The Thai Uprising as Mirror

The Thai Uprising, as the anti-government crowd calls it, has by now settled down to a low simmer. A large crowd laid siege to the Government House and cut off electricity to the entire compound. Despite the fact that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra resigned (staying on as caretaker until the election) and has scheduled new elections for her office and parliament, the protestors have stated they will not stand down until the prime minister leaves the country completely, as it is almost certain she will be re-elected in the next election anyway. 

The western press has been laudably circumspect in their coverage of what is admittedly a complicated story with a lot of moving parts. The story is set in an exotic southeast Asian country, our understanding of which is mostly shaped by movies like Hangover 2. The feverish, sometimes borderline hallucinatory rants of the opposition leaders, juxtaposed with the stoic determination of the nation's fabulously wealthy rulers make it somewhat easier to dismiss this as a lurid but essentially irrelevant political sideshow taking place in a marginal Asian country. 

It is worth keeping in mind that Thailand is one of the largest and best developed economies in Asia, and that they are critical partners both in countering a rising threat of radical Islam in South Asia as well as serving as a steadfast and valuable ally in our regional chess match against the Chinese. In the midst of the protests, the U.S. dispatched a top admiral and head of the Pacific fleet to sit for a chat as a sign of support for the (literally) besieged Thai prime minister. 

Geopolitical implications aside, what may be of interest to American readers is that despite the decidedly Asian flair of this particular political drama, the basic elements will be very familiar, perhaps uncomfortably so, to even the most casual observer of politics in the U.S. 

On the one hand, Thailand has a left-leaning head of government who was democratically elected by a decisive majority. Her party's social programs have been popular among many socially or economically disadvantaged citizens, but have come at significant financial cost to the nation as a whole. The minority party, driven by intense personal animosity, has used every weapon at its disposal to undermine her legitimacy: her social and economic policies are characterized as dangerous, poorly planned and clumsily executed, while her social policies are labelled cynical manipulations of the lower classes that are actually little more than vote buying programs. 

On the other hand, the right-leaning minority party's power at the polls has faded, effectively locking them out of leadership for now. Their boosters include big business interests; poorly-educated southerners bussed in by protest leaders; flag draped ultra-nationalists; and the Bangkok elite. It is a credit to the political skill of these anti-government politicians that despite their obvious distaste for democracy they have managed to portray themselves as populists. 

Their solution is to shut down the government or to take control with a small group of appointed representatives chosen from their own ranks. Their symbol of choice is the national flag, and in an attempt to gain wider popular support for their cause, have framed the issue as a matter of patriotism and nationalism. The inconvenient fact that the current government was democratically elected in a free and fair election is simply dismissed as further proof of their treachery. 

When you look at it this way, suddenly this once-exotic story starts sounding kind of familiar, doesn't it? One can't help but be reminded of the recent shutdown of our own government; the childish use of filibusters to prevent the Senate from working on behalf of the people; the fights and spin stemming from our own social and economic policies; and the general demonization of our political counterparts that has led many people both inside America and abroad to wonder if the US has become ungovernable. 

From the marbled halls of Washington DC to the steamy streets of Bangkok, political leaders seem to be reading from the same tired old playbook. There's so much to do, and so many problems to solve. Let's try to set an example of good governance the world can look to for inspiration, that we can be proud of, and which will be capable of effectively serving the needs of the people. Let's take a look in the mirror and decide if we like what we see.