
“Widely Respected by Idiots Wasi on the 5 Types of Reds & Thai Intel 5 Types of Amart”
silenced
April 14th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Can I offer an analysis on yellow-white-pink to complement Prawes’:
1. X himself
2. Those hired by X
3. The “idealist” yellow-white-pink:
4. The violent extremists
5. The mentally-retarded, a product of decades of propaganda
Don Kong
April 15th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I lived long enough with Thais together for I can say, “No, they don’t know what democracy is”. But do the people from the western world, realy know what it is?
Boy
April 18th, 2010 at 8:32 am
I think this article is very interested. Any way, I think we need to add another group that may be not poor but understood the Thai social infrastructure that still have Amat (commoner). This group do not have balance and check sytem in our community. That is not mean closed gap between poor and rich will can solve this conflict. Any way, may be it can reduce conflict a bit. And we can see 2 standard in our country during 3 yr.
Any way basic concept that every one must respect to the vote of majority and create good monitor for new election soon. We can not argue that all poor person
will sell the voice i.e.North Eastern. If we have a chance to talk with taxi driver or other, we will get good idea from them. That is not only Thaksin but all of them still dault how to form this government. So that why they need to vote again in order to clear and prove that government must come from majority of Thai people.
PAD moneybags opposes elections « Political Prisoners in Thailand
April 20th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
[...] aim of overthrowing the government.” Compare his 4 groups with the 5 identified by royalist Prawase Wasi or by royalist and anti-Thaksin campaigner and propagandist Chirmsak Pinthong in his civil war [...]