"Many corpses will be floating in the sea"
About this Quote
The line lands like a threat because it is one, delivered in the blunt arithmetic of state violence: not arrests, not trials, but bodies. “Floating in the sea” is grotesquely visual, a cinematic image that skips over bureaucracy and goes straight to disposal. It’s also strategic vagueness. Corpses have no names, no due process, no paper trail. The sea erases evidence and responsibility, turning political killing into something that can be shrugged off as fate, gang warfare, or “unfortunate chaos.”
Thaksin Shinawatra’s power was built on a populist promise of order and competence, especially after years of elite churn in Bangkok politics. This kind of language fits the strongman script: frighten adversaries, reassure anxious publics, and signal to security forces that the gloves are off. In Southeast Asian political life, where extrajudicial violence has often been an open secret, the shock isn’t only that it’s said; it’s that it’s said so casually, as if the state’s capacity to kill is just another tool in a toolkit.
The subtext is an invitation to complicity. Listeners are forced into a choice: treat it as “tough talk” and accept the implied bargain (safety in exchange for rights), or hear it plainly as a preview of impunity. Either way, the quote performs domination. It doesn’t argue for legitimacy; it replaces legitimacy with fear, turning governance into a message: the government can make people disappear, and it won’t lose sleep - or votes - over the mess.
Thaksin Shinawatra’s power was built on a populist promise of order and competence, especially after years of elite churn in Bangkok politics. This kind of language fits the strongman script: frighten adversaries, reassure anxious publics, and signal to security forces that the gloves are off. In Southeast Asian political life, where extrajudicial violence has often been an open secret, the shock isn’t only that it’s said; it’s that it’s said so casually, as if the state’s capacity to kill is just another tool in a toolkit.
The subtext is an invitation to complicity. Listeners are forced into a choice: treat it as “tough talk” and accept the implied bargain (safety in exchange for rights), or hear it plainly as a preview of impunity. Either way, the quote performs domination. It doesn’t argue for legitimacy; it replaces legitimacy with fear, turning governance into a message: the government can make people disappear, and it won’t lose sleep - or votes - over the mess.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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