PAD protest: Forgetful Kelly

Kelly

I have resisted writing about this Australian woman for ages. Kelly Newton Wordsworth - her name alone is a mouthful - sings folk songs at the People's Alliance for Democracy rally in Bangkok.

For those unfamiliar with the PAD, let me decode some of the above. For "rally," what I really mean is "illegal occupation of Government House".

For "democracy", I should say that in fact, PAD proposes moving away from the hard won, one-man, one vote version of democracy we have now, in favour of a regime where 70% of politicians would be appointed.

Kelly, who hails from West Australia, is a darling of the PAD. Some gullible Thais believe if a farang supports their cause, it helps lend it credibility. We are just mere Thais, they seem to think - but here's a farang, and even she agrees with us!

That's sad, of course. Even sadder is that people like Kelly know that, and exploit it.

I wonder what Kelly would think if a Thai person showed up in her land and started advocating noisily that Australians should scrap democracy in favour of a system where a group of wise men (in Thailand, they would all be men - sorry, Kelly) get to choose who represents voters.

I suspect she would not like it. I don't think any Australian would like it.

Why should Thais want, or deserve anything less? If Kelly can't answer that question, then she would be well advised to steer clear of Thai politics.

Her website calls Kelly an "internationally renown [sic] singer/songwriter, performer and recording artist". Kelly, who has been playing at PAD protest rallies for a year, is perhaps best known for a song she wrote called the King of Siam.

Ever since I saw the face of this man,

The king of Thailand, The king of Siam

I felt in love with his soul loves this land

It's in his eye, it's in his heart, it's in his hand...

Since then she has written two more songs, Rain Man, and her latest effort, For the People at the PAD, in which she says explicitly that the PAD are protesting for democracy.

Well, if that's democracy, Kelly, what do you have at home?

Here, thousands of people hit the streets as recently as the early 1990s in their fight for it. Some were shot in the process. I suspect Australians like Kelly have had it too good for too long, or they might remember what their own struggle was like.

You can read more about Forgetful Kelly in this piece from the Manager newspaper online (Thai only), which is owned by a PAD co-founder, Sondhi Limthongkul. It has run so many stories about her that I have lost count.

At work, we often have the television going. I have watched Kelly - who describes herself as a "humanitarian" - performing on the PAD stage, in broadcasts run by a television channel also owned by Sondhi. Her songs go on, and on...and on.

Thais in the crowd applaud. But the farang at my office grit their teeth.

Give a girl a translator, and there's no stopping her. When Kelly realises that a Thai on the PAD stage is prepared to translate into Thai her toe-licking utterances in English, she won't shut up. In the clip, she performs with her daughter Tara. "This, my daughter Tara," she says.

Where's the "is" in that sentence? Kelly is afraid Thais won't get it, so she leaves it out.

Freedom-fighter Kelly has also written a song to honour Nelson Mandela. I wonder how Nelson would feel about an electoral system stacked with 70% of appointed flunkies?

I doubt he would call it democracy...unless blacks, too, are unworthy of one man, one vote. What do you say, Kelly?