Siam Trading Post News

While many within Thailand may see the last campaign of the Red Shirts to be a failure, and the movement broken and over that may just be wishful thinking. While Thailand is a democracy, it is a troubled one; here in Thailand the history is to take power by protest and coups.

 

While many of the top Red Shirt leaders are under arrest, some have managed to escape Thailand. Five of the rally organizers have been arrested and are being held under the emergency decree, which remains in effect. Fugitive protest leader Jakrapob Penkair, who managed to flee abroad after the Army broke up the protests in Bangkok, said the red-shirt movement to drive the Abhisit Vejjajiva government out was not spent, but rather would come back even fiercer, including adopting guerrilla tactics if necessary, to achieve its goal.

“I believe the room for unarmed and non-violent means to resolve Thailand’s problem is getting smaller every day,” he told BBC by phone from an undisclosed location.

He went on to say that the struggle to bring down the present administration would continue, but the opponents would no longer rely on conventional forms of protest. Different tactics need to be used to confront the government. He would not rule out the use of clandestine subversion or armed attacks, or other behind the scenes methods to bring down the Government.  “The state of emergency is a big help. It puts people underground,” he said.

For Thailand this means the end to these problems could be much farther away than the leaders here would like. The economy here has already taken a massive hit, exports and off by 25% tourism down by 50% and the World image is very poor, all things Thailand doesn’t need at this time.

 

It is believed about 15 million people support the Former Prime Minster Thaksin Shinawatra and his Red Shirt protesters. You just can’t ignore this large number of people and their wishes, granted most of the support is from the rural areas of Thailand and the poor, but these factors make it even more important to make these people believe that their views and opinions are important.

 

 

 

Prime Minister Abhisit addressing a joint parliamentary meeting said that Thais should refuse to join any political movement that used force of arms. A combined house session was held in a effort to clear up any controversial issues related to the crackdown, people should voice their opinion in the open instead of resorting to violent means, he said.

It is interesting to see how the Government reacts to the Red Shirts vs. the Yellow Shirts who also took over Government House last year for several months and closed the airports in Bangkok by takeover late last year. Causing over 500,000 passengers to become trapped for several days. Two political groups from opposing parties both calling for the Government to step down, handle in completely different ways.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya has accused ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of plotting to “rub out” his enemies in an effort to return to power. Thaksin “has resorted to some sort of assassination attempt” as a “last resort”, he said in a speech to the Asia Society in New York.

Kasit said the targets included Abhisit, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij and Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban and himself. “The five of us are at the moment quite well protected by security forces,” Kasit said. The State of Emergency has not bee lifted in Bangkok and the leaders still see a threat of further actions. Kasit also pointed the finger of blame to Thaksin for the assignation attempt on Sondhi Limthongkul. 

Sondhi Limthongkul, the leader of Yellow Shirts, would protested during most of 2008 against the pro-Thaksin government was shot and wounded last week, then his car was attacked. Over fifty rounds were fired into the car while it was stopped at a gas station in Bangkok. The ammo used has been traced back to the military. Which could be seen as a sign that not everyone within the current government is happy?  The police are investigating but have yet to arrest any suspects for the attack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abhisit, car has also been stopped and attacked twice over the last two weeks, once in Pattaya and once in Bangkok. No firearms were used in these attacks but it has the Prime Minister’s security staff on alert. The Prime Minister has stayed in two or three safe houses and is protected by about ten heavy armed marines, Kasit stated.  

Thailand needs understand that it standing in the world is being affected by these problems and the world is watching. If Thailand wants to have normal relationships with the rest of the world these problems need to be addressed and solved.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 8:20 am and is filed under Thailand News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.