Yesterday, 25 November 2009, was the first day of the funeral rites of former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. It is a royally sponsored funeral and many of Thailand’s high and mighty attended. But it also was an occasion for the Red Shirts to gather. Veera Musikapong was there, also Nattawut Saikua. Lt Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, “Sae Daeng”, made a brief appearance, and was celebrated by many of the Red Shirts.
Before I arrived, representatives of the Democrat Party were booed when they came to pay their respects, and left soon. Just when I wanted to go home, to the surprise of everyone, Newin Chidchob came by as well. Many people were quite shocked, and were very unhappy about his appearance. The atmosphere became very tense. Nearing the end of the rites, a line of soldiers was placed between the Red Shirts and the temple exit. When Newin walked out insults were shouted, and several water bottles were thrown at him. One of the bottles he narrowly escaped by ducking. At the temple exit one man tried to hit Newin with a motorcycle helmet, but was stopped by security officers. Newin got into his van, and left straight away. (Update – 27 November 2009: Note that Prachatai has this post available in Thai).
20 responses so far ↓
1 Chris Beale // Nov 26, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Conflict to the end or the end of conflict ?
Nick – congratulations once again for your continuing excellent, brave, on-the-scene reports.
When is your next book published?
At least the Thai elite gathered in a reasonably peaceful atmosphere – a somewhat hopeful sign they may eventually reach a compromise, thereby avoiding untold bloodshed and possibly the violent break-up and collapse of Thailand.
Samak was a distasteful character, in certain ways, but it would
be wonderfully ironic if his funeral rites became part of a national healing process, under Royal auspices.
2 BKK News Feed Archive Q4/09/II // Nov 26, 2009 at 8:30 pm
[...] NEW MANDALA – Newin @ Samak’s Funeral: Conflict to the End BANGKOK POST – Police Swoop on Corruption Suspects in Major Raid (police vs. police) THE CASUAL TRUTH – Why Are Thais Always Protesting? BANGKOK POST – Thaksin’s Merely a Symptom of the Widespread Malaise ISN – Muddy Waters in Thai Deep South IPS – “Evacuation Drills Have Begun”: Thai-Cambodia Tension Gives Rise to Schools With Bunkers WASHINGTON TIMES – Thailand Seeks U.S. Help Battling Insurgents ASIA SENTINEL Don’t Cry for Samak: No Tears for a Thug BANGKOK POST – Last Rites: Large Turnout to Mourn Samak DAYLIFE/AP – Samak Bathing Rite (photo) TAN – The Prem Interview (transcript) THE NATION – The End Is Near: Thaksin’s Plan for Civil Chaos (who is Suriyasai?) [...]
3 Chris // Nov 26, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Once again, Nick Nostitz is the reporter on the spot, taking the photos that reveal all………..
4 Chris Beale // Nov 26, 2009 at 10:36 pm
The “Chris” above is not me – but someone else !
Though – yes – I agree : Nick is doing an excellent job.
5 doctor J // Nov 27, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Chris Beale:
It’d be too optimistic to hope for ‘the end of conflict’, simply because of the gathering of some elite. It’s a Thai way of the nobles to keep their manners even in front of their arch rivals. Samak himself was not a prominent figure in the ongoing political powerplay. Just a nominee as he explicitly declared at the last general election. Have you seen a Thai boxing fight? Apart from paying homage to their teachers, they bow to each other before doing the fight. It’s a calm before the (big)storm. Another round of battle is about to begin soon.
Good job Nick, thanks again.
6 michael // Nov 27, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Nick, thanks. Photos no. 1 & 4 are absolute classics, & every one is superbly complex & full of implications. Wonderful photojournalism!
7 Chris Beale // Nov 29, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Yes – Dr. J – I’ve certainly seen many Muay Thai (can anyone not ?).
What has always impressed me most has been Muay Thai fighters respect for the referee :
that seems a very Thai cultural trait, extending right up to the Monarchy.
I will always argue Thailand needs a strong Monarchy, and Military – as ultimate political referees.
There does seem to be some genuine efforts at reconciliation
currently – eg. Thaksin called off a month of demonstrations,
Abhisit responded called off his Chiang Mai trip.
I wonder what the court verdict will be re. Thaksin’s 73+ billion baht assets – perhaps they should give a suspended sentence. I.e. a good behaviour bond – rather than confiscate the lot, which would give Thaksin no incentive to stop de-stabilising Thailand.
At the moment Thaksin is able to send eg. the PAD into paroxysyms of paranoid rage, by Thaksin’s chapest means possible – i.e. simply flying into Cambodia.
8 Brendan Mahoney // Nov 30, 2009 at 3:02 am
Great work Nik,
You are an inspiration to those reporters who want to report the truth but are not allowed to.
Well done and great Pics.
Brendan Mahoney.
9 Global Voices Online » Thailand: Former Prime Minister Passes Away // Nov 30, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] rite, the anti-government Red Shirts (most of them were Samak supporters) outside the temple booed government officials who attended the [...]
10 Thailand: Former Prime Minister Passes Away :: Elites TV // Nov 30, 2009 at 2:28 pm
[...] rite, the anti-government Red Shirts (most of them were Samak supporters) outside the temple booed government officials who attended the [...]
11 michael // Dec 1, 2009 at 2:44 am
Chris Beale #7 : “There does seem to be some genuine efforts at reconciliation currently – eg. Thaksin called off a month of demonstrations, Abhisit responded called off his Chiang Mai trip.” Is this a joke?
The UDD (Redshirts) called off their demo either “in deference to the approach of His Majesty the King’s 82nd birthday on Dec 5.”, or due to the imposition of the Internal Security Act (take your pick).
See :
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/28156/abhisit-cancels-chiang-mai-trip
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/161543/security-agencies-consider-revoking-isa
12 michael // Dec 1, 2009 at 2:47 am
(continuing the previous) Abhisit called off his trip because the invitation was withdrawn due to security fears.
Reconciliation? No way!
13 Abhisit at Samak’s funeral // Dec 1, 2009 at 6:03 pm
[...] security presence was heavy, police was afraid that a similar incident might occur as happened when Nevin Chidchob came at the first day of the rites. Nothing to speak of happened other than when Abhisit arrived some of [...]
14 Chris Beale // Dec 2, 2009 at 12:22 am
Michael I would say the number one reason the Red-Shirts called off their rally was in deference to His Majesty The King.
No doubt the ISA was also a consideration, these two factors are not mutually exclusive. The one hopeful factor is that both sides still claim loyalty to the Monarchy.
Us farang need to appreciate just how much this reverence means – I’ve seen an Isaarn taxi driver in Bangkok, an archetypical Red-shirt, lower himself in a 45 degree angle bow
and wai in front of a statue of King Chulalongkorn, still revered as a hero-God, for freeing his Isaarn family from slavery.
15 Frank Lee // Dec 2, 2009 at 2:35 am
Although I found Marc Askew’s recent book review of ‘Thaksin’ by Pasuk Pongpaichit and Chris Baker (Post, Nov.23) to be fairly commendable, I take issue with his comments on the Thai judiciary’s treatment of Thaksin’s blustering, bullying, blueblood bore and former proxy PM, Samak Sundaravej.
While one may argue that the decision to prosecute may have been selective, it cannot be denied that Samak, with the brazen disregard for civilized behavior and ‘inconvenient truths’ which have characterized his long, ugly political career, well and truly had it coming. Indeed only recently, as Thaksin’s proxy PM, Samak tried to reduce the scores of brutal murders at Thammassat University in 1973 in which he himself was strongly implicated to a single accidental death. Or as PM Samak said of himself at the time, “The Prime Minister has the power to do anything.”
As to the Court’s guilty verdict and subsequent sentencing itself, it seemed to me at the time that the salient point about the Court’s verdict was that Samak had lied under oath about receiving income for conducting the his show and that it was such barefaced lies that he flung in the judges’ faces, rather than his flimsy denials re the crass political nature of the show, that were responsible for the stiff sentence he subsequently incurred.
Of course, in Samak’s defense, one might be tempted to say of him as Mr. Askew does about the big boss i.e. Thaksin himself, “As a man of no real principle, ethical or political, he has reflected the forces swirling around him.” However, to me at least, that seems rather like what the Americans laughingly refer to as the ‘Twinkie defense’.
Frank Lee.
16 Chris Beale // Dec 3, 2009 at 3:09 am
Frank Lee – the Thammasat massacre was in 1976, not 1973.
And a point often not mentioned, is that in addition to the appalling massacre, amid a welter of lies, of unarmed civilians peacefully demonstrating – was the overthrow of Seri Pramoj’s government. Seri Pramoj of course, was the conservative politican who narrowly saved Thailand from being turned into a
British colony, immediately after Word War Two. His pleas to America’s Congress to prevent this through dollar diplomacy carried weight because Pramoj had refused, as Thailand’s Washington ambassador at the time of Pearl Harbour, to insanely declare war on the United States, and thereafter set up the Free Thai movement against Japanese occupation of Thailand. Pramoj received an eternally shameful “korb khun KRAP” from those he had saved, with his overthrow in the wake of Thammasat’s massacre.
17 Ralph Kramden // Dec 3, 2009 at 9:19 am
I’m not sure that Chris Beale’s interpretation of the end of the war negotiations are supported by the historical record, but on 1976, there is an interesting bit in the biography by Van Praagh.
The royalist Seni Pramoj, who was indeed prime minister in October 1976 and was overthrown, is said to have “agonized” over the King’s role in the 1973-76 period. He says: “I came to realize that if His Majesty had not intervened, the country would have gone into anarchy. Due to him – he dared to intervene – the country is not in anarchy (cited in Van Praagh 1989: 176).
18 Frank Lee // Dec 3, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Thanks Chris – you are right, of course.
In my defense, allow me to say that when one toils away for three ‘wise monkeys’ here in the Kingdom of Illusions as I do, one sometimes makes mistakes in recalling details and writing in a hurry.
As for Samak and the people I work for here, George Orwell’s comment ( from memory) on the essential nature of truth is one that has been on my mind rather a lot of late:
“If freedom is to mean anything, it is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. Once that is granted, all else follows.”
19 Chris Beale // Dec 3, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Good comments, both Ralph and Frank. Van Praagh, as I recall, was the Canadian journalist in Bangkok in 1976, who later wrote a seminal study of Pramoj, a treasured possesion somewhere in my house.
And yes – it’s true as you say Frank, that – according to Van Praagh, Pramoj did acquiesce to his own overthrow, realising that the coup was also an attempt by relatively more moderate officers to fore-stall an even worse coup by more fascist military (the very element Pramoj had saved from British retribution).
But Pramoj’s acquiesence was dripping with sarcasm, according to Van Praagh, who reported Pramoj as saying : “They’re like that in Thailand, they’ll give you the most polite smile while
knifing you in the back”.
20 sam deedes // Dec 3, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I just hope to God that Nick Nostitz is training up a successor.
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