I like Jonathan Head a lot, but he may not be completely unbiased when it comes to the yellow shirts. In the lead-up to the 2010 troubles, he was forced to flee Thailand and lay low as the BBC’s Middle East correspondent for a while due to a greatly exaggerated charge of lese majeste based on remarks he made while addressing the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok. (Word was the police didn’t feel the charge could be substantiated, but yellow-shirt leaders were howling for his blood, so the cops advised him that they would have no choice but to launch an investigation as long as he was in the country.)
And as much as I like BBC, they have a poor track record when it comes to analyzing the situation here. Their coverage of the 2010 riots was incredibly poor and uninformed. It was almost like they were reporting on a different country than the one I know.
His quotes from Chris Baker may have been taken out of context too. I don’t believe Baker is any fan of Thaksin. He and his wife Pasuk Phongpaichit, who is an economics professor at Chulalongkorn University, are together the team who have written a regular column for years under the pseudonym Chang Noi. They’ve written quite a few books over the years including on Thaksin.
Thaksin may have only been convicted on one “relatively minor” corruption charge, but that’s very much like saying Al Capone was only ever convicted for tax evasion. And the Al Capone comparison is apt in many, many ways. This is a truly evil man. Unfortunately, this latest round of turmoil courtesy of the yellow shirts is making them look like a bunch of squalling brats, but at least they’re not burning the city down like Thaksin’s people tried to do in 2010.
Oh, and I would add that the yellow shirts have a large support base throughout the South including poor southerners. It’s not just well-off Bangkokians.
**"Mr Chada and the farmers camped out overnight by the roadside in Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya before getting ready to continue their journey to Suvarnabhumi on Friday.
“However, critics pointed out something suspicious about Chada’s protest procession. They noted that it was escorted by about five leading police cars which cleared the traffic on the Asian Highway for Mr Chada’s group. This is highly unusual given the reception other groups of protesting farmers received. They were met either with attempts to block their vehicles, or with tyre-puncturing spikes.”**
The writer speculates the whole thing was a charade designed to lend support to the embattled prime minister. By making her look good? Not sure. But they did all seem to turn around and go home pretty readily. And their numbers seems to have dropped in the telling. I wonder if anyone knows how many there really were.
Meanwhile, I and some comrades will be doing bar inspections tonight to make sure the lasses remain calm amid the current protest tensions. I figure my presence alone will be enough to soothe any fears.
We know a lady who owns and operates a small clothing shop there, although she’s not been selling much lately. Eight months pregnant too. Hope she stays safe.
Oh, and last night gunmen opened fire at the anti-government rally in Trat province, bordering Cambodia on the East Coast. Grenades were thrown there too. One child killed. So it may be heating up outside of Bangkok too.
The Ukrainians are handling this sort of thing much better.
They* arrested* the head guy crossing the border after they voted him out.
This sort of thing in that area usually involves folks being lined up against the wall and automatic weapons.
Perhaps that is why they get more press.
No way. The protests aren’t that widespread, not enough for anyone to “flee the city.” She does work in a secret location now and was in Saraburi province today on some sort of inspection tour and was heckled. Families of some of the dead from last Tuesday have filed murder charges against her and that loudmouthed shit Chalerm, but this has become par for the course for any prime minister.
Another cop died from injuries in last Tuesday’s violence. That brings the death toll for that day to six – two police and four protesters. The overall toll since November 30 is being listed as 19 killed and 717 injured, although I’m not sure if that includes the cop who died today.
Looks like someone fired a grenade at Democrat Party headquarters tonight (Monday night) but missed. Hit the house next door instead. A couple of cars were damaged but no one hurt.
There was a lengthy battle at the rally site by Lumpini Park, at the Silom-Rama IV intersection in the wee hours of this morning (Tuesday morning). Gunfire, grenades. It says “almost 20 grenades” and “more than 18 blasts were heard,” so, hmmm, could that be 19 by any chance? The story in the link also says the attack lasted “three hours,” but the it sounds more like slightly more than two hours. Probably still a lot of confusion. Amazingly, the toll came to only three guards shot but only slightly injured, but that could change too.
A second five-year-old wounded in the Trat attack upcountry died, making two dead five-year-olds there. Why parents would take their children to these rallies is beyond me.
Gunfire and explosions at the Pathum Wan (that’s Siam Square) and Ratchaprasong intersection rally sites for more than two hours last night. But … no one hurt? Not that I’m wanting anyone to be hurt, but it seems amazing that it could happen without injuries. I’m wondering if they’re just trying to scare the participants. And it sounds like all of this may have been heard and not seen.
Curious too is that the story in the link says the BTS had to shut down “for a few hours” but the situation returned to normal about 2am. But first it indicated just a couple of hours, and the BTS – or Skytrain as it’s more commonly known – shuts down at midnight anyway. It doesn’t run between midnight and 6am. So there’s some confusion in these reports.
The latest casualty of the street protests is … Eric Clapton. Slowhand was scheduled to play next Sunday but just canceled due to the political situation. Wimpy bastard. First, Bangkok is still safe overall. Second, the venue is a big stadium in the suburb of Muang Thong Thani, outside the city to the north (we lived out there for seven years). Glad I didn’t buy tickets. Avril Lavigne played in the same venue earlier this month and emerged unscathed. This is also where the K-Pop group Girls’ Generation played.
And Bruno Mars is scheduled to appear there next month too, same venue, Impact Arena at Muang Thong Thani, March 20. I hear he’s long been sold out. Hope he doesn’t cancel even if I don’t have tickets.
And I see this marks the first time that government agencies have been targeted. I’ve always heard it’s not difficult to obtain war weapons in Thailand if you really want them. Wonder if this is the start of a more serious escalation of violence on both sides.
