Politics: too serious to leave to politicians

But is the UDD, or anybody else, acting in good faith – or are they all defining “democracy” to suit their own goals?

Abraham Lincoln defined “democracy” as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people”. But what is important is not words but acts, for “Watch what we do, not what we say” (John Mitchell, Attorney General). To implement these lofty abstractions, we can turn to former prime minister Anand Panyarachun’s 7 Pillars of Sustainable Democracy, ie: (1) elections, (2) political tolerance, (3) the rule of law, (4) freedom of expression, (5) accountability and transparency, (6) decentralisation and (7) civil society.

All political parties, the UDD, and yellow shirts are in favour of elections – but they assiduously work to have an electorate that is not informed, by suppressing political tolerance and freedom of expression (eg, no red-shirt leader has appeared vs a yellow shirt leader in a public debate, with both sides given equal opportunity to speak, outside of Parliament; then-candidate Yingluck consistently declined Abhisit’s increasingly desperate challenge to pre-election debates). All parties ignore the rule of law when it comes to giving their opponents equal rights, eg, red and yellow shirts close down Suvarnabhumi and Phuket airports, Rajadamnern Avenue, and Rajaprasong shopping malls in complete disregard of the rights of others to innocent passage, to make a living or go to school. Both the government and Opposition are united in denying citizens the right to express their opinions as to whether His Majesty’s clear and direct criticisms of how the lese majeste law is being implemented are valid or not, instead insisting on continuing their harsh application, eg, in the case of “Uncle SMS”, which has drawn worldwide condemnation of our country. On accountability and the rule of law, both government and opposition continue to place the military and police above accountability, as in renewing the Emergency Decree time and again, even though the UN Special Rapporteur has said that it could be used to “justify murder”, as at Krue Se, Tak Bai, and Nong Chik. On decentralisation, Pheu Thai reneged on their promise to give the four Deep South provinces the status of a special administrative zone, like Bangkok, while the Democrats haven’t even made such a promise. No government has encouraged civil society, eg, professional societies or universities, to debate the issues of the day.

Dear reader, is any group promoting democracy in good faith? And, more importantly, 

what are you doing about it? “Politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians” (Charles de Gaulle).

Burin Kantabutra