The right is thrown into panic, like a sick man visited by an apparition of death. Sealed in a cage of obliviousness, they fear the galloping sound of apocalyptic horsemen. Or in their mind, the barbarians at the gate, rattling the rusty chain of power.
And their reaction is predictable: reinforce the padlock, threaten, evoke the anti-establishment ghost, shout the banality of law and order. After nearly four years, they've relinquished their grace but not their power. They're determined to make sure it stays that way.
The apocalyptic horsemen have come in the form of Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 39-year-old auto-parts tycoon, and left-leaning law professor Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, 38. The two men who wish to inspire passionate politics based on the young, the tolerant, the open-minded, have spoken about setting up a new political party. Let's note that they have not yet registered such a party, and while they have talked about what they want to do, they haven't outlined any policy or manifesto. They don't even have a name for that future party.
But their sounding-out interview earlier this week was more than enough to rile up the ultra-conservatives. It was almost amusing, the way they became so nervous, if it wasn't also alarming.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the National Council for Peace and Order, aka the lavishly paid coupmakers, is watching various groups that may challenge the regime, those that offer themselves as "alternatives" and then "cross the line". Accustomed to ruling without an opposition, the government has developed a low-tolerance attitude to any proposition of an alternative, a choice, a different view, new blood, even a gathering on the Skywalk or a university. At a time when lines should be erased, they etch it deeper, and threaten those who dare cross it.
The ultra-conservative media, too, have stirred, like a sleeping crocodile smelling blood. There is already a call for security agencies to prepare for anti-establishment fervour the new party might whip up -- speculation aimed at stirring hatred. The fact that Mr Piyabutr is a member of Nitirat, a group of law professors with a progressive agenda, is dragged out and linked with the taboo subject of the monarchy -- a lame accusation that is often effective. It's clear the discrediting machine has creaked into action even before the poll date is set, and given the way things move, we can expect open season in the next few months.
That Mr Thanathorn is a nephew of an ex-transport minister during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration is his liability. That he has to prove he's no proxy of the hopeless Pheu Thai Party is annoying, but necessary. Mr Thanathorn knows that, and he has set out by distancing himself from the old political class, vowing to redefine the image of Thai politics via the involvement of young people, social media, crowdfunding, and a new attitude toward the grand old game. Whether he can turn ambition and ideology into law and action remains to be seen, but he's now facing a hurdle even before he can start: his first lesson is that to take a plunge into a sewer, he has to get dirty before he can actually change anything.
To borrow President Donald Trump's analogy, politics is a swamp. And tropical swamps are usually more fetid, eel-infested than anywhere else. When the Election Commission opened the registration on March 4, 42 parties rushed to put their names on the list. Forty-two parties, and most of them represent a vast recycle campaign of personalities, platitudes, outdated ideologies, old men, and the usual suspects with an unabashed fondness for dictatorship. Four years of political freeze have put them into a forced coma, and now the thaw -- however half-hearted and unpredictable -- has unfrozen the White Walkers to wander our wasteland again.
But more importantly, the frustration of the past four years -- in fact, of the past 12 years since the 2006 coup -- has also unfrozen a batch of young minds that have come of age politically in our most challenging times, the young minds that have witnessed the depressing cycle of coups, selfishness and cynicism and thought no, that's enough, we deserve better, and we can do something about it.
We need more than Mr Thanathorn and Mr Piyabutr; we need a lot more of these apocalyptic horsemen. With the military, the conservatives, and the old, tired hands sneering at them, it will be a baptism by fire for these new bloods. I hope they'll come out stronger and purer, if they ever come out at all, because it's time the future is written by someone who believes in it and not by those who live in luxurious exile, or in the sealed cage of oblivion, or in the meaningless past that will never return.
Kong Rithdee is Life editor, Bangkok Post.
