It is an encouraging time to be living in Thailand.

Most of the world heard about the government shutdown that occurred in the US in October.  Politicians unable to agree on how to allocate the imaginary money for the next budget.

Thailand’s political woes aren’t hitting the international media in the same way, so many people are unaware of what has been transpiring in Thailand for the last few months.

At first, the protests were against granting amnesty to politicians who were accused of corruption.  The country united and the voices were heard.  Amnesty was declined and Thaksin remained exiled.

The protests continued as the people called for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (Thaksin’s sister) to resign from her position.  She is considered to be a puppet leader, with her strings being pulled by her banished brother.  Her response was dissolution of the nation’s parliament and a call for emergency elections in February.

The people were not sated.

They want her gone.  And they want fair and democratic elections.  And they are willing to band together and occupy Bangkok to do it.

I will explain why I said that it is an encouraging time to live here. 

Thailand is a country where you feel that there is a general sense of, not necessarily contentment, but acceptance of the government and the way things are run.  Almost as if everyone is half asleep.  It is a bureaucracy.  “Why are we doing this?”  “Because we were told to do it.”  And that’s the way things go.  There is not a whole lot of free-thinking happening.

When the protests first began, I honestly expected things to fizzle out after a week.  But the people have rallied.  They have remained steadfast in their goal.  They have attained small victories through peaceful protest.  That’s right, peaceful.  They haven’t escalated.  The protests haven’t turned into mob riots where thousands are trampled and everyone is blind with rage.  There have only been a few of instances of violence (mostly initiated by the authorities), with less than 10 deaths and less than 500 injuries to date.

The people continue to gather.  Some are even being flown to Bangkok from other areas to join in.  Monday was the first day of the month-long “Bangkok shutdown”.  An organized occupation of key government areas and major intersections in the capital city.  There are even still demonstrations occurring in other provinces to show solidarity.  I personally did not have school on Monday because most of the students were in Songkhla showing their support and even some of the teachers went to Bangkok to join the cause.

The Thai people are rising up and demanding to be heard.  They have had enough of corruption.  They have had enough of elections for appearance’s sake with purchased votes.  They want their “people’s council”.

They are standing up and being counted; being heard; making a difference.