A battle against abuse of power, not a fight over democracy
The foreign press really has a hard time understanding our politics when they believe in pigeon-hole concept of democracy and non-democracy. Allow me to help.
The gist of it is, the protest is not against one-man one-vote, but about one wealthy family through loopholes in procedural rules (allegedly) being able to put the whole country in their palms. The villagers do not have the freedom of choice and a secret voting process. Through power and wealth, voting in the regions is controlled and managed. After that, to share government power, you (allegedly) have to kow-tow to the absent leader by showing your loyalty to him in Hong Kong.
Fortunately, mishaps do happen to them. The amnesty bill was a Waterloo for them, prompting the call for reform. A strong message to them now is sharing of the majority rule with the minority is a must because one can take the protest to the streets outside parliament if the majority acts capriciously.
Yours sincerely,
Songdej Praditsmanont
Bangkok
