Explosion in Thailand: One of the 'dragons' starts to fall

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8 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1992 The tumultuous events in Bangkok, beginning with a mass demonstration estimated at 200,000 persons on Sunday, May 17, and ending with the flight of Premier Suchinda Krapayoon at the end of that week, are a dramatic illustration that we are far from a new age of capitalist expansion and stability.

In fact, the explosion in Thailand came not long after the rebellion in Los Angeles, and the latter was used by the Thai rulers as an example that bloodshed may be necessary to preserve order in the best of houses.

In the May 20 issue of the leading Dutch daily, NRC Handelsblad, Willem van Kemenade, summed up remarks of the Thai vice-premier, Samat Sundarawee, at a press conference as follows:

"The vice-premier justified the shooting of unarmed citizens with a reference to Los Angeles where 53 were killed. He said that this was the only solution, because otherwise the entire city of eight million inhabitants would have been torched."

The Thai premier was more vulnerable, however, than his American counterparts. Fearing for his skin, he had to run for his life. The coalition of five parties backing him appeared totally discredited and unable to form a government.

"Success story" unravelling Thailand is supposed to be one of the success stories of capitalism in the underdeveloped world, one of the hard-driving "dragons" of Southeast Asia.

However, the economy grew in a chaotic way, causing huge social problems. About 10 million rice farmers were driven off their land into the shanty-towns that account for 20 percent of the population of Bangkok.

prostitution of women and children, a Pongeak Chakanimmas ADP great many of whom have been forced to sell themselves because of the ruin of the rural economy. It is expected that by 1994, 10 million people in the country will be infected with the AIDS virus.

Furthermore, the ruling class, in particular, the generals, who form one of its most venal components, are deeply involved in trading in the narcotics that originate in the so-called Golden Triangle. The country has become a jungle of crooked trading and corruption.

A correspondent of the Volkskraant, Mieke Kooistra, wrote in the May 21 issue of the Amsterdam daily that the Thai military was far more devoted to business than fighting. He referred to a border clash with extremely underdeveloped Laos in 1968, in which the Thai forces gave a poor account of themselves. "Before that during the Vietnam war, the Americans had to recognize that the Thai army was useless."

On the other hand, "Everyday in the English dailies published in Bangkok, there are special publicity supplements, thick, many-colored brochures put in for the opening of a new factory or office complex.

"Everyone of these brochures opens with greetings from the governor—a military officer in gold braid. Whether it is Bangkok's ambitious harbor project, an educational institute, or a telephone company, a military man is always at the head. His function is generally symbolic. But that says volumes about the position that the armed forces assume in Thai society. The Thai military, moreover, have their own commercial bank, golf courses and other businesses."

Since the parliamentary system was established in 1933, the military has staged 17 coups, and allowed civilians to rule only 12 of those 60 years. The present crop of gorilla profiteers are in close cahoots with the South African and Burmese military.

It is undoubtedly true that the spread of wealth and social differentiation in Thailand has made it more difficult to maintain military rule. The leader of the opposition, General Chamlong Srimuang, is a bourgeois politician, whose program is limited to denouncing corruption and callpublished on May 5, 1992— 50 cents with regular issue ACTioN Special Supplement MAY 1992

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Much of Thailand's foreign currency has come from "sex tourism," that is, mass