The lady vanishes
way to right the wrong.
Both sides proffer good reasons. The first camp insists there is no way for fairness to prevail in the absence of democracy.
The other side says fairness is imposs i bl e under d e m o c r a c y too, because the accused c a n a l ways invoke public support as a shield. The trial h a s b e e n shrouded in this debate, just as when her brother Thaksin Shinawatra was accused of corruption.
To be fair to the Shinawatras, the problem dates to long before they rose to power. It was always difficult to pun- ish politicians, even amid glaring evidence of wrongdoing. The military has repeatedly pounced on this unhealthy characteristic of our political system, which every Thai freely acknowledges.
That the Shinawatras were not responsible for this tradition, however, doesn’t mean they should foster it. During Thaksin’s supremacy it became even harder to punish anyone in his Cabinet. In fact, a trend was unmistakably set when he, as prime minister, escaped Constitutional Court punishment in connection with a share scandal in which he appeared to be guilty as sin.
So we can blame politicians for making Thai democracy vulnerable, or we can frown on military opportunism. No matter which side you’re on, this is a national illness that has trapped us all in a vicious cycle.
Pro-democracy protesters triumph and a democratic government is installed, only for that government to use public support as a shield against