Inside Story: Thailand’s bad men and the challenges for Abhisit Vejjajiva

Thailand’s prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Photo: Monika Flueckiger/ World Economic Forum

Thailand has dropped out of the headlines but the long-term struggle for political control continues, write Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly.

Thai politics has been out of the news since the bloody crackdown on the red-shirt protesters three and a half months ago. But any superficial tranquillity hides the ongoing campaign by the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to neutralise the political opposition and maximise the vote for his Democrat Party at the election due next year.

The state of emergency declared in May has been wound back, but is still in force in Bangkok and in several red-shirt heartland provinces in the rural northeast. Hundreds of red-shirt protesters, including most of the leadership group, are in prison awaiting trial on charges that range from illegal assembly to terrorism. Community radio stations, which were a vital mouthpiece for the red-shirt cause, have been closed down. Reports from the provinces talk of police and military harassment of red-shirt supporters. And, in a bizarre turn, the government recently called on university rectors to monitor student performances that may have inappropriate political content. The red-shirt supporters of deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are finding it difficult to get their opinions heard.

Despite the crackdown, some expressions of political discontent cannot be avoided. In late July, the government faced a by-election in Bangkok, brought about by the death of one of its MPs. This was an unwelcome test of the electoral waters for Prime Minister Abhisit. Since the end of the red-shirt protests in May, he has embarked on a high-profile public-relations campaign for national reconciliation. The prospect of political divisions finding new expression at the ballot box was deeply disconcerting.

Read the full article at Inside Story. 

Dr Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly are based in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific at The Australian National University and co-edit the blog New Manadala . Inside Story is edited at the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology in association with ANU. Selected articles from Inside Story appear in the Forum section of The Canberra Times.