Reader’s email | 22.09.06

From a woman who has encountered troops on the streets before (and did not give them flowers):

The final answer: might is right.

I feel like what I felt on Oct.6, 2519 when I was suppressed by the armed forces, bare hands at Thammasat.

You are the future of this country, do you see the light at the end of the tunnel?

1976 was before I was born, but I feel the current coup d’etat is something different. The suppression here is moral, not physical. Back then, I imagine most young people (barring the kind that was aiming for the dictatorship of the proletariat) had faith in democracy. Unfortunately, many of them quickly lost faith by discovering that democracy was not just a nice-sounding word, but an actual governing system whereby politicians they didn’t like might keep getting elected. When my generation was in school, we were taught that the move from absolute monarchy was premature.

Fast forward to today, there’s not even a pretense of faith left among rabid Thaksin haters (and the word “rabid” may well be superfluous). As they openly declare their preference for Saddam and Hitler, the young get their real-life education accordingly. The soldiers did not cause this gelding of the democratic spirit. They merely culminated it.

As you can see, I am not the future of this country. The past is the future. And the coup d’etat is the light at the end of the tunnel.

17:49 ▪ politics

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