Red shirts parading down Ratchadamoen Avenue earlier today (Photo: Simon Roughneen)
Earlier today, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship demanded that the Thai Government dissolve the House of Representatives within 24 hours. Otherwise, the Red shirts will disperse from the main rally area in front of Phan Fa bridge and spread around Bangkok.
The deadline is noon tomorrow (Monday), so the Reds could bring Bangkok’s already-choked traffic to a standstill at the start of the working week, upping the ante with the Government.
Jaran Dithapichai told me that “we still have to analyse the situation, to see where we would go. But General Prem’s house, or the Prime Minister’s office, they are not important.”
Both sides are now clearly engaged in a form of brinkmanship, with Government mulling the introduction of emergency powers. The UDD takes this as an attempt to disband the protest, saying that the emergency laws prevent gatherings of more than 5 people.
UDD leaders speaking near the stage set up at Phan Fa Bridge believe that the Government is considering asking the courts to revoke the bail for some of its leadership, which would leave them vulnerable to arrest, which presumably the army would be empowered to enforce, under emergency powers.
The UDD believes that the police are “on our side”, citing the relaxation of stop-and-search procedures deployed on Redshirt convoys coming into Bangkok since Friday, mostly from the North and Northeast. Here and there this morning some police (not UDD guards) were seen sporting UDD paraphernalia. I counted four in all.
Paree Tanapura, a press officer with the Red shirts and Deputy Chief of Thai Red News, told me that the UDD leadership spoke with the PM’s office last night, to ask that protestors be allowed easier access to Bangkok. So this may have contributed to the police relaxing its policy, and shows that the Government and the UDD leadership are in contact and can agree on measures to eliminate potential flashpoints, even as both sides get set for a high noon Monday showdown.
Paree said that he think the Government’s apparent slowness to react to the Red shirt gathering indicates “indecisiveness and disagreement” in the Cabinet, and possibly also in the Army, or between the Government and Army.
If the UDD wants to follow-up on its ultimatum, then numbers will come into play – if it can disperse sufficient Red shirts around Bangkok to make life difficult for the Government. The UDD claims that 300,000 redshirts are already in and around Bangkok, and say that they expect that number to double by this evening. Thai newspapers estimate that not much more than 100,000 are gathered at the main protest area, with perhaps 150,000 – 200,000 possible if people keep coming. The numbers are difficult to assess, much less quantify, but walking down Ratchadamnoen Avenue, people moved around with ease and the area was far from jam-packed. This was at 1pm today, as the searing Bangkok heat took its toll on the assembled crowd, with many breaking toward side streets and hopping on tuktuks, nipping away from the rally area.
And elsewhere in Bangkok, life seems to be going as normal. The air-conditioned malls were busy as per any Sunday, with some Bangkokians apparently oblivious to the gathering storm outside. The BTS was no more or no less busy than usual. An IPhone stall set up just outside Siam Paragon attracted a steady crowd both this morning and earlier this afternoon, including few Red-clad would-be protestors checking-out the wares on display, and in no apparent hurry to join the masses near Phan Fa bridge.
Simon Roughneen is a freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia. His website is available at http://www.simonroughneen.com/.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Athita // Mar 15, 2010 at 2:30 am
Thank you for reporting.
I think tomorrow rally to Infantry Division 11 (Rab.11) at Bangkhen District could spark some clash between the protesters and some Bangkokians who are loyal to the Democrat Party.
Then you will see the local news media accuse the Red for disrupting the public.
Also, I guess the government is preparing helicopters to evacuate those V.I.Ps already.
They have some plans to frame the protesters. Let’s see if it’s not true.
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2 Reds in the city, Bangkok brinkmanship - New Mandala/CBC Canad | simonroughneen.com // Mar 15, 2010 at 2:54 am
[...] http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/03/14/sunday-in-bangkok-reds-in-the-city/ [...]
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3 BKK News Feed Archive Q1/10/II // Mar 15, 2010 at 12:18 pm
[...] – Rival Countries Move Up as Thailand Struggles BANGKOK POST – High Noon in Bangkok NEW MANDALA – Sunday in Bangkok, Reds in the City TNA – Red Shirts Threaten to Dog Abhisit to Pressure House Dissolution (or he will face mass [...]
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4 Arthurson // Mar 15, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I was at Phan Fa bridge on Sunday at the same time as Simon Roughneen and his report is quite accurate. However, in the late afternoon the size of the crowd surged dramatically as more and more groups arrived, usually dancing exuberantly to the drum beats and clapping of the crowd. I would estimate that the size of the turnout doubled during this period.
When my digital camera’s battery died around 5 p.m. I decided to leave and found it quite difficult to walk against the flow of foot traffic up Ratchadamnoen Avenue back to Democracy Monument and Khao San Road. It was also impossible to get across either Pin Klao Bridge or Rama 8 Bridge. I saw there were red shirts all over the western parts of the city proper as my taxi went north toward Suan Dusit, but none were present in Bangkok Noi once I made it across the river at Sang Hee Bridge.
The rally at Phan Fa was joined by a procession of 500-1000 Buddhist monks at around 3 p.m., who splashed the crowd with holy water and were cheered excitedly. I was told that there was another group of monks of equal size supporting the Red Shirt movement at Sanam Luang park. This brought to mind images of the monks leading the protests in Yangoon in 2007. I don’t know if this presence of saffron robes in large numbers in national political protests is unprecedented or not.
The mood of the crowd was celebratory and happy, as if they had already achieved victory. I suppose a small victory of sorts had been achieved, because the BBC announced that this was the largest demonstration to come to Bangkok in over 30 years.
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5 Jim Taylor // Mar 15, 2010 at 2:43 pm
the only problem reported from the front line are the planting of agent provocateurs by the state/army and Newin’s henchmen to cause violence which would give the excuse for the military/state to act with full force – which is what they would like to do. A group of yellow hardcore dressed in red have already been identified at two sites and the police called in…
I think all freedom loving folk who deplore resurgent Thai neofascism must be pleased with the turnout of the reds at this (real) time…It is a pity the media, as an instrumentality of the state, has likewise vested interest in the current status quo and will not report with objectivity of anything resembling truth.
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6 Portman // Mar 15, 2010 at 4:07 pm
It’s a pity that this is all about restoring ill gotten gains to a megalomaniac politician rightfully convicted of corruption with not a shred of political manifesto from the reds. I wonder if the Ozzie social science teachers like Jim Taylor et al would be so enthusiastic about having a crook like Thaksin as PM of Australia.
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7 Srithanonchai // Mar 15, 2010 at 4:15 pm
“I wonder if the Ozzie social science teachers like Jim Taylor et al would be so enthusiastic about having a crook like Thaksin as PM of Australia.” >> How about trying to analyze the Thaksin phenomenon within the Thai context?
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8 Surrey Tie // Mar 15, 2010 at 8:22 pm
“I wonder if the Ozzie social science teachers like Jim Taylor et al would be so enthusiastic about having a crook like Thaksin as PM of Australia.”
SRITHANONCHAI>> How about trying to analyze the Thaksin phenomenon within the Thai context?”
By which I suppose you are trying to tell us that we should always placate those parasites who seem to regard the rest of us as an easy host. The Thai context tells me that many Thais are far from happy with Thaksin. Which is why this is not going away in any hurry. Even a redshirt will eventually own up to the fact that Thaksin was and still is a deeply corrupt person. Indeed, it is precisely his membership of the elite that seems to allow him to continually get away with murder. Just remember this. He is an ex-policeman who attended a military academy that is renowned for its arrogance and greed. That tells me that he is definitely not the saviour of the poor. Rather he is locked in a power struggle with other greedy elites. The rest of us will gain nothing substantial from this power struggle except cracked heads and huge medical bills.
The way to greater social justice will only come through hard work and slow attrition. These fast-track routes to greater social justice will never work. Indeed, they are not even designed to work. They are just the means through which Thaksin hopes to leverage himself into a very strong position for the eventual arrival of the NEXT man.
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