Stop falling prey to political ploys

Avudh Panananda

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- There seemed to be another upsurge of political volatility on Tuesday when the red and yellow shirts clashed in the vicinity of the Crime Suppression Division.

The fact that the brawl took place right under the noses of the police force also speaks volumes about their job performance where crowd control is concerned.

Even though all sides agreed that the incident had possibly been instigated in a move to further drive a wedge in society, police could have done a better job at keeping peace and order.

Some 300 yellow shirts from upcountry, proclaiming to be true royalists, began rallying just before noon, and strangely nobody was in control.

They were supposedly there to provide moral support for Manassanan Nukham, 31, who was involved in a verbal spat with red-shirt leader Darunee Kritboonyalai, 63.

The spat took place at the Paragon shopping complex on August 31 when, according to witnesses, Manassanan allegedly launched a tirade at Darunee asking why she had been attacking the King.

The two exchanged sharp words before parting ways. Subsequently, Darunee filed a police complaint charging Manassanan of slander but she also said that the accused might have mistaken her for lese majeste convict Daranee "Da Torpedo" Chanchoengsilapakul.

The Crime Suppression Division then hyped things up by mounting a large operation to locate Manassanan before summoning her for questioning on slander and privacy offences.

In the meantime, the reds and yellow shirts started launching hateful remarks at each other in connection with the case and police chose not to provide any clarifications.

It still remains a mystery as to why police failed to notify the crowds that Manassanan's questioning had been pushed back to October 29.

For hours the yellow shirts kept rallying, causing traffic snarl-ups, while the police looked on calmly as if everything was perfectly fine.

Then, when dozens of red shirts showed up with loudspeakers mounted on a vehicle, police rushed to deploy two companies of anti-riot forces to keep the two sides apart.

Like the yellow shirts, the reds also did not seem to have any rally organisers in sight. And as the opposing sides started exchanging insults over megaphones and loudspeakers, the police stood by doing nothing.

Emotions ran high and brawls started kicking off. The crowds only dispersed when it started raining heavily.

Later some 10 people from both sides of the camp filed complaints about their injuries, and it is of concern that the two colours have threatened to mobilise even bigger crowds when Manassanan reports to police next month.

There are some questions that remain unanswered, though. How did a simple quarrel between two women escalate into a stand-off between the red and yellow-shirt movements?

Why have the police decided to treat this spat as if it were a national issue? After all, Darunee did point out that she might have been mistaken for "Daranee".

Why did the red-shirt leaders not try to block the hateful messages spread by their supporters in the social media, and why did the yellow-shirt leaders want to politicise this case by portraying it as a fight between royalists and non-royalists?

Perhaps Tuesday's clash should serve as a reminder that people wearing different colours should not allow emotions to cloud their judgement if they want to avoid falling prey to political ploys.

-- The Nation 2012-09-28

... and the police stood by - neutral (surprising) as the colours went at it. Time to get rid of the police 'force' as they are civil service employees who continue to fail to uphold law and order, the job they were paid to do. Apart from scams and corruption of course.

Rally organisers in sight ha ha

I said before spineless Generals lead from the rear, Red & yellow shirt street brawlers are just cannon fodder to perpetuate an already tired & out of date argument.

As for escalating the problem next time I'm sure the police have public order codes to be able to deal with the protesters of all colours??

Rally organisers in sight ha ha

I said before spineless Generals lead from the rear, Red & yellow shirt street brawlers are just cannon fodder to perpetuate an already tired & out of date argument.

As for escalating the problem next time I'm sure the police have public order codes to be able to deal with the protesters of all colours??

And the most spineless of all is leading from Dubai.

Not sure what happened but feel the yellow shirts are wanting a say and as usual the red shirts want no opposition. Kind of strange how they just happened to have trucks with loud speakers on hand.

As for the police., Well stop and think about it for a moment who hands them their orders. Were they ordered in to stop the 2010 fiasco before it got out of hand and all they could do was cower behind the army.

For hours the yellow shirts kept rallying, causing traffic snarl-ups, while the police looked on calmly as if everything was perfectly fine.

Then, when dozens of red shirts showed up with loudspeakers mounted on a vehicle, police rushed to deploy two companies of anti-riot forces to keep the two sides apart.

For hours the yellow shirts kept rallying, causing traffic snarl-ups, while the police looked on calmly as if everything was perfectly fine.

Then, when dozens of red shirts showed up with loudspeakers mounted on a vehicle, police rushed to deploy two companies of anti-riot forces to keep the two sides apart.

They didn't do a very good job.

wasn't meant to imply that they did

some people will catch the meaning of that post, others.... won't.

it's not exactly overly-cryptic!

no, he is in Singapore ...

wasn't meant to imply that they did

some people will catch the meaning of that post, others.... won't.

it's not exactly overly-cryptic!

As if!

wasn't meant to imply that they did

some people will catch the meaning of that post, others.... won't.

it's not exactly overly-cryptic!

As if!

..... and ..... so on and so forth ......

Am I being simplistic to read the article (from the infamous 'The Nation') as a balanced report?

The only people apparently in the wrong are the police.

The article indicates that both the yellow and red shirts were equally guilty/innocent.

All it needed was a bit of control.

Nice to see that the rain has some benefits