Money can't buy democracy

I would agree with the comment that “Thais cannot yet claim victory in the struggle for democracy, even with the red-shirt movement that emerged in the past three years” said activists organising the 37th commemoration of the bloody crackdown on student protests inside Thammasat University.

The awakening of the polling power of the poor majority to the possibility of taking over the country has happened. But the emergence of the red-shirts as a political tool to serve the excessively rich and to form red-shirt villages is anything but democratic.

These events have blighted the possibility for democracy in Thailand for a long time to come. General education levels need to be increased for people to understand what “democracy” is. That message has not reached the current administration let alone the red shirts. The red shirts’ “so called” leaders are the Judas goats of a Skype dictator. 

Richard Bowler