Red shirts crank up tension for latest anti-govt rally

No government in the world can allow a state of lawlessness to go on indefinitely. The line must be drawn somewhere - and the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration is sending out a clear signal to curb the abuse designed to advance vested interests under the pretext |of pushing democratic principles.

For the planned red-shirt rally on Sunday at the Royal Plaza, the government will use the Internal Security Act to handle the mob.

Reading between the lines, sol-diers will take the lead role in peace-keeping. Police will play a supporting role to the military, instead of the other way around.

One of the dire consequences of political turbulence is a police service high polarised by the red vs yellow rivalry. During yellow-shirt protests, ineffectual police crowd control led to the botched anti-riot operation and much bloodshed on October 7.

When the red shirts took to the streets in April to vent their anger at the Abhisit government, police put on a show of trying to rein in the mob when pro-red officers were in cahoots with rally organisers. That led to the collapse of the Asean Summit and the Songkran mayhem in Bangkok.

A month earlier, Chiang Mai police stood idle while red shirts blockaded the main police station. Police from Lampang had to be mobilised to disperse the mob.

Police oscillated between two rival camps and - based on their track record - lost the public's trust in effective crowd control.

Lawlessness, if allowed to per-sist, will encourage unruly crowds; and vengeance will plunge politics into a bottomless pit.

The red shirts may voice noble words on democratic principles. But serious doubts linger about their motives.

They were acquiescent when the pro-Thaksin camp won the 2007 general election, then suddenly cried foul about injustice, pseudo democracy and a flawed political system when the Democrats out-witted the Pheu Thai-led coalition to grab |power.

Ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra came out to declare himself the true leader of the main opposition party and has done everything in his power to fuel the red shirts in a bitter campaign aimed at undermining the Privy Council, particularly its president General Prem Tinsulanonda.

They are scheduled to dress in black tomorrow under the pretext of condemning the yellow-shirt seizure of Government House - a campaign timed to coincide with Prem's birthday rather than the actual date of the seizure.

Are they snubbing just Prem? Or are they attacking him as a decoy for a larger scheme?

The red shirts, especially those linked to the October 6, 1976 stu-dent movement, appear critical of the monarchy's role in the demo-cratic process.

In the United Kingdom, republi-can vs royalist arguments have been raging since the 17th century.

But the debate in Thailand has taken a strange turn. Communist sympathisers are adopting the cloak of democracy to invoke a class-struggle theory to smear the monarchy. It is quite a paradox to advance democracy by using communist ideology as a looking glass. Yet the red shirts seem to have no qualms about it.

On top of their questionable ide-ological stand, the red shirts have suspiciously timed their protests as if they wanted to prod the mili-tary and provoke an uprising.

Rally organisers "insist" on mobs remaining peaceful. But they will march to Government House. Is a new blockade in the offing?

Behind the scenes, the red shirts are reportedly working hard to sow dissension within the military.

If the red shirts have their way and politicise the military, then the country may be heading toward a meltdown since there will be no vestige of authority left to draw the line and curb street protests.