People power in Thailand

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In Thai History, there were many times that the civilians form a group with solid structure and effective organizational administrative system. They have different agenda and demand towards the government. Sometimes they demand to set their own territory and their own rules, and then they would be branded as “treason” or Kabot (กบฎ) and would be swiftly attacked by central government force. For example: Kabot Peebuun (กบฎผีบุญ) in the era of Marshall Sarit Tanaratch. Sometimes they form a group and set as a caravan come to Bangkok to demand something from the central government. For example, the Caravan of Farmers that came to the Parliament, demanding the government to bail them out of farming debt. Such a formation happened to protect themselves, they form a group to create some leverage in order to make sure that they received attention from the authority. These groups share the same character; the majority of the members are from the same sort of social, education, geographical and financial background. They all have the same demand.

Another type of formation is the “loose” form. The people just came out from different place without coordination, they meet and start to demand something from the authority. The prime example are “Sibsi Tula” incident and “Prusapa Tamin” (Black May). Many people who join the protest do not know each other and the organizer of the protest did not have an ability to control the crowd.

In 2006, for the first time in the history of Thailand, there was the formation of civilians that solve both negative sides of the first and the second type of formation. PAD was form by a vast variety of people as anyone can imagine. The members and participants of PAD rally are from a different group of race, gender, social status, financial status, age group, educational background, etc. The each rally attract enormous amount of participants which share the same goal, Thaksin has to Get Out. This type of formation fits the profile of the “loose” group which can easily be set in motion towards chaotic and eventually can lead to bloodshed massacre. However all the PAD rally was well organized and peaceful. Never a single incident of violence took place. Only when the “counter campaign crowd” strikes, then there was blood to be seen.

With such a large number of people, vast demographic and well coordination in terms of operations, PAD can now obtain a political power without a status of a political party. PAD is a group of citizens that has only one purpose, to protect themselves and their own benefit towards the corrupt government. Sondhi once said “The true political power was born”. Many people believed that all the key personal in PAD has their own agenda regarding personal political and, eventually, financial gain. Sondhi flatly denied it and challenge the people: “In the future, if you see me being a politician, if you are a man then you can spit on my face. If you are a woman, you can take off your high-heels and use that to slap me”