Thaksin: judge, jury, executioner.....

Thaksin did not personally carry out the 2,500+ extrajudicial killings of his three month "War On Drugs."

Rather, he inspired other people to do the killing for him, employing an array of inspiring metaphors and some quite colourful language in the process.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned the immortal lines "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" in her Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850).

"How do I kill thee? Let me count the ways" appears to have been on the minds of Thaksin and his cronies as they cooked up and justified the death lists of 2003.

1. Beheading was first on the list to inspire killers:

In our war on drugs, the district chiefs are the knights and provincial governors the commanders. If the knights see the enemies but do not shoot them, they can be beheaded by their commanders. (Bangkok Post, 25-01-03; PB161).

"They [provincial governors] should check out history books about what King Naresuan did to his generals who failed to keep up with him on the battleground during his great fight against the prince of Burma" (Nation, 11-12-03, PB161). [Implication: Naresuan beheaded them]

2. Victims were animals not humans the lyrics of songs to support the mass killing suggested. Murder victims would just be considered ants and then murder would be ok:

"One thousand deaths of bad men is like one dead ant ... Bad men must not have land to live" (Nation, 15 May 2003; PB166). 

A famous Buddhist monk from Isan, Pho Khun Parisuttho, suggested that mosquitoes were a more fruitful analogy:

"The sin from killing a ya ba trader is the same from killing one mosquito, Nothing to be afraid of" (MR, 30-09-03, PB166)

Buddhist monks also refused to perform funeral rights for the deceased (Matichon 2003d cited in Connors, 2010, 14)

3. "Death Angel" and a "Shortcut to Hell" were more than mere metaphors in another TRT campaign:

"Our target is to send 1,000 traffickers to hell this year, to join some 350 before them... We have employed legal means, political science and even Buddhism, but the [drug] problem seems to be getting worse. Now it is time to rely on [the] Death Angel. Of course, it is a legally delicate means, but it is the path we have to take to bring peace back to society ... This year we expect at least 1,000 traffickers to to travel to hell." (Nation, 25-07-01; PB163).

4. Human sacrifice provided another inspiring metaphor for killing:

"An offering to the War On Drugs: 352 corpses" (Connors, 2010, 14)

5. In the brave new world of Thaksin-land "population control" could also inspire...

"...a plan to shorten the lives of drug dealers... a normal person lives for 80 years. But a bad person should not live that long" (Bangkok Post, 25-01-003, PB164)

6. There is also the metaphor, or rather simile given Thaksin's power over life and death, of Thaksin as God:

"It [murder] is not an unusual fate for wicked people. The public should not be alarmed by their deaths" (Nation 27 February 2003; PB164).

7. Although the Lord Buddha was pretty explicit about how grave an affair it was to take the life of any living creature, Thainess was also invoked. When foreign observers and the UN objected to the mass bloodshed, Thaksin lashed out that them:

"The UN is not my father...We are an independent country. We do not need to give our independence away to others...do away with the thinking of foreigners" (Nation 13-0203; Bangkok Post 2702-03; PB164). 

More rhetorical flourishes are bound to appear as the archives of the mass killings of 2003 are sifted through for evidence, damning evidence.

References

Connors, Michael K. (2009)  "Ambivalent about rights: 'Accidental' killing machines, democracy and coups d'etat," Southeast Asia Research Centre Working Paper Series, No. 102, City University of Hong Kong [URL: http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/searc/Data/FileUpload/296/WP102_09_MConnors.pdf]

Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker (2004) Thaksin: The business of politics in Thailand, Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books