Life takes worrying turn for Abhisit

[Hardy641]

I remember this incident well. Thaksin, for what so ever reason, decided to use regular flight for the first time ever. Big surprise that the plane went off in flames just before he was boarding. A lot of conspiracy theories in the news that time.

 

Anyway the facts are that Thaksin used this incident to transfer quite a number of senior police officers. Also a way to get rid of your 'enemies'.

[Hardy641]

Of course there was no bomb, but it took months until the American expert team finally confirmed this. There have been rumors of C4 traces found in the wreckage.

Most likely the whole thing has been just staged to give Thaksin a reason to get the replacement at the police force he wanted.....

[simie]

My local MP Ian Gow whom I had met on a number of occasions was also murdered by the IRA scum. So I know a little about the sort who would prefer to get what they want by violence rather than the ballot box.

Simie.

[cheekyboy]

 

 

 

Raising a Red Flag in Thailand

By Hannah Beech / Khon Kaen Monday, Jun. 07, 2010

 

ENLARGE PHOTO+

 

Passions that ran high before the May 19 military crackdown have yet to cool

ERIC GAILLARD / Reuters

 

Dabbing a ball of sticky rice into a fiery green-papaya salad, the lady in red blinks back tears. The waterworks aren't from the chilies that give the food of Isaan, Thailand's rural and impoverished northeast, its signature kick. "I am mourning my fellow protesters who were killed by the government like vegetables and fish," says the 50-something native of Chiang Yuen district, referring to the six weeks of battles in Bangkok between Red Shirt demonstrators and security forces that claimed 85 lives in Thailand's worst political violence in decades. "Watch out," she says, issuing a warning that belies her demure manner. "People are going to go underground and fight with arms. This is the beginning of a very long war."

 

On May 19, as government troops launched a final, deadly offensive to clear out protesters from their central Bangkok encampment, Red Shirt leaders tearfully surrendered to the authorities. But in Isaan, the rice-growing plateau where the antigovernment movement draws its most fervent support, no white flags wave in the dusty air. Anger and defiance are the emotions of the day. Accepting the government's plea for national reconciliation there is as unlikely as meal without chilies. In the city of Khon Kaen, a billboard on a main road is emblazoned with a doctored photo of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, his aristocratic features bruised and battered. Even more chilling, everyone from matronly teachers to small-business owners is openly calling for armed insurrection. "I fear Isaan is going to become a base for an underground movement against state power," says Sutin Klungsang, a former member of parliament for a party aligned with Abhisit's nemesis and Red Shirt spiritual mentor, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "People are filled with hatred, and we must be prepared for a campaign of terrorism." (Watch TIME's video "Bangkok Before the Surrender: Inside the Red Camps.")

 

How did the Land of Smiles turn into such a nation of hate? Thailand likes to project an image of a cohesive country that triumphed as the only place in Southeast Asia not colonized by Western powers. But revolt has marred Thai history for centuries  and the recent past is no exception. Over the past few years the country's southernmost provinces, where the majority of residents are ethnic Malays, have been plagued by a shadowy Islamic insurgency that has killed more than 4,000 people. Isaan, an ethnic Lao stronghold that makes up one-third of Thailand's population, was the lair of communist guerrillas during the 1960s and '70s. Both regions are now among Thailand's poorest. "To ignore the economic fault line in Thailand and the possibility that this conflict may increasingly be expressed in ethnic terms," says David Streckfuss, an American academic based in Khon Kaen, "is to ignore what's threatening to tear the country apart."

 

An Unbridgeable Divide

The latest battle lines were drawn in Isaan in 2006 when a military coup dispensed with former Prime Minister Thaksin. The telecom billionaire of Chinese heritage might seem a curious hero for a population of up-country farmers and laborers. But Thaksin, now living abroad rather than serving a corruption-related jail sentence, unveiled populist policies that won over an untapped voter base. Villagers in the north and northeast adored his 30-baht (roughly $1) health care plan and mountains of easy credit  and conveniently ignored the corruption and human rights abuses that took place during his administration. When Thaksin was ousted by the army after months of rallies by Yellow Shirt protesters largely drawn from Bangkok's middle and upper classes, Isaan went into a quiet shock. In the first postcoup elections, rural voters, who outnumber their city cousins, ushered in a Thaksin proxy party. But in December 2008 a controversial court decision forced the dissolution of that party because of electoral misconduct. Abhisit, an Oxford-educated economist, came to power through parliamentary dealmaking. Hundreds of thousands of Isaan residents began to don red shirts. (See pictures of the showdown in Bangkok.)

 

The crimson-hued protesters' central demand was fresh elections they believe forces loyal to Thaksin will win, just as has happened in recent national polls. But antigovernment crusaders also added lofty ideals of democracy, equality and justice to the mix, and the movement quickly coalesced into a force that sent wave after wave of protesters down to Bangkok. In political classes held across Thailand's north and northeast, Red Shirt leaders delivered Marxist-inspired lectures on class warfare to wide-eyed farmers. It didn't matter that those tending Thailand's rice paddies aren't a starving bunch. Most own cell phones, some even shiny pickup trucks. But they and other rural residents saw the wealth of Bangkok  the glittering malls, the bejeweled women slathered in skin-whitening cream  and wondered why such wonders were beyond their reach.

 

For the upper echelons of Bangkok  some of whom impugn Isaan natives as "buffaloes" who migrate to the capital only to work as maids, vendors or prostitutes  the Red Shirts' organizational discipline was as mystifying as it was menacing. Today, with up-country passions threatening to turn into an armed underground movement, the Bangkok elite has true cause to be alarmed. Arson unleashed by renegade Red Shirts in the hours after the May 19 crackdown destroyed Thailand's stock exchange, its largest mall and several Bangkok banks. Since then, dozens of schools and other buildings have been attacked across the country. Grenades explode at night. With the Red Shirts' national leaders detained without bail, no one knows exactly who is directing the terror campaign. "The government has forced us to put down our hoses and pick up guns instead," says Sa-at, a rice and cassava farmer who took part in the Bangkok protests. "The land will go up in flames."

 

It's possible that such incendiary rhetoric will diminish after the last Red Shirt bodies are cremated and farmers return to their fields with the advent of the rainy season. But even Bangkok  like the nation as a whole  is bitterly cleaved between Reds and Yellows. "The divisions run right through society: through communities, families, workplaces and even government offices," says Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, a member of Abhisit's Democrat Party. "You can't put any cost on the psychological damage that has been done." (See pictures of the violent end to the standoff in Bangkok.)

 

On May 23, there was at least one rare show of unity. Thousands of Bangkok residents both poor and rich scrubbed down streets decimated by weeks of protests, fighting and looting. Sukatkul Aroonchai owned a DVD shop inside CentralWorld, the megamall torched by rioters. "I lost everything in the fire," he says, "but I want to help society heal, and helping with the cleanup is one small way that I can do that."

 

Lingering Resentment

Such fence-mending does not resonate in the Red Shirt heartland. After all, Bangkok residents' grief for a burned-out mall  one Facebook page called "RIP CentralWorld" collected thousands of fans  dwarfed any public lament for the Red Shirts killed during the weeks of urban street fighting. The government's decision on May 25 to charge Thaksin in absentia with terrorism  a crime that can be punished by death  will only further inflame Red Shirts, who continue to insist that nothing but the government's immediate resignation could begin to quell their anger.

 

Early on in the standoff with the Reds, Abhisit promised elections in November in return for protesters leaving Bangkok. When the Red Shirts refused, the offer was rescinded and Abhisit now says that polls can only be held when calm returns to Thailand. That's not likely to happen anytime soon. "In the future, it will be very dangerous for the Democrats to campaign in Isaan," says former parliamentarian Sutin. "Their safety cannot be guaranteed." Even moderate Isaan residents like Charoenrak Phetpradab, the editor of Isaan Bizweek, can't see a way to bridge the two sides. "I've discovered there is no middle ground," he says. "It's hopeless." Traditionally, up-country Thailand would be set ablaze in the winter to clear fields. Now the fear is that the land may burn year-round.

 

 with reporting by Robert Horn / Bangkok

 

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1992244,00.html#ixzz0pLysaatG

 

[Flashermac]

<< Khon Kaen Monday, Jun. 07, 2010 >>

 

 

 

<< On May 19, as government troops launched a final, deadly offensive to clear out protesters from their central Bangkok encampment, [color:red]Red Shirt leaders tearfully surrendered to the authorities[/color]. >>

 

Huh? The photos showed them all grinning from ear to ear. Where was this fruit loop reporter anyway?

 

 

p.s. Interesting abbreviation of June.

 

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"p.s. Interesting abbreviation of June."

 

Not to mention that that date (Jun 7, 2010) is over a week from now. Does this guy have a crystal ball?

 

Sanuk!