Northeast a black hole |of power and fear
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Re: "Big business guides US policy on Thailand," Letters, May 2.
Vint Chavala wrote that, “CIA operatives stationed in Bangkok have been regular visitors to the ‘red-shirt villages’ in the Northeast, which are off-limits to opponents of Thaksin.”
I wish that the first part of that were true and that someone, anyone, from the West had a handle on the Northeast, information-wise.
From the Northeast, I hear that poorer people now have a chance to own land via the government’s new policy, but that they are very afraid that the former owners will kill them if they take the land.
Fear is what the Northeast is really all about for poor people – daily fear of people with wealth, power, muscle and guns.
There is much, much more about the Northeast that Western critics of Thailand do not comprehend, so I would welcome help even from the CIA if it were to mean a better understanding of what really goes on in the Northeast.
Guy Baker
