Polls must be free and fair
Barely 10 days into a seven-week election campaign and there is already the danger that extremists aim to torpedo the polls or skew the July 3 election results. Groups of red shirts have already attempted to intimidate Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Yet another offshoot of the yellow shirts has targeted all candidates who are friendly to the red shirts. These unfair and disruptive tactics come after two political shootings, one fatal, and police warnings that hitmen are likely to strike again.
A small round of applause, then, for Natthawut Saikua. The controversial red shirt core leader is hardly famous for his temperate and careful approach to politics. He is one of the more outspoken of all the top leaders of the group. He has been charged with terrorism for his actions during the 2010 violence in Bangkok, and with lese majeste during last month's speeches at a rally by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).
He raised a few eyebrows last week with an appeal to the entire red shirt movement. Stop stalking the prime minister, he told his allies. Everyone should be calm and obey the law - the actual law, and laws of common decency. Mr Natthawut deserves support for this appeal. But he deserves only small thanks - for doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons. He told UDD chairwoman Thida Thavornseth that she should urge supporters to stay away from Mr Abhisit in case they might be arrested and accused of obstructing the election.
The reason the red shirts should stop shadowing Mr Abhisit is the same reason that all groups should stop harassing politicians campaigning around the country. That is because it is indefensible. The place for the red shirts to oppose Mr Abhisit is on their own campaign platforms. The prime minister and every candidate for office has a right - even a duty - to campaign around the country to provide voters with the information they need to vote properly.
It is probably a vain hope that a prominent yellow shirt leader will make a similar appeal to the rather unpleasant "anonymous warriors" who are stalking Pheu Thai candidates. A former army captain who once trained the security guards of the People's Alliance for Democracy, says he hopes to be able to challenge every elected Pheu Thai MP after the July 3 election.
By shadowing their movements on the campaign trail, Capt Songklod Chuenchuphol claims he will have enough political ammunition to disqualify the elected MPs with scads of claimed election law violations.
Just like the red shirts attempting to shout down Mr Abhisit, the self-styled warriors hope to turn the campaign into an unfair election that favours their own desired outcome. This is no way to run an election campaign.
Shouting down candidates or tying them up with niggling or nonsensical legal charges flies in the face of democracy.
In the United States, such tactics are known as political "dirty tricks". As former premier Anand Panyarachun said, "You have to have fairness" for democracy to flourish. Harassing the prime minister and shouting down candidates making election speeches is not the road to a peaceful future. It is the opposite of a free, fair and democratic election.
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