Recent Bangkok events

[Deleted]

The night curfew has been lifted in Bangkok, but we must remember that the people from the land of smiles get very upset about politics from time to time.

Here is a report about the recent problems: Crackdown in Bangkok

[spindrift]

I am wondering what my ex-Phuket friend will do; whether she'll try and sell her Phuket house and return to safer England. I hear that she has moved into the Evason hotel to escape the troubles.

[Deleted]

Maybe she'll move in with you and you can feed her the same way she fed you.

[spindrift]

;D. I used say to her 'if you need somewhere to live in England please come and stay with me'.....unfortunately she replied that she couldn't stay anywhere that wasn't VERY clean.
Very thoughtless of her.

[hwinpp]

The curfew in Pattaya was lifted a day or two after it was announced. Just goes to show the hippocricy of the current military government.

I see the whole affair from a Cambodian point of view, and everything falls into place.

From the shootings the Thais have been perpetrating and provoking on the border to deflect from their serious domestic problems (it's just Khmen they're shooting after all) to the government's decision to arrest the last democratically elected PM and put him on trial for terrorism, it's all following a red line at the end of which lies the re- empowerment of the army and of the traditional urban elites connected to the royal family.

They've been seeing the respect that they naturally expect from the broad population slipping in the age of the internet and they don't like it.

[curt]

There you have it!

[bixaorellana]

Any updates on this, or is it sort of a status-quo skirmish thing?

I was reading about the independent fact-finding commission . What a bland, muzzled, say-nothing-with-many-words document that is!

This article is from today. Click text to read the whole thing.
BANGKOK, July 13 (Bernama) -- After surviving the 10-week red shirts anti-government protest in May and vote of no confidence last month, the Abhisit administration is currently facing another wave of political uncertainty.

This time, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who led the Democrat Party, the backbone of the current coalition government, will have to face off with the Constitution Court which will decide whether to ban the party and its executives.

Will this have real and immediate impact on the country?

[Deleted]

I read recently that the unrest was expected to flare up again.

Thailand has had very turbulent politics for ages. I wouldn't worry until the king dies (should be soon now).

[curt]

It is all but impossible to get any real information. Any dissenting opinions have been banned under the "state of emergency". All the "news" is well filtered.

Unfortunately, until the pompous "yellows" acknowledge that there is a problem, the "problem" is unlikely to go away.

Case in point:

"Mr Surapong called the charges against him and the other PAD members "absurd".

Mr Surapong said the police action was an attempt by the government to counter claims of double standards made by red shirt leaders during their recent protest and others following the arrest of the group's leaders."

www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/185929/pad-leaders-supporters-face-charges-over-rallies

"... an attempt by the government to counter claims of double standards ..." Isn't that the point?

This bozo claims the difference is that "... the yellow shirt PAD rallies differed completely from the red shirt movement because the alliance had never supported armed militants."

Ahhh... the mysterious "men in black". You know, the one's that shot Seh Daeng. And the ones that occupied the BTS skyway and shot into the temple, on the one single night the army took a break and relinquish their total occupation of the skyway.

The really scary thing is that so many people think "now that sounds reasonable ...."

[Deleted]

Thanks, curt. It's good to know that things are just as confusing and ambiguous to someone on the spot as to those of us 10,000 km away.

Just so long as there is no disruption of the street food!

[bixaorellana]

Don't get me started on the human propensity to believe any crap-spin in their eagerness to return to chewing their cuds.

How is this affecting your daily life, if at all? I'm assuming any online dissenting news presentation is blocked in the country as well as print.

[curt]

News pops up and then some disappears. Website IPs get banned if they show a certain slant.

I don't feel threatened, nor did I during the active protests. Any future trouble will, more than likely, be sporadic and aimed directly at specific targets. The government has succeeded in pushing the dissidents underground.

Daily life is back to normal. One wouldn't know anything had happened. Except...



There are the obligatory "feel the love" campaigns!
There are the "recovery" sales.

Right now, for most people, on both sides, it's wait and see.

[hwinpp]

Good to see you posting, Curt! I get it all filtered through the Khmer media which is slightly 'slanted' in its own way of course.

Here's something from the Wall Street Journal:

Thai 'Reconciliation' by Committee

The Abhisit government turns to the elite to appeal to the masses.

At least 89 people died in May and around 1,800 were wounded in the fight to extend democracy to all Thais, including those living in rural areas. Which makes it more than passing strange that Abhisit Vejjijiva is betting his "national reconciliation" plan on a clutch of wise-men committees based in Bangkok and appointed by the government.

Last week, parliament funded two of these groups: the 19-member National Reform Committee, headed by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, and the 27-member Assembly for National Reform, led by academic and doctor Prawase Wasi. Their mission is to develop a plan to "solve" social inequalities—over a three-year period. Meanwhile, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission is going to take two years to investigate the May killings. Then there's a committee for media reform, and one for police reform.

If this sounds like one big stall, it is. While the committees get off the ground, the army is continuing its crackdown on the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, known as the red-shirt movement. Since May, hundreds of red shirts have been detained under emergency rule. Opposition radio stations and websites have been shut. The government has frozen red-shirt bank accounts.

It is no exaggeration to say that many parts of Thailand, especially in the north and northeastern provinces, now exist in a state of fear. And it is unlikely to stop anytime soon: Last week, the government lifted emergency rule in five provinces but extended it in 18 more, plus the capital city of Bangkok. Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban justified the move by citing "terrorist situations" nationwide.

All of this adds up to a country slipping back toward army-backed, elitist rule, not one moving toward "reconciliation," as Mr. Abhisit professes. Thais aren't looking for grand plans; they want truly representative democracy. It's been almost four years since the military overthrew the democratically elected government of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. Mr. Thaksin's party has since been banned and two subsequent pro-Thaksin leaders were toppled by courts and street protests. Anti-Thaksin protestors weren't prosecuted, yet the army put down the red-shirt supporters with lethal force. Ordinary Thais can be forgiven for thinking the system isn't fair.

Mr. Abhisit already seems to sense that his strategy may be creating more problems than it's solving. On Sunday he called on Thais to give "moral support" to the wise men, whom he characterized as "worried" about their country. So they should be.

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580104575362161255848040.html

[curt]

Looks like wsj.com is trying to get blocked! It, and VOA, have been a couple good sources of real news.

The sad thing is that many Bangkokians think this is all quite fine and dandy. Most believe that "reconciliation" means reconciling those stupid hillbillies into the proper way of thinking! The only "problem" perceived is that people just don't accept their proper place.

[Deleted]

I hope that curt checks in to tell us about the current situation.

[Curt in Cognito]

The current situation is a total cluster dump. The army, ready, willing, and able to massacre civilians during 2010's mess, are keeping "neutral" during this fiasco, even though the violence has far exceeded the events leading to the crackdown back then.

People bent on a coup are committing random acts of violence to try to force the army's intervention. My guess is the the general is working overtime, trying to figure how to shut it down, without showing his true colors.

Unfortunately, whatever the outcome of the current power play, it will continue, and probably get worse.

The king is in poor health. The heir to the throne seems to have different alliances than his father.

Things probably won't get better any time soon.

For some interesting reading, here's a rarely seen, "northern" perspective on the situation:

www.chiangraitimes.com/so-what-is-really-happening-now-in-bangkok.html

[Deleted]

Thanks for the update. This looks quite a bit more serious than previous uprisings if only because the uprisings never seem to go away, which proves that there is something very wrong in the country. I've tried to understand the various groups over the years -- the military, the peasants, the city people, the religious factions and all of those colour-coded shirts that they wear in the demonstrations, and it is really complicated. However, the main complaint that everybody has always seems to be "corruption" and it seem like everybody should be able to find national unity if there was finally a "clean" government -- why on earth is it not possible to find noncorrupt leaders? (Yes, I know that the profession of politics tends to attract the most corrupt elements.)

Meanwhile, the royal question is something that always escapes me, no matter what the country. This is due to the fact that I have always lived in republics and just cannot imagine loyalty to any royal family just because they exist. However, I am very well aware of the veneration of the Thai people for their king, queen and probably all of the offspring, and when I went to the cinema in Bangkok, I obediently stood up with everybody else when the national anthem was played with all of the royal images. It is nevertheless clear that Thailand will change when there is a new king.

[Curt in Cognito]

There was a poll, a couple years back, that showed that almost 70% of Thais thought that corruption was "OK", as long as they saw benefit. Corruption goes far beyond whatever party is in power. It is deeply engrained into the Thai culture.

And, as far as fighting corruption goes, Fearless Leader, aka Suthep, could be a poster boy for corruption. Previously, he had been removed from office on charges, something that he has had no success with against the "corrupt" Yingluck.

Whether one agrees with his policies, or not, Thailand's king, unlike most monarchs, has dedicated much of his life to trying to make Thailand a better place for its people and future generations. I believe the "royalists", those who hide beneath the King's robes, are the ones to blame for the socio-economic situation that could be this country's demise.

[Deleted]

So, the army has taken over Bangkok, including the television stations.

Nothing really new -- the army has staged eleven coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932. Something to keep an eye on.

[Deleted]

Now that the military coup d'état is official, there is a curfew in Bangkok between 22:00 and 05:00. The tourists are not happy.

[questa]

The tourists should be happy...all the prices will have fallen dramatically and if they get out of Bangkok a bit, maybe not in the beaches areas, they can have a good holiday minus Patpong district. Go north, dear tourist, and see Thailand and not the clubs.

[Deleted]

Curfew lifted but what next?

Frankly, the fact that Thailand is so turbulent sort of pleases me. I like countries where the inhabitants do not automatically kneel before those in power.

[questa]

Everyone must kneel before the king of Thailand and nobody is allowed to have their head higher than his. He usually sits in a chair on a small dais to see people so that they can sit comfortably, knowing that the requirements are being met.

The king is a smart chap and when a few years ago he sent for the leaders of the strife to talk with him, he sat on a low stool on the floor so they had to wriggle up to him on their bellies and remain crouching for the interview. It took all the bluster and fire from the leaders and constructive talk was possible.
It is a pity the King is so sick now...his heir is a playboy and many Thais think his hard working daughter would be a better monarch.