Thailand To Negotiate With Protesters

[PeaceBlondie]

Maybe those 'xenophobic" "nationalist" Thais are reluctant to kill other Thais, face to face. You have to be carefully taught to hate other people, and Thais may not have been carefully taught to kill each other.

[khunjamespittman]

my opinion is we who are not thai should mind our own buisness and let the thai people sort there problems out we have no right to interfere in their politics wether we se it as good or bad and if you are unsure of what might happen get out of the country just myopinion

Thank you for your opinion. Is your apinion interfering in Thai politics? I don't think so. I also don't think that the opinions of the many non-Thai posters are interfering in Thai Politics. They are just discussion of differing opinions.

[hammered]

Let me push this thread back on topic:

Chamlong also added that the People's Alliance for Democracy is willing to negotiate with the government but it must be done face to face and not via telephone.

This is a quote from within the hour....

Also I really do not understand why nobody is talking much about the Court moving up the corruption trial of the PPP to Tuesday Dec 2. The court is not allowing further testimony, stating it has enough evidence to reach a conclusion.

So the current government may be out in just a few more days.

As to all the people theorizing about why the police or military will not get their hands bloody....well if the person giving the orders may well be out of power in a few days, they who wants to stick their neck out.

A very good point and correct most are missing what could well be the end of this game, or at least the end of the first part.

[jts-khorat]

I think it's pretty reassuring actually. Please correct me if I'm wrong Thad, but it doesn't match what were lead to believe from the usual Thaksin/PPP propaganda machine about the humble north being up in arms, ready to don red shirts and kick the beep out of anything wearing a hint of yellow...? Instead people, like the rest of the country, are just getting on with it hoping for a peaceful outcome?

Well, obviously, I can't speak for all of Isaan, but I am yet to see any pick-ups loaded with red shirts here, and I pray that that is representative of the whole area.

(but I haven't seen a yellow shirt since last Monday either)

If you would wish to see red shirts, a good spotting place would be Sanam Luang tomorrow: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30089756

[tig28]

Actually Thaddeus, your little story supports the case that Isanese should be excluded from political process altogether.

Only in the sad minds of bigots. The insulting and racist concept that any of the people of Thailand should be denied the right to vote

is disgusting & should be resisted at every opportunity !

Country's main airport closed - mai pen rai, lets get back to food. Distorted and pathetic.

They just don't give a <deleted>, do they? No --- PAD have never given "a <deleted>" for anyone or anything ---apart from PAD and their backers !!

By their actions PAD have demonstrated their contempt for all of Thailand--- its peoples and its laws! All you do is highlight the moral bankruptcy of PAD.

That's one more argument for "new politics" - let them select representatives from fellow rice farmers so they'd vote for something they have direct stake in, maybe that will make them interested in political process. Voting for a generic MP to do whatever he pleases up in Bangkok clearly doesn't work. Your racist & bigoted preaching does you no credit whatsoever.

Edited November 29, 2008 by tig28

[bob6023]

Thaksin will be back....wanna bet me ?

[grandpops]

Nothing to negotiate. Leave em there, they are doing no harm to the north of the country. In fact Chiang Mai could benefit long term from this.

Billions of dollars lost for what?

If the Army support criminals like this, let em stay. It'll smoke the rich backers out of the PAD camp when their businesses are down the pan next month. They have a lot of money I hear in the PAD backers accounts, but with a world wide recession, Banks going tits up and a list of PAD backers about to be released, it is not and endless supply. These "Educated Thais" dont' have trees on which money grows.. unlike us handsome falangs!

Also surpise a lot of PAD supporters when cheques don't arrive, goods don't arrive, salaries go un paid.

Many of em are probably so caught up in the propaganda they havn't seen or heard the train of financial ruin coming up on them.

Choo choo. I forgot to mention... with Sondhi driving it and his "educated Thais" in the carriges cheering.

Edited November 29, 2008 by grandpops

[regfrancis]

Financially they shot them selves in the foot with the millitary coupe-- now they are finishing off the job.

These countrys are emerging nations because they never emerge.

[JoeInSurin]

Let me push this thread back on topic:

Chamlong also added that the People's Alliance for Democracy is willing to negotiate with the government but it must be done face to face and not via telephone.

This is a quote from within the hour....

Also I really do not understand why nobody is talking much about the Court moving up the corruption trial of the PPP to Tuesday Dec 2. The court is not allowing further testimony, stating it has enough evidence to reach a conclusion.

So the current government may be out in just a few more days.

As to all the people theorizing about why the police or military will not get their hands bloody....well if the person giving the orders may well be out of power in a few days, they who wants to stick their neck out.

The PAD taking over the airport is an act of terrorism and should me delt with by the army and police. What does an illegitamate government have to do with them allowing an act of terrorism to hold the country hostage? What does vote buying have to do with not stopping terrorists??

[rainman]

Thaksin will be back....wanna bet me ?

I think he will. I previously didn't support it (and much less PAD), but now I do. Sure he stole money, but at least the country and it's development was on the right way in every direction. Sondi also steals money, but he could care less about the country and it's people, as we see now.

[adjan jb]

Negociation is the only descent way out. Otherwise I"m afraid it will turn into a bloodshed.

[fft100]

just in from Reuters.

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The assault by the People's Alliance for

Democracy (PAD) was swift and savage, a head-on charge by a convoy of vehicles

speeding down the wrong side of an expressway into scores of unarmed police.

As the terrified officers fled, some of them jumping through the open

door of accelerating police vans, wild-eyed young men burst from the PAD

vehicles, attacking with sling shots, fireworks, iron bars and wooden stakes.

The onslaught lasted no more than 15 seconds but left the five-lane

highway, the main access route to Bangkok's besieged Suvarnabhumi airport,

littered with broken glass and discarded police helmets and truncheons.

The police, who have orders not to retaliate against a movement backed by

Bangkok's establishment grandees, had virtually no warning.

"The yellow people are coming," one officer shouted, turning to run as

the PAD vanguard, a large sound-truck blaring out anti-government vitriol,

careered round the bend of the expressway exit.

Yellow is the "birthday colour" of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in whose name

the PAD conducts an airport siege that has stranded thousands of visitors and

threatened billions of dollars of damage to the export- and tourism-dependent

economy.

It is not known what the revered monarch thinks of the protesters, who

also claim to be a peaceful street movement dedicated to the removal of a

corrupt but elected government.

The PAD's leaders say their "security guards" carry clubs and iron bars

only in self-defence.

After the police fled, the PAD stationed their own sentinels at the

expressway exit ramp, ensuring no repeat attempt by police to choke off their

main supply route.

At other, more minor approach roads round the besieged airport complex,

one of the world's largest, police are armed with automatic rifles. Nobody comes

or goes.

Inexplicably, at the main expressway entrance where PAD reinforcements

flow in constantly, police have neither the orders, inclination or fire-power to

stop a single vehicle.

"If the yellow shirt people come with no weapons, then they can pass,"

the commander on the ground, Police Colonel Wuttipong Petchgumneard, said only

moments before the PAD assault.

Nearby, his disconsolate men huddled against the concrete crash barriers,

counting down the minutes to the end of their eight-hour shift.

"We are just checking the numbers of the cars," Wuttipong said, holding

up a small digital camera, an almost comical gesture as several SUVs sped past

in the dark.

(Editing by Darren Schuettler and Michael Roddy) Keywords: THAILAND

PROTEST/ATTACK

(Bangkok newsroom, [email protected]; +66 2 637 5610)

[flamingtodd]

We are in California for the holidays. My flight is on the 3rd, and this is all the BBC has to say about Thailand.

Does anyone have another website that is more dedicated to Thailand?

[plachon]

Maybe those 'xenophobic" "nationalist" Thais are reluctant to kill other Thais, face to face. You have to be carefully taught to hate other people, and Thais may not have been carefully taught to kill each other.

This is an interesting point you raise here PB, and may explain why to date bloodshed has been relatively limited, given the level of tension that exists. This distinguishes it from the 1973 and 1976 massacres around Thammasat where the students were labelled as "communists" (and Buddhist monks were exonerating the killing of commies) or "Vietnamese" (who were perceived as both commies and rotten foreigners to the xenophobic right wingers let loose on the students). It also distinguishes the present Bangkok Thai vs Thai Bangkok troubles from the Southern insurgency (= Muslems/terrorists stereotyping) and the low-level genocidal activities against Northern ethnic minorites (= hilltribes/others/non-Thais/drug seller stereotyping). However, it doesn't explain the seeming ease with which Thais killed Thais in Black May 2002, when mostly Border Patrol Police were let loose on protesters with alarming brutality by the Generals, apparently with little or no remorse. General Suchinda and other leaders granted themselves an amnesty and were never brought to book for their crimes, in which at least 200 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. Many bodies were never repatriated to the families and many other people simply disappeared (presumed dead) at the time in one of Thailand's darkest chapters.

Thaksin also seemed to have no qualms about having killed thousands of fellow Thais in his War on Drugs, do not forget. So, the potential is there, so long as the killer is able to dehumanise the victim. Worryingly, many farang posters on this board seem quite happy to do the same, labelling protesters all sorts of perjorative names which simply do not apply, as if they are baying for blood. Rather sad.

[tingtongmaak]

What an awfully sad situation this has become, can anyone see and end to it?

Who cares, got themselves to blame.By that i mean everyone not just PAD.

Who cares!?! What are you doing on this forum then!

[flanker]

That is NOT a solution and the UK did NOT have such a system "until relatively recently" i don't know what the hel_l your talking about..what 'recent' year was the UK not a democracy and their government was appointed?

The question would always come to who the hel_l gets to appoint? "intelligent" people, and who the hel_l are they? Do you really think they could not be bought or corrupt or political? This type of thing would only create more conflict and violence and could never be implemented..and it is NOT in any way democratic.

Monitored democratic elections are not perfect but it is the only realistic way forward for this country.

There are several possible ends to the current conflict, each of which has been discussed, dissected and rejected here ad nauseum The Thais will come up with a solution -- if only temporary. Some say the only longterm solution is something along the lines of what the PAD are proposing, ie, half the national assembly appointed and half elected, like the UK had until relatively recently. Many Thais support the idea while most Western democracy advocates do not.