Weblog for Andrew Biggs

Whose side am I on?

Posted in Daily Diary by Andrew Biggs on the September 5th, 2008

“Whose side are you on?” the taxi driver asked me last night.

It was 9.30 pm. I had just finished teaching and I was tired. As we drove down Sukhumvit Road, the taxi driver asked me the question. At first I didn’t understand.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Whose side are you on — the government’s or the PAD’s?” (The PAD is the People’s Alliance for Democracy or the ??�????????????????????????????????????)

“Why do I have to be on one side? Can I be in the middle?”

The taxi driver looked a little threatening. “Because if you don’t take a side, you are nothing.”

“I see,” I said, looking out the window, and wondering to myself: “Should I get out here, and find another taxi driver who won’t threaten me like this?”

“Well, I’m a farang,” I said. “I don’t get involved with Thai politics.”

“Yes you do,” he said. “I have seen you talking about Thai politics on TV. So who do you support — Samak or Sonthi?”

I was sick of this guy by this stage. “Listen to me,” I said nicely but firmly. “Why do you want Thailand split in two? Whatever happened to consensus, to talking things out, to finding solutions instead of dividing the country in two? Is that what you want with the country?”

“The PAD should be jailed,” he said. Ah, so now I knew (as if I didn’t know before) which side he was on.

“So? Whose side are you on?” Mr Belligerent Taxi Driver asked me again.

“I’m on the side of His Majesty the King,” I answered.

That, of course, confused him. But even better — it shut him up.

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Whose side am I on?