Political crisis exposes family rifts

According to last week’s Assumption University poll that surveyed more than 1,200 people, nearly 30 percent of respondents said the tense political atmosphere had led to arguments with family members, neighbors and associates, many of which had turned violent.

Ked, 29, a small business owner from Bangkok, is one such example. She said the political situation had put a strain on her family life as she and her husband disagreed with her father, who believes strongly in Thaksin.

“I don’t like to sit in the car with my father. Whenever we see each other, he always talks about Thaksin and politics and I don’t want to listen to him, so I try to avoid the topic now because it just makes me angry,” Ked said yesterday, adding that she also tried not to talk about politics with her friends and work colleagues for similar reasons.

Leading pollster Suan Dusit this week announced it had stopped conducting political polls because it said society was deeply split and that the surveys were making matters worse.

Analysts said the debates and arguments taking place in offices, homes and on the streets pointed to a deepening political divide throughout the country.

“We are seeing the most divided Thai society that I can recall,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Chulalongkorn University, said yesterday. “Not just in the capital but in Thailand as a whole from region to region. You can see very clearly that the rural electorate and urban poor still favor Thaksin,” while the urban middle classes are growing more and more dissatisfied with him, he said.

However, some observers disagree. “I don’t think there is a clear rural and urban divide on this issue. However, the rural people are more pro-Thaksin because of the village fund,” said Wathana Wongsekiarttirat, an expert on rural development at Chulalongkorn University.

The village fund, created by caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, made low-interest loans available to the country’s rural poor – who make up roughly 70 percent of the population.

Critics have attacked the scheme, saying that instead of alleviating poverty it has instead plunged millions of people deeper into debt.

The policies of the Thaksin administration since it came to power in February 2001, and the mass-movement to overthrow Thaksin have drawn attention to the great divisions in the country from region to region largely based on prosperity.

As Thaksin continues campaigning for the April 2 general election in the eastern seaboard today, after spending the past four days touring Thai Rak Thai (TRT) strongholds in the North and Northeast, the embattled prime minister continues to ignore the South where he has little support, analysts say.

And while many critics have accused TRT policies over the past five years of being divisive, many others disagree and strongly support a prime minister they feel is being bullied out of office by a mob.

ABAC poll director Noppadon Kannika said the results of the recent poll showed that disagreements about political issues were clearly leading to confrontations.

“I would like to suggest in this situation that Thais think about ways to keep their family relationships steady,” Noppadon said. “People should think about changing the subject when it [politics] comes up and discuss personal issues in their daily lives instead as a way of avoiding conflict.”

And deep divides in society may be long-lasting and detrimental to the country, analysts have warned.

“There is no honest broker left in Thailand. This is a very divided society. You either like Thaksin a lot or you are really disgusted by him – the middle ground is fast evaporating, as opinions become more intense and more hardened on both sides,” Thitinan said. “The longer this drags on, the deeper the wounds being inflicted on Thai society will be.”