Why we are grateful to Thaksin

It may be hard to believe, but I've noticed something at these anti-Thaksin demonstrations. All of a sudden, different groups of anti-Maew activists are dying to express their gratitude to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for various reasons. Strange it is, but let me tell you who they are and why:

Street vendors
Meatball and dried-squid vendors would love to have 10 prime ministers like Thaksin. They just won back all those long-lost customers who have acquired a taste for dining out at high-end shopping malls. Now they're patronising roadside vendors once again. And the smiles on the vendors' faces reflect their skyrocketing revenues. They were more than willing to serve the anti-Thaksin crowd.When the protesters marched to Democracy Monument in the wee hours of Monday morning, quite a few vendor carts travelled alongside them.

Santi Asoke
This unorthodox and long-reclusive Buddhist sect has suddenly received free publicity as the Dharma Army.
When the sect, comprising monks, nuns and lay followers, marched to Sanam Luang last Sunday morning, it boosted the morale of the other protesters, and the sect re-entered mainstream society. Thanks to our political leader, Santi Asoke has emerged as a symbol of "moral" force against evil.

Human-rights advocates
Isn't Thaksin a heaven-sent gift to human-rights advocates? They preach philosophically that human rights are natural rights. The United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights states; "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." That's also spelled out in our Constitution, but little did Thais realise there even were such rights.
Now, after five years of Thaksin's rule, Thai citizens have become increasingly aware of these rights. Sondhi Limthongkul put it succinctly when he told the rally that exercising these rights is as natural as breathing the air.

University and high-school students
They used to be accused of indulging in drugs and other social ills and blamed for the Kingdom's moral decay. But a lot of these students have apparently broken their stereotype and showed that they, too, care about Thailand's future and refuse to stay apathetic.
When these students announced their anti-Thaksin stance, they provided a much-needed boost to the morale of grown-ups.

Folk artists
Before Thaksin's time, when did you last experience the improvised folk chant lam tat? And how long has it been since a song-for-life band or Chinese-opera troupe performed in front of tens of thousands of people? Now they perform political satire before appreciative crowds.
The Chinese opera "Justice Pao Struggles with the Square Face" and some hilarious lam tat sessions would never have pulled in such big crowds if Thaksin and his cohorts had not provided good material.

News media
In my own industry, journalists and photographers - despite their exhaustion from covering protest after protest - are indebted to Thaksin for all he has said and done during the five years. In modern Thai history, no political leader has inspired as much investigative reporting into corruption. Journalists should also remember Thaksin as the man who successfully created awareness about press freedom by stomping on it every so often.
But only when he made frustrated citizens take to the streets did newspaper sales start soaring. News websites experienced a meteoric increase in their number of hits. To give you a rough idea, The Nation website reported the highest traffic of all time this past Monday, the day after the big Sanam Luang rally.

Snoh Thienthong
Once he left the stage at Sanam Luang, Snoh would probably have loved to say a big "Thank you" to the man he once supported. As Thaksin stubbornly adhered to "my brand of democracy", Snoh whitewashed himself and emerged as a ray of hope for democracy. By condemning the premier onstage, the veteran politician was reborn as Righteous Snoh from his previous existence as a political dinosaur.

Me and my fellow protesters
Throughout my life, I always wondered what it would be like to participate in a demonstration and march along Thailand's historic Rajdamnoen Avenue. My generation learned about the student uprisings of October 14, 1973, and October 6, 1976, largely from textbooks and old news clippings, but nothing can compare with the real thing.

A genuine sense of excitement and comradeship transform everyone who joins in. They have nothing else in common except showing up to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. It was inspiring to see one woman coming straight from the office in high heels, a family bringing their little toddler along, groups of senior citizens, even some disabled in wheelchairs. Who says Thai democracy is in decay?

We might be shouting, "Thaksin, awk pai!" ("Thaksin, get out!") but I and all of the other protesters would like to thank the prime minister for branding us a "stupid mob". Little did he realise that so many would consider it a rare honour to be a part of such a stupid mob under his CEO-ship.