Thailand

The following was released on April 10 by the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM), Working People's Association (PRP) of Indonesia, People’s Democratic Party (PRD) of Indonesia, Turn Left Thailand, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) of the Philippines, Socialist Alliance of Australia
We are deeply concerned over the current situation in Thailand where military-backed Prime Minister Ahbisit Vejjajiva has declared a state of emergency and started a bloody crackdown amid escalating protests calling for a fresh election.

Giles Ji Ungpakorn, 11 April 2010
Soldiers armed with live and rubber bullets attacked the peaceful pro-democracy Red Shirt protests in the centre of Bangkok on April 10. At least 12 people, including a Japanese Reuters reporter, have been shot dead.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
March 15, 2010 -- Hundreds of thousands of Thai Red Shirt pro-democracy demonstrators took to the streets of Bangkok and other cities over the weekend of March 13-14. This was a show of force to prove the strength of the movement and to dispel any lies by the royalist government and the media that the Red Shirts are not representative of the majority.

[The article below is by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a member of the socialist Turn Left Thailand group. He was forced to leave Thailand after being charged under Thailand's anti-democratic lese majesty (insulting the monarch) laws. Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who despite his corrupt record still enjoys support from much of Thailand’s poor, was overthrown in a 2006 coup by royalist army officers. For more information, visit Wdpress.blog.co.uk.]

I don’t shed any tears about former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s billions being seized by order of the Thai Supreme Court on February 26.

Click here to sign this online Petition to Stop the Impending Massive Crackdown on Undocumented Migrant Workers in Thailand.

We the undersigned are calling on the Thai Royal Government to reconsider its decision to launch a massive crackdown on nearly 1.4 million undocumented migrant workers in Thailand after February 28, 2010.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
April 13, 2009: For the fourth time in forty years, troops have opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok. Each time, the aim has been the same: to protect the interests of the conservative elites who have run Thailand for the past 70 years.
For those watching the cold-blooded murder by soldiers on the streets of Bangkok, it may be tempting just to assume that the present chaos is merely about different coloured T-shirts and supporters of different political parties, as though they were mirror images of each other. This is not the case.

By John Berthelsen
Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a political science professor at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University and a well-known socialist activist, has been ordered to appear at a Bangkok police station to be charged under the country’s stiff laws for insulting the country’s monarch.
Ungpakorn, an activist with the socialist Turn Left Thailand group, which is affiliated with the International Socialist Tendency, has written a series of flame-throwing articles.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Bangkok, December 15, 2008: The appointment of ``Democrat'' Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the new Prime Minister of Thailand is the final stage of the second coup against an elected government. After the deliberate chaos created by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seizure of the airports, the courts stepped in to dissolve the hugely popular governing Thai Rak Thai (Peoples Power Party) for the second time. [The constitutional court dissolved the party for fraud in the 2007 election that brought it to power.] The army chief then called a meeting of Democrat Party parliamentarians, along with some of the most corrupt elements of the governing coalition parties. It is widely believed that the army chief and others threatened and bribed MPs to change sides. Chief among them is ``Newin Chitchorp'', who was named by his father after the infamous Burmese dictator.

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
The prison sentence handed down to ex-Thai PM Thaksin is just one part of the present Thai political crisis. I write this short piece because I have been contacted by both the BBC TV and radio to give a telephone interview, but on both occasions the telephone line went dead during the interview. Times like this can make us paranoid. It was probably a technical fault which just happened to occur twice.

Though many Western newspapers describe the forces behind current anti-government protests in Thailand as "pro-democracy," their history shows they are anything but, Paul Heideman argues in the August 28, 2008 Socialist Worker (US).