Thailand: NGOs Side With Military-Royalist Government http://mostlywater.org/thailand_ngos_side_militaryroyalist_government

Once again the Thai non-government organisations have sided with the military-installed royalist government against the demands of hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy “Red Shirts”. The Red Shirts, who represent millions of ordinary working people in urban and rural areas, have been staging huge protests in Bangkok in recent days. Their demands are for the dissolution of parliament and fresh elections. They want the issue of constitutional reform and government policy to be determined by the electorate. 

The present government was installed by a 2006 military coup, manoeuvrings by pro-military judges, violent demonstrations by semi-fascist Yellow Shirts and the proclamation of a military inspired constitution. This constitution has decreased the democratic space. The previously elected Senate is now half appointed by the military. Military-backed Prime Minister Abhisit has responded to Red Shirt demands by saying “elections solve nothing” and that he would not dissolve parliament until a long drawn out process of “constitutional reform was carried out”. His government has been pretending to deal with constitutional reform for over a year with no results. 

Naturally, the main government party, which has never won anything approaching a majority in elections, has “little faith in elections”. The excuse for the 2006 coup was that the majority of the electorate were “too ill-informed to have the right to vote”. Repeated elections since 2001 have shown strong support for Red Shirt-backed parties. During the latest negotiations between Red Shirts and the government, many NGOs have backed the military/royalist government’s positions. These NGO groups include NGO-COD, the Consumers’ Network, the Health Network, the Sustainable Agriculture Network, the People Living With AIDS Network and FTA Watch.