Play dead for now, says Thaksin

UDON THANI: From self-imposed exile, the influential leader of Thailand’s rural “red shirt” opposition movement has delivered a simple message to followers chafing at the military junta’s iron rule: lay low for now, don’t panic, “play dead”.

Billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, long-time political leader of the north’s disenfranchised electorate, is watching events at home closely and urging patience from those who want to see his allies return to power.

“When I spoke to Thaksin, he told me to pretend to be dead a little longer,” red shirt leader Kwanchai Praipana, a popular pro-Thaksin leader in the northeastern province of Udon Thani, said.

“He told me to ... wait until the next election. That will be the moment that we will win. The only question is whether an election will ever take place.”

Kwanchai said he spoke to Thaksin a month ago, though he did not specify how they communicated.

Thaksin, who lives abroad to avoid a jail sentence for graft, was ousted in a coup in 2006, but remains a major figure in Thai politics.

While the military has kept a firm grip on power since it felled the remnants of the government of Thaksin’s sister Yingluck in another coup last year, he and his allies have won every election since 2001 and anger is mounting among farmers and political opponents.

The military government has slashed rural subsidies and coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said this month the next election would not be held until “around” July 2017, the latest delay to Thailand’s return to democracy.

The reference to playing dead resonated with Kwanchai, who rolled up his sleeve to show a scar the length of his upper arm from a drive-by shooting at his rural home when Bangkok was paralysed by protests that preceded the coup.

Prayuth’s ban on political activity has severely curtailed the red shirt movement and his junta has quashed any sign of open dissent.

“They have bullied us too much,” said Kwanchai, adding that he has to report his movements to the military every day.

Prayuth staged the coup and banned political activity after months of sometimes deadly street clashes, saying he had to reconcile a dangerously divided society.

Many Thais, especially Bangkok’s middle class and urban elite, backed the intervention.

But sharp divisions remain and the Shinawatras retain their popularity in northern strongholds.

A draft constitution that critics said was an attempt by Prayuth to prevent a comeback by the Shinawatras was rejected by a military-appointed reform council rather than taken to a national referendum that may have become a public test of the junta’s popularity.

“At first we thought the drafting of the constitution, had it been passed, would have been the time to protest,” said Sabina Shah, a red shirt leader and radio DJ in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen.

The radio station was shut down after the coup and remains off air.

“People want to protest. But they are afraid, despite facing difficulties and hardship...The economy’s been going backwards.”

Hundreds of activists on Saturday defied a ban on protests and marched in Bangkok in a rare rally against the military to mark the ninth anniversary of the coup against Thaksin.

Lines of police stood by as crowds of people chanting “no dictatorship” and carrying anti-junta banners marched to the city’s Democracy Monument.

Compared with the Shinawatra clan, Prayuth has done little for Thailand’s farmers.

He ended subsidy schemes that funnelled billions of dollars to agricultural communities.

The populist schemes were fiercely criticised as vote buying by opponents of the Shinawatras.

Without the subsidies, rice farmers have seen their income per kilogram of rice fall by about a third and are struggling to pay down debt they took on when times were good.

“I’m not that happy at the moment because agricultural prices for us have not been good at all,” said farmer Samrong Pongthai in lush rice fields outside Udon Thani.

“The government won’t increase the price. It’s been a struggle really. You make a loss if you sell it these days.” — Reuters