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4/13/2010
The relevance and irrelevance of the Thai crisis
Let's start with the irrelevance first. The monarch is increasingly becoming irrelevant as he lies in the hospital bed. And with each breath fading, Ahbisit and his elitist party too are edging towards irrelevance as well. The Army which has pledged loyalty to the king may find it unnecessary to do so as minutes tick by. The signs of support from the Army for the elite will soon be no more as the Army knows that change is inevitable.
What is so relevant about the happenings in Thailand? An elite or elitist party cannot survive without the ordinary people supporting it. The real support for a govt in a democracy must be from the people. This is also applicable in a fake democracy. Once the people is politicised, there is no turning back. And the elite, by nature a minority, cannot cling on to power for long.
The king, the one that is holding everyone together, the one that can pull the strings, will one day be too feeble to do so, and may not be around to do it. And when that day comes, the pretenders will have a hard time staying in power. The true leaders, those with the support of the people, will be shoved into the seat of power. The elite may resort to all kinds of things to stay in power, including the Army. But the soldiers are not idiots. They will have a mind of their own. And when they perceive that the people is not in favour of the elite, they will change sides. Unless of course the Army is made up of cartoons or unthinking inanimate soldiers.
Ahbisit is seeing the real stuff for the first time. His days in power is numbered without the Army that he thought would always be there. A new order is in the making the moment the king is out of the picture.
"The true leaders, those with the support of the people, will be shoved into the seat of power. The elite may resort to all kinds of things to stay in power, including the Army. But the soldiers are not idiots. They will have a mind of their own. And when they perceive that the people is not in favour of the elite, they will change sides. Unless of course the Army is made up of cartoons or unthinking inanimate soldiers". Unquote.
ReplyDeleteMost power(leadership), unfortunately are by force( eg. military rule) and elite rules are similar, usually with the aids of the military). Pure democratic process where and when the people choose a benign and capable leadership hardly happened. Maybe the Last US Election stood out as one.
Are soldiers and may i add the police and judiciary as neutral and thinking(enlightened) as You put it? Again, me will say it is as rare as water in the desert.
The political developments in Thailand now as well as in the past will have little or no relevance to the Political System in SIN. There are much differences in the compositions of the populace. Thailand is near homogeneous in Race, Faith(Buddhism) and tradition. Thailand itself is not densely populated and the country is fertile with broad primary productions in agricultures, husbandries and marine produces.
The greatest difference between SIN and Thailand however lies in a traditional culture. And that is reverrence of the Thai Monarchy. Despite the fact that the Thai King is very much a ceremonial figure, the Thai People have up to this point in time, respect him more than other monarchs in power in other nations. You are very right in saying he is consequential in holding his nation together.
In SIN, there is no figure equivalent to the Thai King. One much touted figure has now becomes the Bane of most Singaporeans. The Successor, if any, to the Thai King neither has executive power nor matters much in the politics of his country. In the History of SIN, a second generation Singaporean has succeeded his father, through the Electoral Process of course for the last decade as the Top Executive of this country. How he has performed and is performing shall be tested in the Next Election.
The relevance and irrelevance of this comment maybe debatable as me is but doing some comparisons. Mr Chua Sir; hope the little differences that we have here will be irrelevant to our coffee sessions. Mr Wally will be our peace maker anyway.
patriot
I can see some similarities and some differences. I can also see nature's hand at work.
ReplyDeleteIt is unlikely that there will be two similar cases to talk about. In the first place, everything is different. In social science, an inexact science, one can at best draw on some trends, patterns and selective factors that could tell a story.
Yes many irrelevance and some relevance.
Do remember that soldiers also have family members among the protestors. Would the soldiers shoot at their own family members. I am sure they would not. Unless they are robots or mercenaries.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fact that soldiers are more robotic than mercenary. Part of the making of a soldier is to make him/her take orders blindly and that's known as 'loyalty', if not obedient.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope military intervention is never needed in SIN and if it is ever needed; it is for the removal of despots and shenanigans and not to quell unhappy citizens.
Liked what Anon 4:28 had said, the families of the SAF and SPF are also part of the people, Singaporeans so to say.
In any case, only ROGUE REGIME will set the ARMY against its' own citizens. Our leaders should know better.
patriot
Hi patriot, you are over concerned. Singapore will never have a rogue govt. So the fear of a rogue govt unleashing the military to shoot at its people is unfounded.
ReplyDeleteThank god.
Got to agree with You Mr Chua.
ReplyDeleteSigaporeans are all sensible!
patriot
I think sensible people will know that paying them out of this world salary should satisfy them. The only rare possibility is that sensible people become deranged and think that $10m or $20m should be reasonable and not paying them that kind of salary could push them to the edge.
ReplyDeleteThen we will have a rogue govt. See how far fetch is such a scenario? Almost impossible to happen right?
It is unlikely that this sort of thing will happen in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons for this, mainly rooted in culture.
The Thais tend to hide behind their bullshit religion -- Buddhism + make-it-up-as-you-go-on + the royal family + shifting power dynamics in the military and police.
There is a definite culture of politics in Thailand. In Singapore the culture of politics is very thin -- most people don't care about it and therefore know very little, and also there are no BIG organised groups passionate about a single body of ideas -- exclusionary ideas i.e. "us vs them".
Also Singapore culrue leans more toward pragmatism, rather than emotionalism.
Soldiers are to secure the safeties of the homeland and its' inhabitants. They should never harm(emotionally and physically) the very people they are to protect.
ReplyDeleteSoldiers who hurt their fellow countrymen are just simply unfit to be armed as they are definitely of unthinking or deranged minds.