The RED SHIRT Crisis in Bangkok!

[deepthroat]

A few more photos from the rally...

[deepthroat]

...and one final shot

[SamplerDoc]

Great Pics
Whats with the yellow fence tho?

[Torurot]

part of the yellow brick road  

[thegame925]

Rural Thais take on the urban elite
By Tim Johnston in Pracha Suksan, Thailand

Published: February 23 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2010 02:00

Pracha Suksan, a sleepy village strung out along a pitted road deep in Thailand's north-east, is an unlikely battleground for the country's soul but the people of this community and thousands like it are changing the shape of Thai democracy.

Among those who tend the rice paddies and rubber plantations there is a growing belief that their democratic rights have been hijacked by an unelected elite based in Bangkok and they are angry.

"The elite groups don't understand democracy, where every vote is equal," says Sithasak Srisongbat, a cattle farmer, as he sips tea in the dusk.

Preecha Nakhawong, also a farmer, chimes in: "They don't want to give us the same standards because, as it stands, it is easy for them to control us."

Tens of thousands of protesters, many from the north-east, are preparing to take to the streets of Bangkok to demand the resignation of the Democrat party-led government of Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The north-east is the stronghold of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who was removed in a 2006 military coup. Supporters of the telecoms tycoon allege that a coterie of businessmen and bureaucrats backed the army in the overthrow and accuse the same group of engineering the parliamentary vote that put Mr Abhisit into office as prime minister.

Discontent among Mr Thaksin's supporters has been bubbling for months. In April last year, it reached boiling point when red-shirted protesters surrounded the prime minister's office and troops took to the streets.

Further trouble is expected on Friday. The Supreme Court is due to rule on a request by prosecutors to confiscate Bt76bn ($2.3bn, ‚¬1.68bn, £1.48bn)belonging to Mr Thaksin that was frozen after his removal.

Mr Thaksin has called for his supporters to take to the streets once more next week.

The temperature went up a notch this month when an unexploded bomb was found outside the Supreme Court building in Bangkok, and a grenade exploded at a nearby technical college, damaging some cars. Police have not established responsibility.

Mr Thaksin is in exile, avoiding a two-year jail sentence imposed in absentia for breaking conflict of interest laws. He remains hugely popular in places such as Pracha Suksan in the province of Sakon Nakhon because he brought improved access to education, credit and cheap healthcare.

"This cost me Bt30," says Sayan Chanakiatpaisarn, a businessman, unbuttoning his red T-shirt to bare the puckered scar of heart bypass surgery.

The opposition has set up "red shirt schools" that it says educate ordinary people on their rights. They have gained traction with a potent message, framing the debate in terms of democracy versus an unaccountable elite that has suborned the courts and usurped democracy.

"The elections gave a mandate to the people we wanted and they robbed it from us," says Mr Sayan.

A series of regional antigovernment demonstrations in recent weeks, one of which attracted as many as 100,000 people, is to culminate in what the opposition says will be a million-strong march in central Bangkok, although political analysts say they will be lucky to get half that number.

In the capital, staff at Bangkok Bank were sent home after thousands of red-shirt protesters gathered to accuse the country's largest lender of funding a golf course that encroached on a national park. They alleged that the development was allowed to proceed because it was backed by the ruling elite.

As the assets verdict draws closer, Bangkok - not short of conspiracy theories at the best of times - has been especially thick with rumours: of a military coup or violent provocations on the streets. Analysts say that if the conflictdegenerates into chaos, the military, which has launched 18 coups in the past 78 years, might step in again.

The government says it will set up 200 checkpoints across the city and mobilise thousands of police on Friday. It is also considering invoking the Internal Security Act, which curbs the rights of free speech and association and clears the way for the deployment of troops.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn university in Bangkok, says: "I don't see a showdown that will resolve things once and for all. As long as the pro-Abhisit coalition - the army, the palace, the judiciary, the bureaucracy - stays together, there is nothing the red shirts can do to change the government."

The villagers of Pracha Suksan say the red shirt movement is outgrowing its need for Mr Thaksin and his billions and that whatever the ruling on Friday, they will continue to fight for change.

Mr Sayan says his group receives little funding from outside Sakon Nakhon. He says he swapped his Mercedes-Benz for a pick-up truck to raise funds to continue the fight.

"This is not just about politics; this is about justice," says Mr Sayan before an enlarged photograph of himself with Mr Thaksin in his office.

Slideshow at www.ft.com/thailand
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.

Thailand€™s great political divide
By Tim Johnston, Bangkok correspondent

Published: February 22 2010 17:20 | Last updated: February 22 2010 17:20

The village of Pracha Suksan, deep in Thailand€™s rural north-east, remains solidly behind Thaksin Shinawatra, the controversial prime minister who was removed in a military coup in 2006.

Tension between the government and Mr Thaksin€™s supporters, known for their trademark red shirts, has been growing as the Supreme Court prepares to hand down a verdict on February 26 that could strip Mr Thaksin of Bt76bn ($2.3bn) in assets.

Some 30m of Thailand's 65m people live in the rural northeast, a hard-scrabble region of rice farms and cattle plots. A group gathers in front of the village shop in Pracha Suksan to talk politics and drink tea in the dusk. Preecha Nakhawong, 56, farms cattle. He believes that the courts and the bureaucracy favour the rich. €œThey don€™t want to give us the same standards because, as it stands, it is easy for them to control us,€ he says.


Mr Thaksin's opponents say that he bought the votes that got him into power, but Sayan Chanakiatpaisarn, a local businessman, denies that he has received anything but basic expenses from the group's Puea Thai party. He says he has swapped his Mercedes Benz for a pick up to fund the political cause, and likes to unbutton his T-shirt to show the scar of the heart-bypass surgery that cost him Bt30 (less than $1) under Mr Thaksin's cheap healthcare scheme.


Mr Thaksin is currently in self-imposed exile, avoiding a two year sentence for breaching conflict of interest laws while he was in office. He says the charges were politically motivated, and he remains hugely popular in Thailand's rural heartland. €œHe is honest and he is a man of the people,€ said Mr Sayan, who acts as a red shirt organiser in the northern province of Shakorn Nakhorn.


The government used troops to suppress rioting red shirts in April last year. Red shirt officials blamed agents provocateur, but the riots damaged their cause. Pictures such as this travelled round the world, dealing a savage blow to the country's investment potential and crucial tourist sector. The red shirts say they are better organised this time and are working to avoid confrontation.


The red shirts have set up groups in places such as Pracha Suksan to create a more disciplined organisation and to promote the rural poor. Rieungchai Ohnchairat (centre, sitting at table) is a 62-year-old navy veteran who now runs a local community radio station. The red shirts have used local radio stations to promote their political message, and to counter the coverage of national broadcasters, which are overwhelmingly pro-government.


Although political analysts tend to use a shorthand of rich/poor, urban/rural to describe Thailand's political divide, the truth is more complex. Many anti-government protesters are middle class people, who might be put off by Mr Thaksin's demagoguery and the allegations of corruption, but believe that he won a democratic election and should be able to fulfil his mandate. Similarly, the ruling Democrat party always has a strong electoral showing among the rural poor of the country's south.


Mr Thaksin's populist policies including cheap health care, village loans, and streamlined bureaucracy won him the support of a part of society that had been long ignored by Bangkok's politicians. Political analysts quote a saying that "the country elects governments and Bangkok removes them". Analysts say that if there is a general election in the near future, Mr Thaksin's supporters are likely to win, but they warn that powerful forces will resist that happening.


"We think it is possible that the army will try and mount a coup, but we have the determination to stop them," said Jintana Ownchairat, right, 57, a housewife. Since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, there have been 18 coup attempts, 11 of them successful, 18 constitutions and 27 prime ministers. The army has been accused of engineering Mr Abhisit's December 2008 rise to the office of prime minister by persuading a group of erstwhile Thaksin supporters in parliament to change sides.


Sithasak Srisongbat, 57, is a cattle farmer in Pracha Suksan. €œThe elite groups don€™t understand democracy, where every vote is equal,€ he says, and denies the charges that villagers are paid for the votes they cast. €œWe vote for the candidate that we think will be good for us.€


Mr Thaksin's reputation as the CEO-Prime Minister carries a strong appeal in villages such as Pracha Suksan, where they have seen little of the benefits of the past 30 years. One of Sakorn Nakhorn's largest exports is labour: thousands of young villagers leave the area to find work, some travelling as far as Taiwan to work in electronics factories, or Israel to pick fruit.

The red shirts want to bring down the government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister they say was brought to power by unelected elites in Bangkok, but they harbour surprisingly little animosity for the man himself. €œHe€™s a good and capable man, but he can€™t do much because of the people behind him,€ said Preecha Nakhawong, a farmer.

It is business as usual in Thailand
Published: February 23 2010 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2010 02:00

From Mr Kitti Wasinondh.

Sir, With reference to your article €œBangkok braces for disruption ahead of Thaksin ruling€ (FT.com, February 18): despite news reports about the possibility that certain groups of people may seek to instigate disturbances ahead of the much anticipated court ruling on a major case against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on February 26, life and business in Thailand, including Bangkok and other popular tourist destinations, continue as usual.

Kitti Wasinondh,
Ambassador of Thailand to the UK
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.

[Snick]

Anything to keep the tourists away, and keep the hotels (and girls) cheap for me.
Next month I'll release a report about the Ebola outbreak in Phuket.

[manarak]

post 17... the cap with the red star discredits the "reds".
I have no sympathy for that kind of symbols.

[TTChang]

Breaking News via Bangkok Post   Anti-government leaders of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) told the police on Saturday night that they could not ask their supporters to leave Ratchaprasong intersection yet, deputy police chief Panupong Singhrra Na Ayutthaya said.     High-ranking police officials and UDD leaders held talks for about 15 minutes in an attempt to open up one of Bangkok's main business and shopping districts.

The negotiation failed after the red-shirt leaders told the police that they could not relocate the demonstrators as the number was too large, Pol Gen Panupong said.  
He said the police will try to alleviate people's difficulties and another round of talks with the UDD will take place on Sunday.

The Police asked nicely, were told to f*ck off.  They asked if that response was approved by Thaksin the Lesser. When told yes, they said, Ok we will give you another deadline tomorrow.

At which point, short odds on the army getting involved?  Anyone trying to go shopping in Siam Paragon tomorrow?  No, i thought not.   Third World Country .... called 'Shambles'.    

I'm leaving. Even songkran isn't this stupid.  Ok, maybe just stay in Pattaya  

[Snick]

I'm in Pattaya. When the going gets tough,Snick goes to Pattaya.
The reds have now pissed off the undecided in Bangkok. And destroyed the songkran holiday tourist bonanza - and the hotels needed that business.
I think this makes the govt look stronger and the reds like dicks.
hope they all go home before songkran.
TIT

[TTChang]

(Snick @ Apr. 04 2010,10:15) I think this makes the govt look stronger and the reds like dicks.

The reds like dicks? ......  

IMO the Govt / Police / Army look pathetic, just like they did when they had to air lift Asian leaders out of Pattaya last year.  As with the airport occupation, once the protestors are in situ, the onus is on the Authorities to start the physical stuff.   Or just give them another deadline?     They might just have anticipated this one.

LOS Tourism 2010 ......    Thaksin the Bold, representative of Botswana & Cambodia, doing his best for the countries he loves  

[TTChang]

'They' can't let the occupation of the central BKK shopping/hotel/business area go into Monday .....  can they?  Of course TIT.

Sadly hilarious reading the press coverage.  PM says they have negotiated a Red shirts withdrawal.  Red shirts say 'we are not moving anywhere'.  Thaksin the Brave is telling them to stay put.

Latest coverage:-

>>> Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called on the red-shirt protesters to abide by the constitution, leave Ratchaprasong intersection and return to their main protest venue at Phan Fa Bridge.

"Staging a mass demonstration in the middle of the road violates the rights of others and is unlawful," Mr Abhisit said in a live television broadcast on Sunday morning.

He said the government will not use force to disperse the protesters after its peacekeeping operations centre announced that people will not be allowed to converge on Ratchaprasong, one of Bangkok's main business and shopping districts.

The premier said he had assigned the deputy police chiefs to hold talks with core members of the anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in an effort to open up the intersection. <<<

Well that's OK, then ...... or maybe NOT  

[Snick]

They'll probably march on Silom Monday, now that the weekend shopping is destroyed, lets go after the Monday business community.
I'm stoked, more 5 star hotels for 2000 Baht a night for Snick !

[Tomcat]

I went to K3 last night and was told i wold never make it however the road was clear and the taxi turned left as usual but obviously cannot go straight on as the RS have taken that bit over.

Also had to go there today to pick up some tickets from Silom. The taxis have to take another route this time due to congestion down the road.

Forget the Skytrain , i need Oxygen in the normal ppm ratio, only venture on there with some Scuba tanks. bought a ticket and just walked back out after seeing the crowd. At night it seems to be ok though according to the Hotel manager. maybe its ok now after the Saturday mass move in.

[f0xxee]

(manarak @ Feb. 23 2010,18:07) post 17... the cap with the red star discredits the "reds".
I have no sympathy for that kind of symbols.

Hi Manarak,

You and probably also the Vietnamese government.
Those caps are part of Official Vietnam merchandice, along with the red shirt with the gold star being the Vietnamese Flag. I have noticed more and more red shirts in the last two weeks wearing this particular t-shirt.
Uncle Ho must be boogieing in his grave at the thought of his treasured national symbol being usurped by such a corrupt capitalist as Thaksin and his cohorts.

PS: Just back from Udon Thani and all points north, and had some interesting conversations with the grass roots thais about the red shirts. It would appear they are becoming quite the embarrassment, and the local bangkokians are getting really angry with the disruptions.

[Snick]

Keep in mind that the Reds are made of various factions, one of which is 'Red Siam' which is communist.
No idea if those wearing the Red Star are part of that faction, or just think it looks cool.