For god's sake don't lend him a match!

The Criminal Court is right to be extremely cautious in dealing with this case, yet the Constitution Court was equally right to have brought it. Understanding that conundrum can help us to get a handle on what’s really happening in Thailand, I feel, and how we might move forward.

And that’s a very odd situation. Courts are being advised in public by the best legal minds in Thailand not to be too legal in their judgements, in fact to fudge their rulings a bit for the sake of the health of the nation!

To understand this, I’m going to call a spade a spade – and I’m a red shirt, don’t forget, a person who shares all the longings for a “New Dispensation” so urgent in the hearts of the Thai people.

There are individuals behind the scenes in Thailand who have a secret agenda, people who want to stir things up, in fact, who want hysteria, want bull horns disrupting other people’s political rallies, want cars stoned, want buildings on fire, even want blood in the wat. And that has to be said – that there are in fact those both inside and outside Thailand who cannot move on unless the temperature gets a whole lot hotter, who want us to get to the point where all we can do is start over from zero!

That’s why Abhisit Vejajiva is such a sore point for leaders like Jatuporn, not because of Abhisit’s politics or his party but because of what he’s like as an individual. That’s why Abhisit was identified as the number one obstacle by Thaksin himself, way back when he had first Samak Sundaravej and then Somchai Wongsawat warming the seat of power.

So what is he like as an individual, this Abhisit Vejajiva? Is it his politics that make him so unnerving to the red shirts? Is it his party? Is it his education or his appearance or some hidden obsession with power?

What they actually say is none of these things. They say it’s because of Abhisit’s treachery, of his cruelty, of his willingness to kill and maim your friends right in front of you in the streets. Boogey-man, in other words, psychopath vampire. It’s Abhisit’s black soul that so inflames my red shirt friends, what they see as his black-shirt mentality, his willingness to go to any lengths to seize power and hold on to it. A veritable Hitler!

But hey, wait a moment. Who are we describing here? This is a man who always speaks quietly and in reasonable words, who has never pulled a punch or done a fast one, or even reversed a position, who in fact doesn’t even seem to have much of a position, what is more much of an axe to grind. He’s a facilitator who knows how to govern, who not only serves the people to the very best of his ability but is never open to bribes and always sticks to his principles. Like Chuan. 

After all, Abhisit Vejajiva is the one who sat down with the red-shirt leaders long before there was any blood at Ratchaprasong, and he even offered a very near and very decent date for a new election, and obviously meant it. And he’s the one who dissolved his own government of his own free will, don’t forget, even though he knew it was very unlikely he would win the subsequent election.

I’m not a Democrat – I’m not even asking for Abhisit back, though I do admire him hugely as a person as, I feel certain, most people in Thailand do. I’m just saying that Abhisit represents what Thailand needs most today, leaders who can both talk the talk and walk the walk. And at the moment there are precious few of them, and none in the government at all.

And that’s why Abhisit is such a threat – Thailand might actually be spared a full civil war if it had more people like him to help it to move along toward a peaceful solution. But that’s not the solution everybody has in mind!

So it makes sense why the court wants to spare Jatuporn more jail time, and may even throw out some if not all of the six major libel cases that still hang over him. For Jatuporn will use every judgement against him to tar Abhisit’s person, and putting Jatuporn in prison will lend him a match to blow up everything Abhisit stands for! And that includes most of us!

When we can get through that conundrum, we’ll have reconciliation.

Lung Kip

Chiang Mai