Faction facts and fictions

Thailand mourns

THAILAND, one of the most popular destinations for South African holidaymakers, has been plunged into deep mourning by the death of much-revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longestreigning monarch. Now the question is whether this politically polarised nation will sink deeper into instability and military dictatorship.

King Bhumibol presided over Thailand’s modernisation during 70 years on the throne and was beloved for his dedication to the country’s poor. At least twice, he intervened to defuse political crises. But in his final years the octogenarian king allowed himself to be used by the Thai military and other anti-democratic elements in their war against the populist “red shirt” movement of Thaksin Shinawatra, which won every election after 2001, only to be repeatedly ousted by coups. The last, in 2014, installed a military junta.

The generals, led by Prayuth Chan-ocha, in August imposed an authoritarian constitution on the country through a rigged referendum. Now they have responded to the king’s death by ordering a year of mourning and instructing all television media to broadcast only state programming.

Thailand is mourning the loss of a sensible and honourable ruler; sadly, no ruler with those qualities is in sight in Bangkok. More cartoons online at

‘FACTION” in the sense of a group formed to promote its own interests dates from about 1500.

Usually factions are accommodated in a broad political group under categories like “extremists” or “moderates”, “Left” and wings, “progressives” and “moderates”.

In South Africa, “faction” has developed the compound “faction fight”, now over 100 years old, usually found in the contexts of tribal conditions or clan vendettas among miners or urban black people.

Although such violence seems far removed from the current political scene, we should remember that during the elections, officially declared “free and fair”, about 20 candidates died or were murdered.

It is generally conceded that these killings were to a disturbing extent intra-party assassinations, carried out by rivals within the organisation, rather than by outsiders.

Although investigations are still continuing, these killings give the lie to observation that the ruling party is “a broad church” accommodating a wide range of political views and policies.

It is now daily evident that there are “pro-” and “anti-” Zuma factions growing within the ANC.

On a different level, the dominant #FeesMust Fall movement is meeting resistance in the faction of #TakeBackWits.