The things we all want aren't that far apart

A wake-up call to restructure Thailand for the benefit of all Thais, and look who it comes from!
But isn’t that precisely what we all want?
Many people see what’s happening today as a struggle between a capitalist “ammart” on the one hand and an entrenched feudalistic “ammart” on the other. Both, the script goes, are attempting to destabilise the nation to gain advantage for themselves and their cronies. The 2006 coup and the violence of Ratchaprasong were both equally self-absorbed and equally cynical.
But is that really all there is to it, and is it really that hopeless? Do Maw Weng and Veera Musikapong feel comfortable with the description of what they’re trying to do, to carve out a Kingdom for big business?
Or members of the old elite like Anand Panyarachun and Chuan Leekpai – do they see themselves as protecting the aristocrats?
Clearly some of the more radical gladiators in the present struggle have chosen to ride the back of the tiger that tears up the turf just to get things moving. They think they’ll be able to jump off, tie the damned thing up and create an entirely new world from the beginning. But it’s a terrible way to go about it, and we may all end up enslaved to one awful dictator or another, whatever card we might be carrying.
Asking the question to both sides is helpful, because it’s obvious the “ammart” polarity is not the whole story, or even near it. Because there are a great many good people out there who are not like that, and I mean on both sides of the divide, and ironically what all those people want isn’t irreconcilable either! Everybody wants a nation in which the gap between the rich and the poor is greatly reduced, for example, in which opportunity is available to everyone equally, and in which a government is hard working, transparent and trustworthy. Surely that’s everybody’s dream, or at least everybody worth listening to.
As I’ve said many times, when the red shirts outgrow their fixation with Thaksin I’ll be right on their side. And how will I know they’ve done that? When they start talking about taxing the rich instead of bringing the rich back, yes, and about redistributing the land to the poor as well, about reforming education, and above all about respecting the courts so that everybody is truly equal. Yes, and providing us with leaders who can talk about those sort of issues as coherently and effectively as Abhisit has just done.
When the red shirts come up with good leaders I’ll be with them with a vengeance. And I’m sure there are many, many people like myself who are neither capitalist pigs nor feudal snobs, people who would call themselves something more like Phor Phiang People – people who want everybody to have enough in Thailand, and for the country to be a model of good governance, sustainability and compassion the world over.
Lung Kip
Chiang Mai