Postbag: Protesters not all bad

Postbag

Published: 26 Nov 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

In the majority of protests around the world, there is always an element there to cause trouble. They have nothing to do with the main protest at all. Some are even professional protesters.

Take the G8 summits, for example, or even football supporters. Very small minorities of supporters are not supporters at all but will go to the away matches just for the fights they like to cause.

Take the protest of this past weekend. Were the trouble-makers truly protesters or only there to cause trouble? I believe the latter.

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ringmaster
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Discussion 13 : 27 Nov 2012 at 00.5513
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jcwilcox #3 The very reason Thailand is prone to a coup is because the Thai elite can't stomach election results. Charges of voter ignorance and vote buying are only pathetic excuses in which losers attempt to save face and to justify undemocratic coups. Does anyone really believe that the majority of Thais would have voted for the Democrats if they weren't paid to vote for PT?
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bangmodken
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Discussion 12 : 26 Nov 2012 at 18.3312
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D11 : You can say when the populace is not taught basic principles of democracy,when the phujai or UDD leader can tell villagers who to vote for,when corruption and abuse of power by authorities is the norm,when violence against the democrats in PTP/UDD strongholds is accepted,when vote-buying is widespread and when the rich and influentials are above the law,the right to vote is useless and using this useless right,the only right,to claim this country resembles anywhere near a democracy,"however imperfect" as some like to call it,is by the definition abuse of the word democracy.
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Deedy
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Discussion 11 : 26 Nov 2012 at 15.3611
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J C Wilcox: "Giving people the right to vote is not democracy it is an abuse of democracy." What can you possibly say when there are people who think like this?
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teecee
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Discussion 10 : 26 Nov 2012 at 13.3410
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Re: Numerous comments regarding "Democracy" today .. . . consider this . . . . .
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."
Alexander Tytler 1797,

Any of this sound familiar ???
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robingrant
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Discussion 9 : 26 Nov 2012 at 10.469
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mogy71: The BP editorial correctly highlighted the police use of force, not violence, when protestors tried to break through barriers set up very near to Government House, to gain access to the rally site, so the protestors claimed, even though other routes were available.

As to police inaction in 2010, well, either the Democrat-led government preferred to use the army, or else the police, as jc wilcox infers, refused to deploy. However, if the latter, why was no action taken against senior police commanders for disobeying orders?
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dao
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Discussion 8 : 26 Nov 2012 at 10.388
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I fail to see how a criminal running the governemnt equals democracy .Without laws and their enforcement we are just living by the law of the jungle and sorry thats not democratic .
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dao
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Discussion 7 : 26 Nov 2012 at 10.317
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I saw most protesters were normal people .Along the one police line there about 4 or 5 people that seemed to be sucked in by the police taunts from a microphone behind their police barricade .Thats also where all the press people were hanging around waiting for some gratuitous violence to take photos of .Funny how that was the only thing reported about .
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maunder
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Discussion 6 : 26 Nov 2012 at 10.126
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John (Protesters not all bad) is quite correct. Bad actors at a gathering is about the same as pickpockets at a fair. Most fairgoers do not go there to pick pockets. Nor to have their pockets picked. Most are there for the fair. Or, in the case of the Pitak Siam rally, to show support for what they believe to be a proper issue.
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mogy71
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Discussion 5 : 26 Nov 2012 at 09.195
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Robingrant, you ignored the point regarding the police action/inaction. The blinkers never come off.
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loong
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Discussion 4 : 26 Nov 2012 at 09.174
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J C Wilcox, This is a police state, just don't make the wrong move, the ISA law was activated before the protest begun.
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Postbag: Protesters not all bad | Bangkok Post: opinion