Having tasted freedom, Hong Kong will never settle for a fake democracy
Robert Boxwell says even if the streets are cleared of protesters, their fight for the vote will persist
I was in Bangkok in May 1992, staying a few miles from where 100,000 Thais had converged to protest at the appointment of Suchinda Kraprayoon as prime minister. Suchinda was one of the generals who led a coup in 1991 to oust a government that the military complained was filled with corrupt politicians - "unusually rich" was the Thai term for them.
In March 1992, fresh elections were held, ostensibly to give a clean government back to the people. But a coalition of military-friendly parties "invited" Suchinda to be prime minister, though he hadn't been elected and had promised to stay out of politics. With tears in his eyes, he said he would make a "sacrifice" and take the job. Two weeks later, he named his cabinet. Eleven of the "unusually rich" politicians were in it.
The machinations brought crowds onto Bangkok's streets. Thais knew a fake democracy when they saw one.
Finding myself with a free afternoon, I asked the transport desk for a car to take me to see the demonstration. As my middle-aged, uniformed, English-speaking driver and I approached and took in the magnitude of the crowd, the driver became excited. He suggested walking around with me.
He left his jacket in the car and we walked towards the edge of the mass, approaching a group of young people milling about, mostly seeming to enjoy themselves. We struck up conversations and they talked to us about why they were there. We stayed about an hour.
On the ride back, the driver was animated. Wading into that mass of Thai people, he said, had been one of the most exciting things he had ever done. This made me happy, like I had done my small piece for democracy. People who live free have a funny habit of thinking like that.
About a week later, just after dawn, Thai soldiers opened fire to disperse the crowd, which had grown increasingly restless after a month on the streets. They killed dozens of their fellow Thais, wounded hundreds more, and broke the hearts of the rest of Thailand's 60 million citizens.