An interesting piece in The Economist about the possibility of the North and Northeast breaking away from Bangkok, which the red shirts consider lost. Personally, I don’t see it happening.
I think I had better do an inspection tour of the bars tonight. Make sure the lasses aren’t panicking or anything.
Things are kicking off, protest leader shot dead in daylight red shirts attack outside polling station:
Just keeps spiraling down. I still don’t think these guys would try to burn down Bangkok like the red shirts did in 2010 though. But maybe this red-shirt government might just to get rid of the protesters!
I did check out the bars last night, and business is visibly down. This is supposed to be their high season, filled with tourists escaping colder climes, but while it’s quite slow now for this time of year even if it’s not completely dead. And the girls are all complaining about their drop in income.
I was sitting at Lucky Luke’s beer bar at the entrance to the Nana Plaza red-light complex early on, watching the people pass by, and saw some of the girls arriving for work had apparently come straight from the rallies. They were wearing all the standard rally gear – national-flag ribbons, whistles, those funny little headbands with pointy ears or bows sticking up. Nana Plaza is close to the rallies at the Ratchaprasong and the Asok intersections. Since it was still illegal to sell alcohol due to the elections, the bars were falling back on that old standby of serving the beer in opaque glasses and even coffee cups and pretending it was just Coke or coffee.
Queen’s Park on Soi 22 did seem dead, but that’s more of a local scene and it was a Sunday night. It often is dead anyway. (I used to wonder how the girls there could make enough to live on, but then I learned a good number of them are “kept” by farang or Japanese boyfriends but still go work for more money when their honeys are back home.) Still, there are quite a few hotels up that street, and I didn’t see as many tourists walking around. Queen’s Park was selling beer openly, but I heard it had been closed the night before. (Alcohol sales are typically banned from 6pm the day before an election. Open sales are usually allowed to start again anywhere from 7-10pm after an election, depending on how much of a hard-ass the local police district wants to be.)
Soi Cowboy is literally a stone’s throw from the Asok-intersection rally, and although the customers who were there seemed determined to be rowdy enough to make up for their small numbers, business was really down. I thought something was on fire at first, as some sort of smoke was hanging in the air, but I think it was just generated from the rally lights and other activity at the intersection. The rally was packed. But at 2am this morning, it was completely deserted! The barricades were still up, the intersection was still closed to traffic, but not a protester in sight! I’m sure if I’d tried anything like dismantling the barricades, someone would have appeared.
Walking back up Sukhumvit Road in the direction of Nana Plaza, there was a noticeable drop in streetwalkers – except for the ladyboy streetwalkers, whom I doubt anything would faze. If anything, there seemed to be even more ladyboy streetwalkers. A noticeable drop in the African streetwalkers though. Passing by the Soi 7/1 red-light street, it sounded like it was still going strong but I was too tired by then to check it out closely. Just grabbed my usual late-night steak-and-cheese sandwich from Subway and came home soon after.
Didn’t get a chance to take a look at Patpong, but I hear it’s been the least affected by the “shutdown” despite Silom Road being closed.
So in general, the protests are bad for business in the bars and among the bargirls and streetwalkers.
The Election Commission wants next Sunday’s polls delayed six months. They’re meeting with the government tomorrow (Tuesday) about this. We’ll see what happens.
Labor Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who is also director of the ad-hoc Center for Maintaining Peace and Order, is vowing to dispatch raiders to start rounding up protesters besieging government offices in 72 hours. He claims it won’t count as a crackdown since no weapons will be used. WTF??!? No weapons. So I guess the protesters will just accompany the police off the premises after being asked nicely.
Chalerm is a real shitbird. He was a deputy prime minister in the present government but got busted down to labor minister as punishment for being a loudmouth. And he is a loudmouth, so much so that even the other loudmouthed politicians notice. He’s the one I mentioned upthread and elsewhere on the Board whose son murdered a cop in cold blood in front of many witnesses in the middle of a packed pub in October 2001 and not only got off scot-free but is now a police officer himself. (So is the son of the murdered cop, he’s a cop now too. I understand the officials have made sure to keep them posted in different places.) In various governments, Chalerm has served in high-level cabinet positions and as deputy prime minister more than once. In fact, at the time of his son’s cold-blooded murder of the cop, Chalerm appeared to be being groomed to become prime minister himself eventually and was demanding a top position in new Prime Minister Thaksin’s government. Word at the time was the murdered cop was under unofficial orders to harass Chalerm’s sons, all three of whose famously short tempers have gotten them in hot water on multiple occasions, so there would be some sort of blowup that would embarrass Chalerm and take the edge off his demands. But no one expected the kid to blow a cop’s head off! The incident was used as an excuse to sideline Chalerm’s ambitions, but it didn’t take him too long to bounce back like a bad case of syphilis.
Chalerm claims to be just an honest police officer. His wife is just an honest judge. Yet somehow they live in a luxury mansion and boast a collection of classic luxury automobiles. Chalerm is even fond of showing off his large collection of expensive bottles of fine wines. If someone’s got to be shot during these troubles, the perps could do worse than target Chalerm, I’ll clue ya.
After talking to the Election Commission today, the government says the poll’s still on for next Sunday. So watch this space.
Just today we had one protester shot and wounded in northern Bangkok and another shot and tortured to death in the north-central part.
The election may be next Sunday, but they figure it will take six months to allow all the blocked voters to get their votes in. Looks like we’re in for a long ride.
Funny how up in arms people get over the few deaths that have occurred during the protests when you think of all the people killed in the latest insurrection in our deep South, among the three Muslim-majority provinces way down the peninsula, and hardly an eyebrow is raised. It’s been going on for 10 years this month. Someone, often if not mostly more than one, gets killed just about every single day, civilians and soldiers alike, whole families, Buddhist monks even. Here’s the latest one.
In fact, the satirical website Not The Nation has pointed this out trenchantly with this piece: Prayuth Urges Thais To Keep Bombings In South Where They Can Be Safely Ignored. It must be emphasized that this is a SATIRICAL website and not real news, sort of a local version of The Onion. It takes it’s name from The Nation newspaper, one of our two English-language dailies. (Whoever is behind the website is a secret, but he’s thought to be an ex-Nation staffer, as he seems to have an unusually close knowledge of that newspaper’s inner workings and upper management.)
So it looks like the election’s on for Sunday. But protest leader Suthep is promising a real Bangkok shutdown that day. Really a real one this time. Really. The whole city brought to a halt, this time for sure. Uh huh.
To confuse matters a bit, Chinese New Year – always a big deal in Bangkok but not an official holiday here – is set for this Friday, and the holiday period will last into next week. So now many of the protesters are wearing red shirts for Chinese New Year. And as mentioned before, many of the red shirts have started wearing white shirts to emphasize their “purity.” At least I saw the “red shirt” Suthep was wearing on TV tonight in a distinctive Chinese style, with Chinese sleeves and tie-buttons and an embroidered dragon on the front.
This election looks like its going to turn into a farce. Theres already lawsuits claiming its invalid because its not held on a single day and apparently even if it goes ahead it will be impossible for parliament to meet as they won’t have a quorum of 95 percent of MP’s.
Seems like a waste of 4 billion baht to me.
Oh, not a complete waste. It’s going into someone’s pocket, trust me.
Wow. Just… wow. Thanks for keeping us posted, Siam Sam. Every time I grow frustrated with partisan gridlock on Capitol Hill, I look at Thailand and feel just a little better.
How much power do the governors of provinces have? I’m guessing not much. Wouldn’t one solution to the cycle here in Thailand be instead of 76 tiny provinces to break Thailand into 10 or so states like Australia has and give more power to each state to set taxation , education polices etc. So Bangkok and the south can have yellow shirt governments and the north would be red, federal government would probably alternate. Seems a better solution than the north seceding which the red shirts are threatening. Is anyone proposing this kind of change ?
Not much outside their provinces. Only the Bangkok governor is elected and even that is relatively new, just within the past few decades or so. The other 76 provinces’ governors – there are 77 total if you include Bangkok – are all appointed by the national government in Bangkok.
Although the Chon Buri governor – that’s where Pattaya is located – is heavily Mafia. The governor there is always a real top Mafia don, or the local equivalent, for the whole Eastern Seaboard.
I don’t see such a plan as you propose working. It would take too many interests out of the hands of too many powerful people who are benefiting from the status quo. I wouldn’t use the words “federal government” too loudly either. Those are fighting words among many. A federal government has been proposed from time to time, with a president instead of a prime minister, but such suggestions are always taken as meaning abolition of the monarchy. There is a national government, but to call it “federal” is just asking for trouble. Best just not to mention it.
Meanwhile, gunfire at rally sites in northern Bangkok today (Saturday). And protesters are marching toward Chinatown (it’s the Chinese New Year season).
Brief overview of today’s violence in northern Bangkok.
The wife plans to vote early tomorrow. Hope she emerges unscathed. I’m surprised she’s voting at all, given her anti-government proclivities and the fact that her beloved Democrats aren’t even on the ballot. There is mandatory voting here, but it’s easy to get out of, just a letter to some authority saying why you couldn’t go. I suspect it’s more my always telling her it’s her duty to vote. And she knows I disapprove of interrupting voters under any circumstances.
Ah, just looked it up. The first election for Bangkok governor was in 1975. Before that, he was appointed by the cabinet, which is how I believe all the other governors of provinces are still selected.
Sam, I also hope she’s safe tomorrow. Personally, I’m staying put in my condo all day tomorrow and am well provisioned in case of any ‘irregularites’ that might make it unwise to venture out for a while.
That sounds like a wise move, whether there’s rioting at the polls or the zombie apocalypse.
A little after 11am here and the wife slept late. She’s about to head out soon and will be back for lunch, assuming she’s not a hostage. The election in many provinces is shut down as well as in some districts of Bangkok, but he streets seem quiet now from what we can tell. Still early though.
Not having made it to Patpong a few nights back, I did an inspection tour last night. Figured it was just my duty. I am pleased to report almost all places were defying the alcohol ban that’s been in force since 6pm last night (Saturday night) due to the election. Poured into paper cups, and everyone pretends it’s soft drinks. One old bartender was getting a bit annoying with her “special iced tea” jokes – “How do you like our ‘special iced tea,’ hahaha.” “Everyone likes our ‘special iced tea,’ hahaha.” “Come back tomorrow night for our ‘special iced tea,’ hahaha.” Yes, yes, I get the joke, “special iced tea,” I get it already.
I asked the taxi driver to take me to Suriwong Road bordering Patpong on one end, Silom Road on the other end being closed by the protesters. I don’t know why he took the route he did, but we got stuck in the side streets off of Silom. So I got out and walked the rest of the short way. Silom really is just a marketplace now, with all sorts of stall set up in the street in addition to the ones already lining the sidewalks.
Just a note to say the wife made it back okay. She cast a “No” vote, which is a “None of the Above” option here. She said it’s pretty quiet. Even though we’re in central Bangkok, our district is a bit obscure and out of the way.
We will be out and about in a little while though.
Well I’m quite amazed and surprised there was no violence today. But still nothings been solved. The opposition will refuse to accept the election results, the government is still in Limbo as they won’t have a quorum to actually call parliament to convene.
I guess it just drags on in the courts for another month or two now?
I’m sure it’ll drag on for longer than that. But the day did go a lot smoother than many people expected. And I hear the opposition and the protest leaders are claiming victory – they didn’t shut the city down, but turnout was very low. I’m not sure how official it is, but I’ve been hearing 20-30% turnout nationwide – in those places where voting wasn’t completely disrupted.
The wife and I wandered around the Silom Road rally today, checking out the stalls in the street. Really is a marketplace now. Looks like this has been a big boon for the T-shirt industry.
The prime minister, who has a well-deserved reputation as an airhead bimbo, screwed up again today by picking the wrong box to drop in her ballot.
What an idjit.