Friends of Thai Democracy are becoming increasingly anxious as the search for its whereabouts or any trace of its remains now enters its third month.
After taking off on 9 December from Government House on a flight to a New Government which was due to be in place by 2 March, Thai Democracy disappeared from the radar on 2 February, just as it was supposed to pass the waypoint known as Elections. Since that moment, nothing has been seen or heard of Thai Democracy apart from satellite images of what might be debris in extremely remote locations along Sukhumwit Road. Some analysts believe this wreckage could be sections of election billboards, though this has not been verified.
Various theories have been posited as to what happened to cause the sudden disappearance of Thai Democracy, but technical experts are now convinced that a sudden turn to the extreme right took place just as it disappeared. Speculation about some form of catastrophic failure has now been abandoned in favour of an ‘inside job’ theory.
‘All the evidence that I have seen,’ said one foreign expert who asked not to be named, ‘points to a deliberate act of democratic sabotage. Someone inside the Thai political structure seems to have decided that Thai Democracy should never get to a New Government through Elections. The Elections waypoint seems to have been chosen as the ideal opportunity to prevent any further progress for Thai Democracy.’
Following this theory, fingers have been pointed at the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, whose actions in blocking access to the Elections waypoint could have been enough to throw Thai Democracy off course and maybe even force it to move backwards. The PDRC resolutely deny this, saying that they want the return of Thai Democracy as much as anyone.
‘Of course we support Thai Democracy,’ said a PDRC spokesperson, ‘but it needs a thorough and proper overhaul first. The people currently in charge of Thai Democracy have left it in a terrible state through mismanagement and corruption and the pilot is an incompetent clone who is in danger of flying into a mountain at any moment. What we need in the cockpit is an appointed group of a hundred or so good people who will fly Thai Democracy in the correct way.’
The failure of Thai Democracy to arrive at a New Government has now been the subject of an unusual court decision. The Constitutional Court is not normally considered to have a mandate to rule on transportation issues, but has also recently come out against a plan to fund road and rail infrastructure development.
The Court has now ruled that the flight of Thai Democracy was unconstitutional and must be re-flown. Their argument is that the constitution requires all flights to carry a full complement of crew. Thai Democracy did not do this, partly because of an opposition boycott and partly because some crew members were physically restrained from boarding the flight.
Observers have pointed out that this verdict opens an easy way to sabotage any future flight of Thai Democracy, simply by intimidation and thuggery by any group who suspects that they would lose out as a result of any further progress by Thai Democracy.
The episode has also highlighted the failings of the National Air Transportation Safety Institute which is entrusted with ensuring that Thai Democracy has safe passage through Elections. Some observers point out that NATSI officials did little to prevent the problems that gave rise to the court verdict and that the neutrality of some was questioned after they appeared on stage at demonstrations against the flight of Thai Democracy.
Since it seems that the cost of the doomed Thai Democracy flight will have to be written off, there have been questions about who should take responsibility for this. In light of the intimidation by the PDRC, incompetence or malfeasance by NATSI and the boycott by the opposition, it has been decided that the cost will in fact be borne by the 20 million people who took part in the Thai Democracy flight. They will also be barred from any future flights.
While in most disasters of this kind, the international community will supply technical support and personnel, this has not been the case with the disappearance of Thai Democracy. When asked if any international search and rescue mission was likely to be mounted, a group of foreign diplomats sighed, shrugged their shoulders and looked the other way.
About author: Bangkokians with long memories may remember his irreverent column in The Nation in the 1980's. During his period of enforced silence since then, he was variously reported as participating in a 999-day meditation retreat in a hill-top monastery in Mae Hong Son (he gave up after 998 days), as the Special Rapporteur for Satire of the UN High Commission for Human Rights, and as understudy for the male lead in the long-running ‘Pussies -not the Musical' at the Neasden International Palladium (formerly Park Lane Empire).
