Posted on 05/16/2010 8:46:03 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
It is obvious that something frightening has overcome the city of Bangkok. Even before daylight, during the midnight drive from the international airport, few taxi drivers can be persuaded to go into the centre, and the normally busy road on which my hotel stands is dark and silent.
Towering barricades of rubber tyres topped with forests of bamboo staves block either end of the street. The hotel receptionist warns us to keep the curtains tightly drawn all night for fear of snipers lurking on the roofs of surrounding buildings.
From the heights of the hotel you look down upon a city within a city — the improvised fortress that the anti-government Red Shirt protesters have built in the commercial centre of one of South-East Asia’s richest capitals.
For weeks they have occupied this district, which contains the most expensive property in Thailand, but over the weekend they have come under siege.
At least 33 people have been killed and more than 200 injured since Friday in bitter, ragged skirmishes between Red Shirts and the Thai Army. Columns of choking black smoke mark where the Red Shirts have lit bonfires of tyres to mark the territory that they still occupy, but which is steadily and patiently being eaten into.
Yesterday the Government of the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, indignantly rejected a proposal by Red Shirt leaders for negotiations mediated by the United Nations. “As for the call of UN interference, no governments allow any organisations to intervene in their internal affairs,” Panitan Wattanayagorn, the government spokesman, said after a state of emergency was declared in five more of Thailand’s provinces.
People talk of an incipient “civil war” in Thailand, but if so it is a war in which only one side is armed.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I don’t think we are getting a true story from whats happening over there.
Who are the bad guys?
My sentiments are with the government. The name “Red Shirts” does not inspire warm feelings. I cannot think of a legitimate group with “red” in its name.
I read the entire article...still haven’t a clue what it is all about.
There was a military coup...and it seems the Red Shirts are calling for elections...beyond that???
I’m not ready to flat out say, I can only go on my instincts and the reporting of the BBC, which points to the “red shirts” as representing the “poor.”
Heck, that reminds me of the “red shirts” of Venezuela and their “leader” who are cited by the BBC as having support among the “poor” of that country.
On Friday, a BBC reporter caught up with a British guy who was on the streets of Bangkok assisting the red shirts. Wonder if that guy is some sort of anarchist????
The former Prime Minister Thaksin (red shirt leader) as I understand it is holed up in the Persian Gulf region. Considering that there is a large Muslim minority population, is Thaksin getting Islamic dollars to help his cause of trying to return to power?
Is China somehow involved in trying to destabilize Thailand or perhaps neigboring Burma (Myanmar) whose military government is backed by China?
Mother-in-law Flash and Mrs. Flash are in daily contact with the folks back home in the Sathorn District, about 1.5 miles from Sala Daeng intersection — the southern end of the conflict zone — and they are not exactly shaking in their boots. Bangkok has about 10 million people, and a huge land area. This conflict is all taking place in about 1% of it. “Bangkok as Sarajevo” is absolute horse pucky.
Great photo, though.
to anyone who is interested in this scenario as it plays out: head over to facebook and follow michael yon’s reporting from in the thick of this confrontation. he is staying in a hotel right on the front lines. up to the second reporting as he posts the latest gunfire, grenade impacts, everything in almost real time...
I dunno. I would bet the government is the bad guy but I am not sure the Red Shirts are good guys.
It is entirely possible that both sides are bad.
If I understand it correctly (my girlfriend is from there) Thaksin supporters (red shirts) are fighting the governmemt- the soldiers are reluctant to take action against the people, but the Thaksin supporters are pushing for free handouts from the government
Thats right folks, the nice loving liberals are willing to kill to get their freebies, as usual.
Thaksin has promies the people freebies and they want them
The Red Shirts are commies maybe?
Like in Greece? or in Venezuela where Hugo fans wear red?
Your perception is correct.
yitbos
Very accurate and timely analysis. This breaks our hearts.
Start with 1997. There was a new constitution. I remember when it came in, because the day before it came in we could get the cops to sign their own search warrants, after it came in, you needed a judge.
Prior to 1997 every Prime Minister Thailand had came from the military. Some were “rightist”, some center to center leftists, but all were from the military.
Politics before 1997, and after, was for the most part non-ideological. Factions were based on who was friends with whom, and who could scratch whose back.
After 1997 you had a few prime ministers who did not come from the military, such as Chuan Leekpai, whose father in law I used to know very well, and some who were from the military, like Gen. Chavalit.
Around about 2000 or so, there was a new face — Thaksin Shinawatra, pronounce “Jeenawat”, who had risen from the police ranks, and then made a fortune in the cell phone business, then went into politics. He was an outsider, an upstart. Thaksin was a populist. He promised a lot of give-aways to the poor. He got lots and lots of votes. He then got re-elected, IIRC. He also undertook a big crackdown on drug dealing, and was not averse to extrajudicial killing, not that most prior Prime Ministers had big problems with them. The “elites”, and also the growing Thai middle class thought he was getting too powerful, and too much like a demagogue, perhaps.
For various reasons I cannot recall right now, the group out of power decided they needed to have a coup aginst the democratically elected Thaksin. The Army did its usualy function, but then got kind of p.o’d because it meant the Army was now charged with governing.
Then there was an election, and Thaksin’s hand-picked replacement won handily, but then the anti-Thaksin forces enlisted a compliant judiciary to forced him out on a technicality. Then there was another Thaksin-friendly PM also forced out on a technicality — he had “outside income” — a couple of thousand dollars for being on a cooking show.
So in other words, Thaksin and his allies keeps winning elections, and they keep getting bounced out of power by the losers.
Meanwhile Thaksin has been convicted of corruption and had much of his fortune taken. Some point to the claim he is corrupt to justify the action taken against him, but the reality is nearly EVERY politician in Thailand is corrupt. If you turned the microscope around on the accusers, you’d find the same amount of dirt.
Meanwhile Thaksin was in exile, and did some quite nasty stuff like going to Cambodia and getting chummy with Hun Sen, at a time when Thai-Cambodian relations were already frayed.
Is Thaksin the Thai Huey Long? Pretty much yes. Was Thaksin leading Thailand in a reasonable direction? NO, in my opinion. Leaving aside the fact that the current rulers have grabbed power away from democratically-elected Thaksin and his stand-ins THREE times now, do the current rulers have a more rational and reasonable agenda? Yes, although they will make damned sure they do well by doing good.
But let’s not kid ourselves that Abhisit & Co. are on the side of democracy. At least not the kind where everyone’s vote counts the same.
Wasn't he fairly soft on a growing muslim insurgency (headchopping and all) in the south?
It sounds like there isn't really a clear cut good guy and/or bad guy, which is why some of us are having a hard time getting a handle on who to root for.
The exiled party sounds socialist/populist, but legitimately elected...however corrupt. The party currently in power, by way of a coup, while still corrupt, is actually more moderate, less prone to buy votes, which has got the Red Shirts (exiled party) pissed because they were expecting some government pay-offs.
Is that about right?
The problem sounds more systemic...what is the solution? Amendments to the constitution?
At least I’m not alone in not knowing what’s going on :-)
I would tend towards marking the Red Shirts as the bad guys too though, if so, I have no idea if they are in cahoots with the Islamofascists that ARE the bad guys and have been attacking Thailand for awhile now.
Somebody on one of these threads a while back said the govt was the bad guy.
Thanks, Flash. I think :-)
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