Protest Info Please..

[Flashermac]

"It's been more of some kind of "modern art" installation piece, during which members of the ruling elite - a small roster of families benefiting from monarcho-religious dispensation and other quasi-monopolies have paid some ignant Thai folk (especially Southerners - are they really Thai anyway, these Muslims with their slurred speech."

 

Absolute BS. Why don't you try listening some time ... if you could understand any of it. Nice bit of prejudice there too.

[YimSiam]

Yes, mixed sarcasm and cynicism with my legit points, that's true - but it's not absolute bullshit, just a mix of nonsense, bullshit, and real issues. You likely guess that I can't tell slurred speech by southerners... Certainly I can't. I just mean to echo a sentiment that's not hard to find in Thailand - regional racisms and so on, denials of 'true Thainess' as a means of discrediting message, statements that Muslims in those crowds are not really Thai, etc. My apologies if it appears that I am backing the view that a different accent might make one less Thai - I have certainly no capacity or desire to do that, just blabbing on.

 

I stick by the following: Thailand has been for many decades run by a relatively small number of families who have obtained special treatment through the institution of the monarchy, including benefits that are effectively corrupt and anti-democratic.

 

(... and that the army has served as an instrument of this powerful clique during this time, most notably by imposing a coup whenever things became unsatisfactory to the ruling clique... It's hard to find another explanation for Thailand coup addiction - unless coup susceptibility is like herpes, once a country gets it once, it keeps coming back!)

 

I also stick by the claim that the street protests of the past months are primarily a coordinated effort by members of the previously-ruling elite, who see their privilege at risk at present, and are trying to shore up their protections against the democratic instinct of the majority of Thais. It seems clear to me - but perhaps I'm inclined to think folks like Suthep have ulterior motives, just part of my mental make-up.

 

In the end, to counter the challenge posed by Thaksin and the village vote, the old regime will be forced to choose between honoring the results of democratic elections (however unpalatable they may be... every country gets the government that it deserves...), and a military-imposed coup. They'll choose coup, as always before. And we'll just have to disagree on whether that's a good thing, on whether it's justified by the corruption of this regime (which is the complaint, right? That Pheu Thai is too corrupt? And has bad policies? The 'bad policies' argument should obviously be resolved through the next election, as is the case throughout the world's democracies - don't like a rice policy that benefits a certain segment? Vote the bums out of office! So the focus really is about corruption, it would seem. Or perhaps the real argument is that the Thai rural voter is simply too uneducated, too easily swayed by promises from those like Thaksin, to be trusted with choosing their government - I disagree with that idea, but I do think it is at the core of any support given to Suthep and so on).

 

All this stuff- protests, criminal cases, and so on - is about who will get to have best control over Thailand's significant assets and people in the coming years, nothing more. It's a dirty street fight, nothing more - and it's getting desperate and more urgent given the fragility of the Suthep side's greatest symbol of legitimacy - while they can't win an election to save their lives, at least they are associated with the yellow. Sharks versus Jets, Bloods versus Crips - it's ugly, but the clear will of the people should be Thailand's guide. They can put every member of the Thaksin family in jail (certainly there is a good chance that they've violated laws of various kinds) and a popular, populist party will continue to win elections, and will challenge the yellow power. Suppressing that does not seem to be a long term solution - but then, long-term is not really a Thai concept.

 

(Not that I would know the last bit, as I don't speak Thai. I'm the kind of farang that only knows Thai short time and Thai long time, anyway.)

 

"Why don't you try listening some time ... if you could understand any of it."

 

Hm. That's puzzling, I've never seen you play the "but you don't speak Thai like me" card before, so I assume you're saying that I'm just too dumb to understand the ideas being expressed? That's okay, I have thick skin. 'N' I ain't too smart, neither.

 

YimSiam

[Flashermac]

Nope, not trying to insult you, and I hope you didn't take it that way. It wasn't intended.

 

But I have visited the protest camps and talked to protesters. What I mean us that you haven't and wouldn't be able to talk to them if you did - since very few of them speak English. They come from all over Thailand, not just the South, and they are mostly working folks. There have been protesters from the North and Northeast on the stage, and I have heard their complaints about this government. They are pissed off big time. The cleaning women at my university are all against this government, and they are all farmers' daughters from Issan.

 

Suthep is a Southerner, which accounts for the large number of Southerners involved. But by no means are the Southerners behind this. Nor are the traditional "elite", since the protests are hurting their financial interests.

[cavanami]

> Nor are the traditional "elite", since the protests are hurting their financial interests.

 

It is risk vs reward that drives the financing of the protests.

 

The money people look very closely at this as they do in every business transaction. They are not doing all this out of the goodness of their hearts'....IMO

 

The present gov is fighting back by saying they have no money...this is not an opinion, this is fact as our little business

has been affected by the "no money" stance!

 

In the end...it is all about $$$

[WorldFun]

indeed

this is no more same old same old, but much more a bunch of 'colors' in the mix among the 'protest'.

but everyone here brings valid points and noone expects a consensus which in fact seems impossible and thats why no deals as of yet have been made even both sides already are bankrupt or on the verge of it haha.

so the loan sharks must be having a field day as the investment bets goes on for 'borrowed' money...perhaps!

[Flashermac]

A pro-red taxi driver today gave me the same old story about the protesters getting paid 250 baht a day or they wouldn't be protesting. I know that is nonsense, since I have almost daily contact with some folks who go to the protests. But 250 baht was supposedly the going rate for the reds three years ago, and they figure it must be the same. After all, that is what the red shirt TV station tells them.

 

I suspect in the end not very much will change, except perhaps the faces. But these protesters have genuine hopes for something better. You wouldn't believe the hatred I hear expressed for the entire Shinawatra clan, since Takky has put most of his relatives on the government payroll. He acts like the CEO of Thailand and probably thinks he is. I honestly don't know how this will end, but guarantee that Thaksin will not be coming back soon. He is seriously deluded if he thinks it would be safe or him to live in LOS ever again. Rightly or wrongly, he is blamed for every attack that had been made on the protesters and military. The pro-government folks do seem to have quite an assortment of war weapons, including some that are not even available in Thailand (e.g. the PRC-type grenades used by Cambodia).

[Coss]

I was at the corner of Lumpini Park opposite Silom Rd on Monday. All was quiet, all I saw was the usual plethora of stalls selling anything to anybody, but with few customers.

 

I was too hung-over and it was too hot to investigate further.

 

BTW the Robinsons at that location has closed.

[Flashermac]

Some protesters camp in Lumpini, those from far away ... mostly the South, but I saw some from Phitsanulok and even a few campers from Issan. Their tent camps are always marked with a sign identifying who they are. The crowds turnout in the evening for the speakers, especially when Suthep takes the stage around 8pm each night. It was the same before the sites were consolidated. Anyone can wander in and look around, since the park is wide open except late at night - the time when attacks might occur. This is why I find the story of the man who was beaten and thrown into a river so strange. He claims he was simply resting in the park when the guards seized him. Why would they bother him unless they recognised him for some reason?

 

p.s. It is hotter than hell right now. I dread to think what it will be next month when the "hot season" officially arrives.

[WorldFun]

yup too hot to be camping, so hope for the rain storms next week

[YimSiam]

 

In the end, to counter the challenge posed by Thaksin and the village vote, the old regime will be forced to choose between honoring the results of democratic elections (however unpalatable they may be... every country gets the government that it deserves...), and a military-imposed coup. They'll choose coup, as always before.

 

 

I shoulda put money on it... Though the odds can't have paid much!

 

Yimsiam