Political un-rest and rally

[PeteC]

Some blogs readers may find interesting. Pete

http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/thanon ... 21/entry-1

http://www.somtow.org/2010/05/open-lett ... hirts.html

[margaretcarnes]

Full English Transcript of PM's speech at 14:00 Today

Today, at 14:00 hrs the Prime Minister addressed the nation via a televised speech. Below is the full transcript of his speech in English.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

We’ve restored order in the capital of Bangkok and the provinces of Thailand. We’ve been able to do this with the cooperation of government officials, volunteers and, of course, the people of Thailand. We’ll continue to move swiftly to restore normalcy. And we recognize that as we move ahead, there are huge challenges ahead of us, particularly the challenge of overcoming the divisions that have occurred in this country.

Let me reassure you that the Government will meet those challenges and overcome the difficulties through the five-point reconciliation plan that I’ve previously announced. That plan is based on the principle of participation, democracy, and justice. We’ll allow the due process of law to operate and use our parliamentary democracy to resolve the problems with the participation of all groups of people. At the same time, that plan will include an independent investigation of all the events that have taken place during the protests. So you can be assured that the government has every intention of moving the country forward, restore order, make sure that our recovery is well on track, and that we’ll do so in a transparent manner.

Thank you very much.”

So to restore order - and allow the due process of law to operate - they put 5 Red leaders in the same lockup? Presumably allowing them to keep their camera phones too. Great stuff. Guaranteed to quell the masses.

[charlesh]

Yes an education system that produces graduates but no jobs unless you pay someone.
Army/police promotions that follow a similar theme apparently. Money hoarded by a few rather well of people.
"Leaders" responsible for mayhem and destruction and the loss of an income for thousands treated like film stars that even Andy Warhol would look askance at.
A fugitive buying the latest fashion accessories in Gay Paris.
A city landscape that resembles a war scene.
A military cordon that seemed to allow the easy supply of logistics to its protagonists.
Emergency services that could not do their job for whatever reason.
Poorly trained foreign journalists tripping over themselves reporting from the "front lines".
Anarchy in the provinces.

It has all panned out like a Keystone cops vintage film - if only it wasn't that sad!

[The understudy]

Full English Transcript of PM's speech at 14:00 Today

Today, at 14:00 hrs the Prime Minister addressed the nation via a televised speech. Below is the full transcript of his speech in English.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

We’ve restored order in the capital of Bangkok and the provinces of Thailand. We’ve been able to do this with the cooperation of government officials, volunteers and, of course, the people of Thailand. We’ll continue to move swiftly to restore normalcy. And we recognize that as we move ahead, there are huge challenges ahead of us, particularly the challenge of overcoming the divisions that have occurred in this country.

Let me reassure you that the Government will meet those challenges and overcome the difficulties through the five-point reconciliation plan that I’ve previously announced. That plan is based on the principle of participation, democracy, and justice. We’ll allow the due process of law to operate and use our parliamentary democracy to resolve the problems with the participation of all groups of people. At the same time, that plan will include an independent investigation of all the events that have taken place during the protests. So you can be assured that the government has every intention of moving the country forward, restore order, make sure that our recovery is well on track, and that we’ll do so in a transparent manner.

Thank you very much.”

So to restore order - and allow the due process of law to operate - they put 5 Red leaders in the same lockup? Presumably allowing them to keep their camera phones too. Great stuff. Guaranteed to quell the masses.

Not only that they are kept @ a Millitary Base between Cha Am & Hua Hin by the Sea with their Private Beach, Palm Trees all locked up with Barbed wire and soldiers for protection. It's like a small vacation among friends with undefined staying Time. Great isn't it!!!

Your's The understdy!!!

[PeteC]

Over 100 ID, UDD cards found in sewer

BANGKOK (NNT) -- Scores of identification cards and member cards of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) supporters have been found in the drain in front of Central World.

Since this morning, officers from the military and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) have investigated the previously rioted areas in the capital to search for any suspicious objects and explosive devices left behind.

During the mission, more than 100 ID cards and UDD cards of the protesters were discovered in the sewer in front of Central World Shopping Complex. As the site is adjacent to where the UDD registration tent used to be, the items are speculated to have been seized from rally-goers to prevent them from returning home. All of them will be forwarded to the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) for further investigation.

In April, several complaints were received from around 200 protesters over UDD staff’s confiscation of their ID cards, obliging them to remain within the rally site.

[caller]

I read elsewhere a suggestion that the style of internment is to set a precedent for when the yellow shirt leaders and Govt. officials complicit in previous acts of 'terrorism' are arrested and imprisoned!

Especially with all this new 'transparency' we're about to witness!

[PeteC]

Now here's a group I've never heard of, although it seems they've been around for a while and an offshoot of UDD. We don't need anymore at the moment folks. Pete


Daeng Siam’s move to hurt road map

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... t-road-map

* Published: 22/05/2010 at 02:45 PM
* Online news: Breakingnews Bangkok Post

The plan to move against the government by Deang Siam or Red Siam group could be an obstacle of the national reconciliation road map proposed by the prime minister, Democrat Party spokesman Buranat Samutrak said on Saturday.

Mr Buranat was responding to a remark by the groups’ leader who had stated that his group would hold a mass gathering against the government once the state of emergency is lifted.

He called on the Daeng Siam group to hold political rally in line with the law and the democratic principles.
Thepthai Senpong, personal spokesman of the Democrat Party leader, took the same tone.

Mr Thepthai said the country had already been severely damaged by the prolonged red-shirts rally. He called on the group to give the country an opportunity of recovering.

He warned that the Red Siam group should not let itself to become a tool to destroy the country of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Deang Siama group, formerly a political ally to the United front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), had pulled out from UDD citing it has different way of fighting against the government from the red-shirt people group.

[PeteC]

One thing that we and it seems everyone has forgotten is that the killing and bombing continues in the south weekly, and has been going on for years. We've seen the struggle the military had in Bangkok trying to look competent and perhaps this is because all the seasoned troops are in the south, or perhaps they are in shambles as well down there due to lack of leadership and proper training? God help this place if any foreign force decides to invade, especially Vietnam. Remote chance but always possible.

Anyway, perhaps we should have a thread entitled 'Forgotten Thailand' specifically for the southern conflict. If agree and have some input and sources, start one. Pete

[STW_Ryan]

The longer-term future for Thailand is pretty tricky. The rich/poor gap is huge, and means that anyone of dubious character and exceptional wealth can exploit the poor and have them do their bidding. It also means that it's in the interests of such elite to keep them poor, uneducated and easily exploitable.

In terms of longer-term solutions, two major problems need tackling. The first is the education system. It's simply not good enough. To be honest, 50 kids in a class means interactivity in lessons is impossible. It's just not possible to do the kind of activities I did with my nice small class at Somtawin. The end result is an inability to think. Looking at the kids who came in from Thai schools vs the ones we'd had at Somtawin for a long time, the kids from Thai schools usually took a fairly long time to come up to speed. They don't ask questions (you can't in a class of 50) which means they don't find things out. Of course, with continued exposure to western teaching methods and smaller classes they tend to come out of their shells eventually and it's a joy to watch, but the early stages can be painful for student and teacher. Add to that, the Ministry of Education is largely clueless. The Thai national curriculum equivalent is really not an impressive document and doesn't exactly encourage interest in anything outside Thailand. Teachers wishing to do their job properly have to spend a good deal of time working around it rather than with it. And don't get me started on 'no fail'.

The second problem is one of corruption and snobbery. 200 baht tea-money for your motorbike helmet works out well for us, but means the law isn't being enforced. It's symptomatic of a wider issue and Thailand desperately needs a competent police force, something it evidently lacks at present. However, corruption runs much deeper than that, with Thai schools and Universities routinely charging tea money for improvement in grades or access to the right places.

When you add to that prejudice based on skin colour and region then you have real obstacles to progress if the lottery of birth wasn't kind to you. While such obstacles exist everywhere in the world, it's my feeling that in Thailand they're particularly bad.

I think Thailand also needs to strengthen national identity over regional identity as in a way Thailand is many different countries under one flag, it seems like the boundaries were drawn in the wrong places (a lot like you find in most of Africa, due to colonial interference) and dont properly represent cultural, ethnic and linguistic groupings. Either the boundaries need redrawing (sadly this won't happen in a grown-up and sensible way, but rather by war) or national identity needs to trump local identity, in which case we may have to accept a bit of falang-bashing for a while.

As such, the reds did one thing right in that they got us all talking about their plight. It brought the divide to the consciousness of those of us who mostly ignored it (and I'll confess that it didn't really occur to me that much until recently when I started delving into the murky underbelly of the Land of Smiles). However, the big problem is that they've now destroyed valuable parts of the economy which is likely to do them further damage, as if the Thai economy dies it will hit the poorest hardest (it always does wherever you go).

Good luck to everyone still there, and let's hope that Abhisit (who for my money is one of the brightest politicians Thailand's had in a long time) and whoever succeeds him can do what is right for the country I love.

[richard]

Not in my lifetime I fear

[Nereus]

All the Thai TV stations have just run a segment where the Government displayed the arms, ammunition, bombs, etc., that they claim they have found. If it is fact then everybody should be thankful that there were not a lot more casualties:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... pons-cache

Thailand's government on Saturday displayed to foreign diplomats a huge cache of weapons it said had been confiscated from anti-government protesters, to quash criticism of a deadly crackdown.

Thailand's government displayed to foreign diplomats a huge cache of weapons it said had been confiscated from anti-government protesters, to quash criticism of a deadly crackdown.
"Red Shirts" leaders, who mounted two months of rallies in Bangkok that saw clashes and blasts that left 86 dead and 1,900 injured movement, have criticised the use of force and said their supporters were unarmed.

The government said that after Wednesday's final offensive which forced thousands of Reds to disperse and their leaders to surrender, it had found a haul of assault rifles, ammunition, grenades and crude homemade bombs.

"Terrorists have used these weapons to attack officials and innocent people," said Suthep Thaugsuban, deputy prime minister in charge of security affairs, at an army barracks on the northern outskirts of the capital.

"Although the protesters have always denied terrorism or possessing weapons, after the rallies dispersed we found a lot of lethal weapons," he told media and dozens of Bangkok-based diplomats and military attaches.

Thailand's top forensic scientist, Porntip Rojanasunan, also said that four car bombs had been found around the protest site which paralysed Bangkok's top shopping district for six weeks.

AFP journalists reporting at the protest zone for the past two months have seen only a handful of firearms in the hands of protesters, who were mostly armed only with crude weapons like rockets and Molotov cocktails.

Wednesday's campaign was met with little resistance.

Concern has been growing over rights abuses in Thailand, with the European Union the latest to call on Thai authorities to respect the rights of the protesters and saying the violence had harmed the nation.

Human Rights Watch has also expressed alarm over a "draconian" emergency decree introduced during the crisis to hold prisoners in secret detention.

In a clear reference to the Reds' hero, ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the army said that masterminds including those from outside the country were responsible for the mayhem of looting and arson that broke out after the offensive.

"It's not true that protesters carried out arson attacks due to anger after protest ended. It was well planned and ordered by people outside and inside the country," said army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.

A curfew is in place until Sunday in Bangkok and most of the Reds' heartland in the north and northeast. Suthep said there would be an announcement Sunday over the status of the emergency measures.

[Nereus]

I do not know how there is going to be any reconciliation when people have this type of attitude:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews ... onsibility

PT MP: PM should show responsibility

Prime Minister Abhisit vejjajiva should show political responsibility for ordering the use of force to crackdown on red-shirt protesters by quitting his post, Puea Thai MP for Phrae Worawat Aue-apinyakul said on Saturday.

The opposition camp’s MP was reacting to the Democrats’ yesterday move to support Mr Abhisit to continue taking office without having to dissolve House of Representatives as promised.

“The premier must be held responsible for the political violence. Even if he stays on in office, he would not be able to stay in the Thai society.

“Mr Abhisit will not be able to visit several provinces in the North and Northeast for election campaigns.

“He also might not be able to launch any campaign in Bangkok as the people got angry because many of protesters were killed”, Mr Worawat said.

The MP did not believe the red-shirts had set fire to several places in Bangkok as they did not have time to do so.

They had to run for their lives on the day the troops moved in to crackdown on red-shirts at ratchaprasong intersection, he said.

[BaaBaa.]

BB

What route does that bus from Korat to HH take?

I spoke to one of the GFs friends yesterday Richard to get her to book me a Taxi for next week, I mentioned the GF is concerned about travelling, the friend said she'd done the Buriram-Korat-Hua Hin run on Wednesday and didn't see one red shirt.

[caller]

I actually think that Abhisit should resign. He has proved completely incompetent, is reviled by millions of Thais and has dragged the Countries reputation into the gutter. How can someone so tarnished by events reconcile anything?

Any other PM will probably continue to be a puppet of the powers that be, at least until or if another election is held? But disposing of one that has has outlived their usefulness would at least be seen as a start in the right direction.

And is there there any value in posting anything from The Nation or Bangkok Post anymore?

'Since the state of emergency came into effect on April 7, Mr Abhisit has worked not out of his civilian offices in Government House, but from the headquarters of Bangkok’s 11th Infantry, home to the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, the ad hoc body that, in effect, runs the country.

That body has used its powers to issue compulsory summonses to politicians, businessmen, activists, academics and broadcasters to respond to allegations of involvement in the protests.

It has frozen more than a hundred bank accounts belonging to people and businesses believed to be connected with the Red Shirts or Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed Prime Minister.

It has blocked or shut down websites — 400 by the end of last month — as well as television channels and radio stations perceived to support the Red Shirts, while the country’s lively and independent press has become increasingly cowed and unquestioning in its support of Mr Abhisit’s Government. One example stood out from yesterday’s edition of the English-language paper The Nation, which reported that defeated Red Shirt protesters sent from Bangkok to their homes in the provin-ces wept “tears of joy” as they left.

The state of emergency allows the authorities to detain suspects without charge in places other than conven-tional remand centres. Yesterday the media published, with some amusement, photographs of the rather attractive villas on a police base where the arrested Red Shirt leaders are being held. The point about them is not that they are pleasantly roomy, but that they are hours away from Bangkok and that, under the emergency decree, suspects have no guarantee of access to their lawyers and families'.

Full article here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 133440.ece

I don't think much of the overall article, but at least the journalist is free to write what he wants! Worth looking at the 'knocked back to square one' link as well.

[BaaBaa.]

I like him.