Living in hope amid a cesspool of poll fibs
Some people just have no shame. They tell lies with a straight face. Perhaps they even believe those lies they tell. I am beginning to despair at the direction Thai politics is heading. It’s like a whirlpool spiralling ever deeper in the dark cesspool, reaching a greater depth than we ever reached before.
More than four years have passed since the military takeover and we still are uncertain when an election will again take place. No one in the military regime or among its mouthpieces will place a date on the next election.
Instead, what we’ve got are obfuscation and downright lies. The regime’s head honcho, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, has insisted the next election will happen in February next year. But who can believe him after his stated date keeps changing, at least four times since he came into power?
His minions, meanwhile, have floated balloons to say the date may be in February, or perhaps April, but definitely no later than May. Right!
The maddening thing about this is that most people now take it for granted that the date will continue to be fluid, and if it changes again, that’s to be expected.
“Most people” includes all major media outlets and their journalists and editors, who may have forgotten their own legacy of being the bulwark of freedom and fighting tooth and nail with dictatorships in the past.
Hello! They have been lying to us over and over and we just grin and say, “Oh, OK, take your time. Whatever you do is fine by us.”
No, it’s not OK. We are dealing with charlatans who will lie and do anything to hang on to power.
I have to give it to the junta, though, in the way they keep the country under control and the population cowed and timid. If that’s what stability is all about, then they have succeeded beyond measure.
It seems the Thai dictators have learned from history and adapted themselves well. They have learned how to use just enough force to keep things under control and not overdo it.
And their propaganda machines — even if awkward and misstepping at times — have been by and large effective at inculcating the military’s version of political culture.
How effective? Large numbers of people are now willing to take their lies as truths, treat their misbehaviours as appropriate or at least pardonable, and believe that “peace and stability” trumps freedom and democracy.
Their success has reaffirmed their determination to stay in power longer — contrary to what they told the country earlier. It may be their false belief that they are the saviours here to protect a country in distress. Or, more likely, their gross craving for power and riches has led them to lose all shame and not mind being labelled hypocrites.
However, having manoeuvred the constitutional drafting to ensure their advantages in future election campaigns and total control over the next senate, the regime is still not confident enough they will achieve their goal in the election.
So they unashamedly turn to a group of discredited politicians — whom they earlier condemned as the cause of all political ills — to help them maintain their seats of power in any way possible.
And everyone involved pretends that that’s the way it is and always has been. And we all thought the military stepped in to carry out political reforms.
Desperate as the situation may be, there are some comic moments. A spokesman for the Three Musketeers Group recently made a jaw-dropping statement, saying they came out to rally support for Gen Prayut not for their own gain but out of “idealistic fervour”.
This is the kind of stuff soap operas are made of. But, even in my deepest despair, I want to retain a sliver of optimism. I will grab at any ray of hope shining on the political pasture.
Right now, that ray of hope comes from the young people and some of the new parties that are not yet tainted by the old political slime. A number of students from several university campuses and some high schools are putting their heads together to see if they can exert a positive influence on the politics gone astray.
I understand they are too nascent a movement to create enough force to reverse the downward spiral. But I’m entitled to dream my hopeless dream.
And I dream Thailand will follow in its southern neighbour’s footsteps and its electorate will deliver a shocking blow to the discredited establishment in the election to come … when it comes.
Large numbers of people are willing to believe ‘peace and stability’ trumps freedom and democracy.