By Ricefield Radio,

Something that bothers me about the current political situation is how quickly the Government and CRES have decided to paint everyone that does not agree with them as terrorists. This is very evident with the Reds and it looks like they are going to also hang the moniker on the Yellows as well.  

I don’t want to get into an argument about which group, if any, are actually terrorists.  What I do want to talk about is the way the term is not used in the South but the term insurgents instead.  With almost daily bombings, killings and shootings in the far South aimed at the military, teachers and the general population why are these people not referred to as terrorists?

In the dictionary the word terrorist is described as “somebody who uses violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, to intimidate others – often for political purposes … the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion”. Isn’t that what has been going on in the South for years, rather than the last couple in Bangkok?

Insurgent on the other hand is, “a person who revolts against civil authority or an established government; especially: a rebel not recognized as a belligerent”.

To me the terms are not interchangeable but should be reversed.   In that, I mean the Reds and Yellows are more akin to insurgency, given the dictionary meaning, than terrorism. Those in the far South are using terrorism to move their agenda forward, not that we really know what that final agenda is meant to be and should be called Terrorists rather than insurgents.

While one can argue, and I have, that the Yellows could be charged with terrorism because of the Montreal Protocol on International Airport Safety, should they be charged with terrorism? Probably not.  The same argument can be made for the Reds.  They have been charged under a law that was written to deal with the violent situation in the far South and never meant to be used against a bunch of protesters, peaceful or not.

So if the Yellows or the Reds take up arms and embark on a campaign of bombings, kidnappings and assassinations will the government automatically make them insurgents, thus dropping the Terrorist badge? Not likely. The Government and their backers feel a threat from both these groups not because of any national security mumbo jumbo but because one can seriously erode their voter base and the other is still likely to poll the most MPs in the next election. The government and their backers feel threatened by a true Democracy, their possible loss of power, they fear the unknown and they feel the need to control the voice of all dissenters.