People Power
Thai society, like most, has seen plenty of violence gone unanswered. The culture of impunity
has flourished in Thailand, emboldening military leaders to crack down on resisters and carry out
coup after coup, giving themselves legal immunity by passing amnesties for their actions. No
military official was ever tried for successfully overthrowing a government. No Thai leader,
military or otherwise, has ever gone before the court charged with killing protesters
The tables will suddenly turn on those who conspired to eviscerate Thai democracy, turn the
judiciary and state institutions into partisan tools of the powerful, and use the lèse majesté law to
silence dissent. They will no longer be its masters. It can sometimes seem as if Thailand is too
polarized and broken to ever come back from the brink. But it can. The elite — Yellow and Red
— have irretrievably lost their legitimacy, but the aspirations of ordinary Thais on opposing
sides are remarkably congruent. They want a fair society. They want the rule of law to be
respected. They want their political leaders to respond to their needs. They want peace and
prosperity. They want their voices to be heard.