Rival Masked Rallies Planned In City Today

[Lite Beer]

Rival masked rallies planned in city today
The Nation on Sunday

BANGKOK: -- Government critic Kaewsun Atibodhi speaks during a panel discussion on
Anti- and pro-government groups plan separate demonstrations today in Bangkok's business district, as the Guy Falkes white mask campaign gains more support from people opposed to the so-called Thaksin regime.

The white mask group planned its gathering at the Central World shopping complex this afternoon against the Yingluck Shinawatra government, which opponents say is a "puppet" regime controlled by Yingluck's brother, fugitive former premier Thaksin.

The anti-government group, which started its campaign in the social media, said it would begin its protest at 1pm. Participants were asked to bring Guy Falkes white masks and placards containing messages "describing the evils of the Thaksin regime", according to organisers.

Supporters of the government, meanwhile, called a gathering at the BTS Siam station, which is not far from Central World.

Groups that call themselves Ultra Red and Daeng Sayiew planned their demonstration at 5pm. Participants have been asked to wear red masks or any other style other than the white Guy Fawkes mask of their rivals.

According to the organisers, participants should hold placards with the message "Protect the monarchy". They accused the white mask group of using a symbol of an "anti-monarchy" plotter in their campaign.

Meanwhile, Thaksin's legal adviser and spokesman Noppadon Pattama said yesterday that certain groups of people were attempting to destabilise the government via "legal mechanisms".

He said ruling politicians would have to be careful about such moves and should avoid any conditions that could be employed in those attempts.

Noppadon, who is part of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, said he had noticed "unusual movements of news" in the social media lately. He added that many rumours were spread through the Internet, including hoaxes about possible explosions or a military coup.

He called on its opponents and detractors to wait for the government to complete its four-year term - in two years time.

In a related development, a group of about 50 red shirts gathered outside the house of Constitutional Court president Wasant Soypisut in Nonthaburi yesterday.

They called on the court's judges to investigate their colleague Jaran Pukditanakul about his remark that the court's verdict in the case against late former prime minister Samak Sundaravej was not sufficiently careful. Samak was dismissed for being employed by a private company while serving as prime minister.

The red shirts wanted the top court to set up an investigative committee against Jaran within seven days or said they would file a police complaint against the judges for alleged malfeasance.

-- The Nation 2013-06-02

[bigbamboo]

Should be a ball....!

Can't wait for the Fifth of November this year. We might actually get some fireworks.

[notmyself]

Children... the whole lot of 'em.

[Chittychangchang]

Seems like everyone is masking up these days

CCC

[moe666]

COOL

[moe666]

Cool, Guy would be proud

[MaxLee]

We just have stay away from down town Bangkok today then...

Well good luck, dear White Masks, you have over 3 quarters of Thaksin supporters against you, if you decide to go on the street..s of Bangkok, expext their stubborn resistance....

[pilot321]

Participants were asked to bring Guy Falkes white masks and placards containing messages "describing the evils of the Thaksin regime", according to organisers.

Meanwhile, Thaksin's legal adviser and spokesman Noppadon Pattama said yesterday that certain groups of people were attempting to destabilise the government via "legal mechanisms".

Noppadon, who is part of the ruling Pheu Thai Party

Perhaps the white masks might consider a placard with the message, "Strengthen the banned from politics rule" in an effort to prevent instigators like the banned Noppadon (yet "part of the ruling Pheu Thai Party") from fanning the flames.

[pilot321]

Groups that call themselves Ultra Red and Daeng Sayiew planned their demonstration at 5pm. Participants have been asked to wear red masks or any other style other than the white Guy Fawkes mask of their rivals.

According to the organisers, participants should hold placards with the message "Protect the monarchy".

Perhaps the Ultra Reds could start by addressing the significant section of their own their Reds who are staunchly anti-monarchists.

[Thailand]

TIT

[chainarong]

I think the idea of masks is great, TAT now can jump on the band wagon, hold a face mask rally once a week and promo the event as the Rio hub of Asia , you can expect a hundred thousand people at least.

[Bellweather]

Noppaddon spoke of " an unusual movement of news " but unfortunately I don't speak fluent PTP so what exactly does this nonsense mean ? I'm presuming it's news unfavourable to and unwanted by the government and which they can't control, well so far that is but be sure they're working on it.

[noitom]

Maybe next time around the editors of The Nation can spell Guy Fawkes' name correctly. As in Fawkes not Falkes.

[NongKhaiKid]

We just have stay away from down town Bangkok today then...

Well good luck, dear White Masks, you have over 3 quarters of Thaksin supporters against you, if you decide to go on the street..s of Bangkok, expext their stubborn resistance....

Makes everything easy for the BIB operational briefing - red masks good people, white masks bad people.

[OzMick]

The BIB will have their own mask - impartiality.

[Credo]

I don't think this will be a case of the Lone Ranger meets Zorro.

[soi41]

Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon!!

[rubl]

"Thaksin's legal adviser and spokesman Noppadon Pattama said yesterday that certain groups of people were attempting to destabilise the government via "legal mechanisms"."

If a government can be destabilised by 'legal' mechanisms, I'd say there's something wrong with the government. Of course having government MPs actively taking part in illegal activities and protests tends to reflect on the government. Even a Pheu Thai party list MP but also UDD leader being their usual 'friendly' self can upset things.

Interesting is the remark on "'unusual movements of news' in the social media lately". Did Oak report on yet another assassination attempt on his father? K. Abhisit out of the country while being urgently needed by the Thai Nation? Or just the first step in a government crackdown on 'destabilizing' websites, for the good of the Nation and to safeguard the red democracy of course.

[Thaddeus]

Wait for the black shirts to join in.

[amore]

Noppaddon spoke of " an unusual movement of news " but unfortunately I don't speak fluent PTP so what exactly does this nonsense mean ? I'm presuming it's news unfavourable to and unwanted by the government and which they can't control, well so far that is but be sure they're working on it.

Oh I don't know, possibly it's something to do with the fact that there's been 5 articles on "mask" led anti government activity since yesterday in The Nation newspaper alone:

Rival Masked Rallies Planned In City Today, Group Fights 'dictatorship' Linked To Thaksin, A Government Of The People Should Not Threaten, White Masks Leave Virtual World For Real Rally In Bangkok, Anti-Thaksin Group ' White Faces' To Join Thai Spring

and those are just the ones chosen to comment on here. You'd have thought that somebody had been planting these articles

[rubl]

Noppaddon spoke of " an unusual movement of news " but unfortunately I don't speak fluent PTP so what exactly does this nonsense mean ? I'm presuming it's news unfavourable to and unwanted by the government and which they can't control, well so far that is but be sure they're working on it.

Oh I don't know, possibly it's something to do with the fact that there's been 5 articles on "mask" led anti government activity since yesterday in The Nation newspaper alone:

Rival Masked Rallies Planned In City Today, Group Fights 'dictatorship' Linked To Thaksin, A Government Of The People Should Not Threaten, White Masks Leave Virtual World For Real Rally In Bangkok, Anti-Thaksin Group ' White Faces' To Join Thai Spring

and those are just the ones chosen to comment on here. You'd have thought that somebody had been planting these articles

With anti-government being the theme I guess "Ultra Red" and "Daeng Sayiew" are the planted parts

[amore]

"Thaksin's legal adviser and spokesman Noppadon Pattama said yesterday that certain groups of people were attempting to destabilise the government via "legal mechanisms"."

If a government can be destabilised by 'legal' mechanisms, I'd say there's something wrong with the government. Of course having government MPs actively taking part in illegal activities and protests tends to reflect on the government. Even a Pheu Thai party list MP but also UDD leader being their usual 'friendly' self can upset things.

Interesting is the remark on "'unusual movements of news' in the social media lately". Did Oak report on yet another assassination attempt on his father? K. Abhisit out of the country while being urgently needed by the Thai Nation? Or just the first step in a government crackdown on 'destabilizing' websites, for the good of the Nation and to safeguard the red democracy of course.

No, what has an assassanation attempt on Thaksin or Abhisits whereabouts or assumptions about government actions on websites have to do with this topic?

You're very good at giving advise about remaining on topic - When are you going to start practising it?

Back to the thread see note 20.

[rubl]

"Thaksin's legal adviser and spokesman Noppadon Pattama said yesterday that certain groups of people were attempting to destabilise the government via "legal mechanisms"."

If a government can be destabilised by 'legal' mechanisms, I'd say there's something wrong with the government. Of course having government MPs actively taking part in illegal activities and protests tends to reflect on the government. Even a Pheu Thai party list MP but also UDD leader being their usual 'friendly' self can upset things.

Interesting is the remark on "'unusual movements of news' in the social media lately". Did Oak report on yet another assassination attempt on his father? K. Abhisit out of the country while being urgently needed by the Thai Nation? Or just the first step in a government crackdown on 'destabilizing' websites, for the good of the Nation and to safeguard the red democracy of course.

No, what has an assassanation attempt on Thaksin or Abhisits whereabouts or assumptions about government actions on websites have to do with this topic?

You're very good at giving advise about remaining on topic - When are you going to start practising it?

Back to the thread see note 20.

Mi amore, do you ever read a post before kneejerking into a reply?

I was simply wondering about the 'unusual movements in social media', I even refrained from referring to former members, imagine. Noppadon is warning, the government is warning, 'white masks' have been warned till 'red masks' came along making warnings more difficult. So may I speculate on how far the government may go in implementing measures to give substance to warnings?

Thin skinned like the government, aren't you?

[Siripon]

Regarding the red shirts rally at Mr Jaran's house, I don't know if they're deliberately being unintelligent or not, but the fact is Samak had the right to be PM again after the ruling dismissing him and indeed he turned up at Parliament fully expecting to be voted in again. However Thaksin decided to dispose of him and instructed his MPs to vote for his more malleable brother-in-law Somchai.

Samak was betrayed by Thaksin, not the first and certainly not the last.

[IMA_FARANG]

Oh good, fun and games season again.

[IMA_FARANG]

Oh good, fun and games season again.

And I note that the Thai Baht is back up above 30 Baht to one dollar again.

Edited June 2, 2013 by IMA_FARANG

[rubl]

Groups that call themselves Ultra Red and Daeng Sayiew planned their demonstration at 5pm. Participants have been asked to wear red masks or any other style other than the white Guy Fawkes mask of their rivals.

According to the organisers, participants should hold placards with the message "Protect the monarchy".

Perhaps the Ultra Reds could start by addressing the significant section of their own their Reds who are staunchly anti-monarchists.

If written in English is looks good to the International Community. If on sturdy placards no other self defence means required.

[supaprik]

hiding behind a mask...Pffttttt

[IMA_FARANG]

While I recognize the mask and it's relevance to Guy Fawks and all that, it is not what you think.

The mask is a symbol of the group Anonymous and (the international hackers/protestors/activist group).

Not sure what it has to do with Thailand and Thai politics ... but I guess it's a "trendy" thing..

Power to the 99%.

Down with the 1%

[TheGhostWithin]

hiding behind a mask...Pffttttt

I think in a situation in which the government has shown an demand to revoke the rights of its' citizens and silence opposition parties in a supposedly democratic system, a fight through anonymity is a very smart way to ensure the safety of the movements members and protect them from being silenced in any way.

The government has used surveillance on both sides in the past to persecute members of rival political movements. Fear of persecution at a personal level is currently very real. Related activities in other countries (such as Cuba, Russia, Poland) indicate that potentially the next move if personal persecution of resistance supporters failed would be to persecute their families, and perhaps in Thailand also their villages.

Considering recent threats of the "white mask movement" (which is making a statement that they no longer want their country run by people committing criminal acts and certainly do not want someone that is convicted of serious crimes returning to take the reins of power again) by the present administration members looking to do the right thing for the longevity of fair and and eventual handed democratic rule within the Kingdom have every right to fear persecution for exercising their human right to restrictions of speech, movement and expectations of fair and even treatment without persecution and prejudice.