Red Strategy

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Stan G

William Barnes has an exceptional piece in Asia Times with quotes from “Therdpoum Chaidee, a former communist and colleague of key protest leaders”.

While we have no shortage or anti-red articles this one presents the inside view of the red strategy. It is unclear what role this particular person has in the current campaign but he had received the same maoist revolutionary training as forefront red leaders like Weng and Jaran.

Here’s the collection of his quotes, I’ve changed the order and added some emphasis here and there:

The tactic is to keep saying that you are a peace-loving people.

But at the same time:

The revolution walks on two legs. One political leg and one army leg. Violence is the essential ingredient in the mix.

“The people who are the real planners, not the people up on stage making protest speeches, these people probably keep a very low profile, but they must calculate thataggression is vital, … Aggression paralyzes and divides opponents. This is what we were taught, this is how a smaller force can defeat overwhelming power. The message was: divide and conquer.”

The five tactics they learned for unseating a government included: divide your enemies; form a united front; use provocative violence; secure the loyalty of people inside the ruling regime; and, finally, win over the army.

“The many factions folded into the united front [UDD] organization are not told what the real strategy is because they might not agree and they might not act their part convincingly,”

“The red shirt people have been told over and over that greedy people in authority have denied them justice and their fair share. They have been pumped full of toy-town leftism and told to hate every institution that has held this country together. I worry that the bitterness and hatred produced by this propaganda now runs so deep it will cause tension and problems for a long time,”

“Many of them are now absolutely convinced that Thaksin was the best leader in Thai history, that he was a kind and generous man who holds the solution to all their problems. They don’t need a program – they just need a new Thai state with Thaksin in charge. It has become very emotional – as it was designed to be,”

This bit is from Barnes: The red shirts consist of many passive supporters, many active ones and, now, a hand-picked core of “professional revolutionaries” chosen for their loyalty and street smarts, according to Therdpoum. Behind them are many “deep secrets and hidden messages” that are revealed to only a privileged few in the movement, while an even smaller number know the entire strategy, he claimed.

Here is my favorite part:

Old communists know that when it comes to revolution, ignorance is much more powerful than knowledge

This is Barnes’ paraphrase again: Therdpoum believes that the UDD’s sincere left-wing members are using Thaksin and anticipate the opportunity to eventually dump his personal agenda in favor of the establishment of a more socialist society.

This stuff is amazing. I, personally, would have never dared to accuse reds of these subversive tactics, giving them a benefit of doubt. Now, however, it’s in the open and so reds are a fair game in this regard. It still hinges on Therdpoum’s credibility but, as far as Occam’s Razor principle is concerned – it fits perfectly, far better than any other attempt to justify red actions by “New wave cyber army” – term from the link provided by Hobby.