Suthep kicks off warm-up "Occupy Bangkok" street marches

[indyuk]

If we consider Suthep's rhetoric since the start of the protests has no continuity, strategy or intention that can be read from what he has said. Further I doubt that Suthep is clever enough to dream up a strategy and it's pathways toward the several stated objectives of annihilating (I think he also said exterminating) the whole of the Shinawatra family, whilst seizing the governance of Thailand in order that he personally will reform Thailand's flavor of democracy.

This is an adventure from madman's dream. This is demonstrably true in that a dictator is the least suitable judge of what is democratic what right for Thailand..

This protest has to have been created by an organisation headed by a political mastermind. The mastermind issues updated instructions to Suthep from week to week. That would explain Suthep's apparent irrational behavior, and at times insanity when he issues threats to Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra without being able to understand that he is a criminal.

Saddest of all are his followers whose perception is a collection of lies and half truths which they have come to believe in their hunger for cash, cordon blue free food and excitement.

They will never know that a madman is changing their personality and behavior forever.

[Ozymandias]

He is putting on a lot of miles. He is also putting himself in harms way. There are always crazies with guns out there. It's easy to put somebody down, from behind the safety of the keyboard.

I think most on here would agree that he will have a pretty sizeable human shield wherever he goes (whether he intends that or not). So for Suthep, the risk is not so great. For those on the periphery, much greater, should there be violence.

However, anybody with half a brain can see what the strategy here is on Suthep's part: if he warns of infiltration, any violence from within the supposedly peaceful protesters will be construed by those who accept this as 'infiltrators' (my guess is there won't be much evidence either way). The same tactic was used, if I recall, by the red shirts in 2010. It's just one more way of saving face and blaming the other side if things get nasty. Let's hope they don't, but it doesn't look good.

[Ozymandias]

Thank you Suthep to start civil war soon, can really nobody stop this crazy guy. Today we know where it begins, but we don't know where this will end.

Thai wife can home very upset today

Her sister Thai husband has been offered to join a group of taxi drivers and mingle with the protestors on shut down day

they are being paid to cause as much trouble as they can, and if caught say they where put up to it by the demonstrating leaders

This is third hand info, so not sure how correct the info is, but make sense that Yingluck has already pre-warned that she knows third party people will cause problems

is it a case she knows because it is part of her plan

now I wait for all the deniers, who still do not believe the red shirts cause arson in the last protest

As always, you can be relied upon to be utterly without any attempt at balance when you comment upon politics, with what seems to be your only source of information: your Thai wife (I'm sure you love her and all that, but psssst she doesn't carry any particular kudos on this forum and she definitely is not Reuters). You won't get any denial of the 2010 arson from me - it clearly was arson in most cases - but the question of who committed the arson is open to debate due to lack of evidence. In fact, the body of evidence is greater that the military was responsible for many of the 90 deaths, but still not conclusive.

You really should inject at least a smidgeon of impartiality in your posts if you want maintain interest beyond the first sentence. In one of your recent posts, you also came very close to wishing another poster dead. This demonstrates your mindset far more than anything I could write here, and you have yet to post the apology which would be forthcoming from anybody with any degree of self-awareness or decency.

[Ozymandias]

Every time he opens his mouth now he is trying to incite violence both directly and indirectly. Just imagine the paranoia he is stirring up among the remaining diehards with his reds under the beds tactic.

Stop him, please!

If there is one thing I cannot stand on here it's a bare faced lie.

Please tell me where "Every time he opens his mouth now he is trying to incite violence both directly and indirectly"

He has warned people that others may try and be violent and told them NOT to be violent in retaliation - this is quite the opposite of inciting violence. He has told everyone to have phones ready and film everything for evidence, not to engage themselves in violent activities. With all the police that should be around that is there job, to protect the public. There is also a phone number to call in case of emergencies. Suthep is doing all he can to try and ensure it remains peaceful DESPITE what the government says and what all the haters on here and round the inter web may think. He doesn't want violence, he knows the peacefulness of most of the protests is one of its biggest assets.

I don't like Suthep, but I can believe it possibel that he does not want violence. Equally, I think it possible that he does - because let's face it, violence will provoke a coup and then Yingluck is out. So of the two possibilities, violence is likely to be the one that will achieve his objectives.

However, one thing is sure: the protests will cause loss of life even if they are peaceful. This is because access to hospitals will be blocked for people who find themselves in need of emergency services - heart attacks, unexpected childbirth, seizures etc. If you deliberately block access to such services, you have to accept responsibility for innocent people losing their lives. I was talking to a doctor at a Chaeng Wattana hospital the other day - a natural supporter of this movement, perhaps - who did not seem at all happy about what they were doing.

Any thoughts on this?

Edited January 11, 2014 by Ozymandias