Bangkok Residents Become Hostages To Red-Shirt Anarchy

[yoshiwara]

I wonder when, if it hasn't already passed, the time will come were the PM is a day late and a dollar short in terms of his political career as a result of his dealing with this situation.

Even if the Reds do something grand and overtly violently, I believe many people will hold him 1/2 responsible too since he has as of yet done NOTHING to restore peace and prevent overt violence (death and injuries) which we all know is coming if this group is left unchecked.

Using force now (and it's necessarily attendant violence) would, like holding an election now, solve nothing and lead to more unrest and violence. Gently does it.

Enforcing the law and holding those accountable who flagrantly break the law would solve the situation we have now. When people learn there are laws that need to be respected then future coups will stop and people will learn they need to wait for elections and handle grievances in legal ways.

Enforcing the law will restore peace to all those suffering at the hands of this mob as well as stop further damage to Thailand as a whole.

MAKE NO MISTAKES ... THERE IS A LAWLESS MOB ROAMING THE STREETS OF BKK AS WE SPEAK

Excellent idea.

The law under the 1997 consitition said coups are illegal and you cannot throw the constititon in the bin and grant yourself immunity.

So under that "unchanged" law then the coup leaders, the military shoiuld all be tried for treason.

So yes, lets start using the LAW.

As the coup was "illegal" lets put TRT back into power by hitting the reset button.

Or do you just want to apply the law at this monent in time because it suits you ?

Closely translated this means bring back Thaksin, who as we all know treats the law as his property.

The red agenda has one item on it.

Bring back Thaksin.

Nothing else.

[kissdani]

To me the color RED has some very serious connotational problems. Look at other "red" fights for what they call "power to the people" or "democracy":

- the little Red Book by Mao. Result: about 20 million died under Mao's government.

- the Read Army terrorizing Eastern Europe for almost 40 years

- the Khmer Rouge (or Red Khmer) under Pol Pot. (BTW, did you know that Hun Sen was a close ally of Pol Pot?)

- the usually red shirt of Hugo Chavez. This guy obviously has a lot in common with Thaksin. Slowly turning a a democracy into a dictatorship with one leader for life.

Of course, that's all just a coincidence, but doesn't it give you something to think about?

In today's Bangkok Post they quote one Red Shirt lady with what I believe is the basic truth in the present situation. Here is what she said:

" We are all calling for democracy and want Thaksin Shinawatra to come back because we will have money in our pockets when he returns as Prime Minister of Thailand again."

She sells flowers at the Erewan shrine.

My Thai wife said: "What a brainless idiot. But then again that's why she only sells flowers."

:D

You forget Santa, that english football club, coca cola and the red light district. Fiction , loser, bad for teeth, ohhlala in a shady neighborhood.

[bubba]

Silom people boo red shirts

As the red shirts rally on Silom road on Tuesday, many people there show their disapproval for the ongoing protests by the red shirts.

Standing on roadside of Silom road, about 30 people booed and jeered the protesters, travelling on trucks, pickups and motorcycles, who were reaching busy and crowded Bang Rak market.

They also hold banners criticising the red shirts and disapproving of their protests.

The confrontation caused tension in the area. The protesters demanded that people stopped showing the banner, but to no avail.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...s-30126516.html

I seem to recall the red shirts saying something about "democracy".

[pimay11]

Silom people boo red shirts

As the red shirts rally on Silom road on Tuesday, many people there show their disapproval for the ongoing protests by the red shirts.

Standing on roadside of Silom road, about 30 people booed and jeered the protesters, travelling on trucks, pickups and motorcycles, who were reaching busy and crowded Bang Rak market.

They also hold banners criticising the red shirts and disapproving of their protests.

The confrontation caused tension in the area. The protesters demanded that people stopped showing the banner, but to no avail.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...s-30126516.html

I seem to recall the red shirts saying something about "democracy".

Only their form of "democracy". I have rights and you don't so shut up and go away!

[LevelHead]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

The Reds have massive support in Bangkok and its why the government will not use force. They are too scared of the consequences. Its why they have issued deadline after deadline only to see the deadline pass and make them look weaker and weaker.

.

Edited April 6, 2010 by LevelHead

[johndpoole]

deleted

Edited April 6, 2010 by johndpoole

[bubba]

Silom people boo red shirts

As the red shirts rally on Silom road on Tuesday, many people there show their disapproval for the ongoing protests by the red shirts.

Standing on roadside of Silom road, about 30 people booed and jeered the protesters, travelling on trucks, pickups and motorcycles, who were reaching busy and crowded Bang Rak market.

They also hold banners criticising the red shirts and disapproving of their protests.

The confrontation caused tension in the area. The protesters demanded that people stopped showing the banner, but to no avail.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...s-30126516.html

I seem to recall the red shirts saying something about "democracy".

Only their form of "democracy". I have rights and you don't so shut up and go away!

"Some animals are more equal than other animals"

George Orwell

[pimay11]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

Is this just a blatant lie? I see no story at all at the BP about protesters on Silom road.

Of course it is. What do you expect from this guy. By the way to reinforce the claim of the reds only being peaceful which we all believe

get a load of this.

THE NATION: The grenade was shot at a Correction dept van filled with tears gas and guns parked inside the Democrat HQ, NNA reports.

[johndpoole]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

The Reds have massive support in Bangkok and its why the government will not use force. They are too scared of the consequences. Its why they have issued deadline after deadline only to see the deadline pass and make them look weaker and weaker.

.

LMAO ... what is more ignorant that believing a single news story is to read two different account and believe the one that fits what you want to believe. How about the truth being somewhere in between or both being true????

Why don't you turn on the news if you are in BKK and you may see that there were a few people of both sides on the street.

Bottom line is I am in BKK and watched the first weekend they were here when they had great support lining the streets but the tides have turned dramatically and there are few in BKK who condone what the mob is now doing and few who don't want to see them go home NOW.

[bubba]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

The Reds have massive support in Bangkok and its why the government will not use force. They are too scared of the consequences. Its why they have issued deadline after deadline only to see the deadline pass and make them look weaker and weaker.

.

I'm in Bangkok. No, I didn't see the jeering incident reported by the Nation, but I did see a red shirt convoy go past in Phaholyothin Road yesterday. The "cheerers" were definitely in the minority, having been handed red flags by the red short advance team. Everyone else was making disparaging comments as the convoy started to pass. And most telling was what one older woman said to another woman who was complaining loudly: "Don't shout at them. They might start boxing you". And nobody raised their voices. They were seemed genuinely afraid of what might happen.

[kissdani]

Silom people boo red shirts

As the red shirts rally on Silom road on Tuesday, many people there show their disapproval for the ongoing protests by the red shirts.

Standing on roadside of Silom road, about 30 people booed and jeered the protesters, travelling on trucks, pickups and motorcycles, who were reaching busy and crowded Bang Rak market.

They also hold banners criticising the red shirts and disapproving of their protests.

The confrontation caused tension in the area. The protesters demanded that people stopped showing the banner, but to no avail.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...s-30126516.html

I seem to recall the red shirts saying something about "democracy".

Only their form of "democracy". I have rights and you don't so shut up and go away!

"Some animals are more equal than other animals"

George Orwell

Woman rescued by police after trying to slam vehicle at protesters

A woman was rescued by police after angry protesters surrounded her car when she tried to slam her Toyota Vigo pick-up truck at red-shirt people in front of the Bangkok Bank on Silom Road at 2:20 pm Tuesday.

She was driving towards the group of demonstrators on the road, prompting them to rush to surround her car.

Police rushed in to help and keep the protesters away from the pick-up and the woman sped away.

The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/Woman...c-30126514.html

[TAWP]

Everyone knows the present government was not elected by the people.

So simply, you have a mob on the street as Democracy has been trampled on.

Nonsense, just a few Thaksin apologists spout these lies and then try to use this as an excuse to bring an anti-democratic authoritarian into power.

[pimay11]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

Is this just a blatant lie? I see no story at all at the BP about protesters on Silom road.

Of course it is. What do you expect from this guy. By the way to reinforce the claim of the reds only being peaceful which we all believe

get a load of this.

THE NATION: The grenade was shot at a Correction dept van filled with tears gas and guns parked inside the Democrat HQ, NNA reports.

I rest my case!

BANGKOK (AFP) -- A grenade exploded Tuesday outside the party headquarters of Thailand's embattled prime minister, injuring two policemen, officials said, as mass anti-government protests paralysed central Bangkok.

[LevelHead]

The sad thing is the silent majority who support the Reds remain silent. I have spoken to many who say they support the Reds but are afraid to go there or wear a red shirt as they might get beaten up by the Yellow shirts or shot at by government forces.

Many "silent" supporters also work for "Yellow" bosses and so must not be "seen" to support the Reds or they may lose their job.

The pressure on the working class under the elite is immense but still some have the guts and courage to come out and demand Democracy to be returned to the people.

How are the Yellow/Pink shirts getting on ? Numbers less than 100 today ?

[johndpoole]

The government's Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO) has approved arrest warrants for up to 10 co-leaders of the anti-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)

[Who, me ?]

The sad thing is the silent majority who support the Reds remain silent. I have spoken to many who say they support the Reds but are afraid to go there or wear a red shirt as they might get beaten up by the Yellow shirts or shot at by government forces.

Many "silent" supporters also work for "Yellow" bosses and so must not be "seen" to support the Reds or they may lose their job.

The pressure on the working class under the elite is immense but still some have the guts and courage to come out and demand Democracy to be returned to the people.

How are the Yellow/Pink shirts getting on ? Numbers less than 100 today ?

You are out of your mind! Afraid to be beaten by yellow shirts.??? What a load of crap....

[johndpoole]

Reds seize state vehicles

Weng Tojirakarn ordered red-shirt guards to take control of the fire engines and an armoured car brought in by authorities at Ratchaprasong intersection to break up the mob and restore peace.

[LevelHead]

Everyone knows the present government was not elected by the people.

So simply, you have a mob on the street as Democracy has been trampled on.

Nonsense, just a few Thaksin apologists spout these lies and then try to use this as an excuse to bring an anti-democratic authoritarian into power.

Democratic elections meant the PPP won and came to power. The people elected the PPP.

No person ever voted for BhumJaiThai, as they did not exist.

The courts dissolved PPP and then 'elite" manipulaton made up a BJT party coalition with the Democrats, even having a banned politician seen hugging Abhisit.

So the present government was not elected by the people, it was put into place by manipulation.

And beleive me, all those that went over to BJT and defied the voters who voted for PPP are going to get hammered in the next elections, which is part of the reason the "elite" do not want new free and fair elections.

They prefer the imposed and annointed "un-elected" government presently in power.

Democracy to the people. New elections now !!!!!!

[warfie]

"City residents become hostages to red-shirt anarchy"

don't forget, the same could be said about the "yellow-shirt anarchy" its mutual or reciprocal.

I think the red shirts and yellow shirts are getting pretty even with their violence and economic damage.

The yellow shirts occupied the government house and the area and then moved out to the airport.

The reds shirts occupied the government house area and then moved to Ratchaprasong.

The yellow shirts may be slightly ahead with the economic damage with the shutdown of the airport, but I think the red shirts are ahead on the violence front with them forcing the abandonment of an international conference, and especially with threatening to blow up a gas tanker in a residential area.

You could go back a little bit further with Thaksin and the coup. The coup caused damage because, well, a coup is a coup. And Thaksin caused damage because of his moves to remove checks and balances and his corruption while he was PM.

People could argue forever about which group or event has been worse, but no one can argue that they all caused damage to Thailand.

One thing you can't argue with is ALL of it is caused by Thaksin. And it will continue on until Thaksin is out of the picture.

No. The country was running fine under Thaksin and the TRT. There were no problems at all, the people were happy apart from a few elite in Bangkok who were not getting their cut and wanted a return to the Democrats were they get their cut.

A bunch of elite sponsered Yellow shirts started causing problems. So this all goes back to the Yellows who started the problems first and would not accept the election results.

Then there was a coup.

Another election and the same Yellow shirts cause problems again.

The blame for all this mess goes down to the Elite and their Yellow sponsered shirts who will not accept Democracy and want to force their will on the people.

If there were no Yellow shirts and no coup - there would be no problems now and Thaksin would likely have been voted out now by the people under Deomcratic means.

The mess is caused not by Thaksin, the mess is caused by those that hate him, those that have broken the law of the 1997 consitition by holding a coup.

If you want a double standard lets start at the beginning.

A few people were paid lots of money to break the law and hold a coup, a crime punishable as treason under the 1997 constitution.

However, they ripped up the consititon and granted themselves "immunity"

Why are they allowed to do that ? Do you see where the double standards started ?

do you even occupy the same reality as the rest of us?

[johndpoole]

The mob is now pushing the police line again at Ratchaprasong ... live on TV before they just interrupted for the PM to address the nation

[LevelHead]

Reds seize state vehicles

Weng Tojirakarn ordered red-shirt guards to take control of the fire engines and an armoured car brought in by authorities at Ratchaprasong intersection to break up the mob and restore peace.

You appear to have deleted the part where is says Weng ordered the protestors not to damge the vehicles and simply not allow them to be used against the protestors in a violent way.

Wonder why you missed that part off of the quote from an online article which you also failed to put a link with ?

Its very naughty to quote only parts of articles and not put a referring link in as well.

[johndpoole]

The sad thing is the silent majority who support the Reds remain silent. I have spoken to many who say they support the Reds but are afraid to go there or wear a red shirt as they might get beaten up by the Yellow shirts or shot at by government forces.

Many "silent" supporters also work for "Yellow" bosses and so must not be "seen" to support the Reds or they may lose their job.

The pressure on the working class under the elite is immense but still some have the guts and courage to come out and demand Democracy to be returned to the people.

How are the Yellow/Pink shirts getting on ? Numbers less than 100 today ?

LMAO ... didn't you just say in a previous post that the Reds were lining the streets in support of this mob? Don't sound to scared to me. Seems that you have got caught in the lie of all the support they are receiving by Bangkonians and now are trying to say .... LMAO ... actually just too moronic to repeat or even follow.

Where is the Ignore button?

[anotherpeter]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

The Reds have massive support in Bangkok and its why the government will not use force. They are too scared of the consequences. Its why they have issued deadline after deadline only to see the deadline pass and make them look weaker and weaker.

I would say there is massive indifference in Bangkok. I just saw a group of a dozen red vehicles go through Ratchada, Thailand Cultural Centre area and while the were ten or so street vendors and motorbike taxis cheering them on, there was another 90 either glancing up for a moment to see what the fuss was about or ignoring them all together.

[kissdani]

The mob is now pushing the police line again at Ratchaprasong ... live on TV before they just interrupted for the PM to address the nation

Interesting that the PM is on all channels now, but that there are rarely reports/news about the red shirt protests.

[OzMick]

Tawp et al, please stop responding to the flat-headed idiot - it only encourages him to spout idiocy.

[geriatrickid]

General Prawit, the man that wears the pants in the cabinet now has decided to move against the reds. PM Abhisit speaks while his political master(s) watch.

[TAWP]

But the Bangkok Post says vendors and pedestrians "cheering the Reds".

Is The Nation becoming so biased that they cannot see reality now ?????

WHICH IS why I say you have to be in Bangkok to really see what is going on. The truth is not always what you read in the papers and TN appears to be becoming far too biased now IMO.

Is this just a blatant lie? I see no story at all at the BP about protesters on Silom road.

Of course it is. What do you expect from this guy. By the way to reinforce the claim of the reds only being peaceful which we all believe

get a load of this.

THE NATION: The grenade was shot at a Correction dept van filled with tears gas and guns parked inside the Democrat HQ, NNA reports.

Looks like the two of you cannot open links ........

Here is the link, which I posted earlier if you cared to read the post.

Still want to call me a liar ?

(URL REMOVED)

.

BKK Post urls are not allowed.

And the url does not say that a majority of people gives support etc, just that some streetvendors clapped their red clappers. Aka they are Reds themselves that just want to make sure they have something to eat when the demonstrations is over. Not everyone can rely on handouts to demonstrate.

But nowhere do the article or anyone else indicate that the majority of people in Bangkok would be in favour of the reds. Quite the opposite.

[johndpoole]

Abhisit continues to say he doesn't want to use force.

Thank God the international press has not really picked up on this and has shown Thailand as the laughing stock is is making itself.

[commons]

The sad thing is the silent majority who support the Reds remain silent. I have spoken to many who say they support the Reds but are afraid to go there or wear a red shirt as they might get beaten up by the Yellow shirts or shot at by government forces.

Many "silent" supporters also work for "Yellow" bosses and so must not be "seen" to support the Reds or they may lose their job.

The pressure on the working class under the elite is immense but still some have the guts and courage to come out and demand Democracy to be returned to the people.

How are the Yellow/Pink shirts getting on ? Numbers less than 100 today ?

LH, here's a facebook link to a group _opposing_ house dissolution. it's member-numbers are sky-rocketing: 2days ago it was about 170,000 - by now it's more than 190,000.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=108372992525155

they wanted to gather @ chatuchak - but it was called off for safety reasons. why is that LH? because everyone in BKK is _afraid_ of a mob running amok in the streets. this is not a demonstration calling for democratic rights. it's exercise of power, it's intimidation, harassment, i could go on & on.

[negreanu]

"If on April 10 the situation remains unsolved, I'll cancel my trip to Washington for a nuclear conference."

Well that should do the trick........

"We have today seen how protest leaders distorted facts and we will be prepared to cope with that in future."

Yeh don't want to do too much in 1 day. Think thats enough work for today, Cabinet take the rest of the day off.

Edited April 6, 2010 by negreanu