[ by Charles Cameron — catching up on Thailand ]
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Michael Yon calls it “possibly the largest or one of the largest peaceful uprisings in history”. As Zenpundit readers know, it’s the religious side of things I am most interested in, but “peaceful uprisings” also catches my attention.

The peaceful uprising in question is that of the Whistleblowers in Thailand — a loose assortment of groups protesting government corruption, whose November 2013 protests derailed an amnesty bill that would have allowed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra to return from exile with immunity from prosecution.

According to Yon’s text, and as partially illustrated in the above DoubleQuote built from two of his own images, Whistleblowers and their supporters include “Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs”.

And given that Thailand is officially a Buddhist country and the CIA World Factbook gives its population as 93.6% Buddhist, Buddhists can no doubt be found in many groups — but Yon specifically cites two Buddhist groups among the six or seven he lists as associated with the larger Whistleblower movement:

Buddha Issara group: non-violent (guards repel attacks in self-defense)

Dhamma Army (Santi Asoke): non-violent.

The monk in the upper panel is Dhamma Army leader Pra Phothi Rak.

**

Let me return to that opening quote of Yon’s. Here it is in context:

One of the great untold stories of this uprising is that it must be one of the largest peaceful uprisings that the world has ever seen, yet it has been poorly covered by mainstream media. The lack of violence from millions of Whistleblowers is one probable explanation.

Michael Yon has done his share of war reporting, as evidenced for instance in his book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, so it’s a pleasure to see him reminding us of those working for change by peaceful means. What’s not so great is the general media concept that if it bleeds, it leads. The result, in Michael’s words?

Practically no conventional media corporation would afford to dedicate high-end journalists full-time to a subject that garners little readership. We saw the same in Afghanistan. Quality costs money. The money is not there. So we get garbage in and garbage out.

Hence Michael’s mission — to bring us the under-reported news.

**

Recommended reading:

Are Thai Protestors Violent?

Whistleblowers: a Meta-Organization

Anatomy of Current Thai Protests

Michael is a former Green Beret reporting in depth from conflict zones around the world. You can follow his work by signing up for his mailing list. It is funded by donation.