An admittedly naive question about the protests

[boink]

I keep wondering about this and no one so far has been able to give an answer...

What are these people who are protesting doing about their jobs? They're certainly not all unemployed or retired.

How are they able to take weeks at a time off of work? Are they still paid?

I just don't understand how they can continue for so long.

[speedtripler]

there is free food and drink there for the poor

suthep is a billionaire

most people go home and come back on evenings and weekends

there is hardly anybody at some of the protest sites during working hours

[animatic]

They typically are part of a self-sustaining family group and represent others who are keeping the family income happening while one member acts politically for the family. Not all people work for others and have no job flexibility to take time off. And in some cases the boss is sympathetic and let's them go, because the boss sees long term benefit in political change. I know this is happening in more than a few cases. And sometimes the boss is the one gone to protest because he sees the gov. Bad decisions hurting his business or personal interests and his #2 keeps the business running in his absence. Besides many Thais have savings and will put some of their money where their mouth is.

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[AyG]

Many of the protesters are office workers who join the protests after work each day for a few hours.

[Spaniel]

I think the above replies pretty much answers your question.

[ABCer]

They typically are part of a self-sustaining family group and represent others who are keeping the family income happening while one member acts politically for the family. Not all people work for others and have no job flexibility to take time off. And in some cases the boss is sympathetic and let's them go, because the boss sees long term benefit in political change. I know this is happening in more than a few cases. And sometimes the boss is the one gone to protest because he sees the gov. Bad decisions hurting his business or personal interests and his #2 keeps the business running in his absence. Besides many Thais have savings and will put some of their money where their mouth is.

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A very nice and logical explanation. BUT in my view it opens many more questions.

- Numbers... it is not representative of Thai People (75 M of them?)

- Vote buying... how different this mechanism is from vote buying?

- Can a sympathetic boss TELL them to go? At least it is possible!

- Can a long term benefit for a business boss be damaging to the country?

- If so many Thais have savings AND are prepared to 'put their money where their mouth is' - how can vote buying be so disastrously widespread?

All these questions are reasonable.

And they can be reasonably answered.

Just remember the proportion: 100 K to 75 M.

Basically I do not care who wins. It is none of my business. Just do not like being taken for a fool.

[impulse]

I would like to commend the OP for asking a pretty reasonable question, and admitting that, like most of us, he doesn't fully understand what's going on.

Refreshing!

[animatic]

They typically are part of a self-sustaining family group and represent others who are keeping the family income happening while one member acts politically for the family. Not all people work for others and have no job flexibility to take time off. And in some cases the boss is sympathetic and let's them go, because the boss sees long term benefit in political change. I know this is happening in more than a few cases. And sometimes the boss is the one gone to protest because he sees the gov. Bad decisions hurting his business or personal interests and his #2 keeps the business running in his absence. Besides many Thais have savings and will put some of their money where their mouth is.

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

A very nice and logical explanation. BUT in my view it opens many more questions.

- Numbers... it is not representative of Thai People (75 M of them?)

- Vote buying... how different this mechanism is from vote buying?

- Can a sympathetic boss TELL them to go? At least it is possible!

- Can a long term benefit for a business boss be damaging to the country?

- If so many Thais have savings AND are prepared to 'put their money where their mouth is' - how can vote buying be so disastrously widespread?

All these questions are reasonable.

And they can be reasonably answered.

Just remember the proportion: 100 K to 75 M.

Basically I do not care who wins. It is none of my business. Just do not like being taken for a fool.

68 million not 75.

http://www.idea.int/vt/countryview.cfm?CountryCode=TH

Registered voters are more like 47 million, children and the mentally infirm don't vote.

Actually voting has been 35 million, so 1/2 = 17.5 million tipping point.

Hill tribes and stateless persons and foreigners also do not vote,

but get counted in households or as persons in Thailand in many inflated counts.

100k is one number and other numbers are far higher without getting into hyperbole range.

If 1 family member protesting represents 10 residents back home, that expands it significantly.

younger son of 5 or young wife, representing kids and grandparents and the extended family

of 10 is not a stretch.. If there are 500k protesting that is more than a simple voting block. 1mil. etc.

Everyone wants more money, more face and to get ahead, so vote buying still happens.

But the most egregious is the village head style where the leader doles out moneys

based on allegiances to HIM locally, and that trickles back up the kow tow chain.

If your local well being is dependant on the local puyai treating you well,

his vote preferences become yours. Thaksin's machine has harnessed that brilliantly.

That is until the average Samchai doesn't get paid for his crop.

A sympathetic boss may tell them to go,

but I have yet to hear of that happening in the anti-Thaksin side.

Of course some business interests go against the national interests.

Such as those run by the current government in stasis.

Edited January 25, 2014 by animatic

[mogandave]

Extremely low unemployment?

[recom273]

Quite a few of one-man-band food stalls have been closed here in the south for about a month or so now .. When I ask where so-and-so is, im told they are protesting.

Quite often its a mystery what people in the south do ? If your family has a rubber plantation it can be quite a prosperous business for all.

Not to make a total generalization, but the families that have the rubber land because their grandparents knew someone on the local council, the same that employ illegal Burmese workers, pay them under the national minimum, dont pay tax on their production as its all cash-in-hand, bung the school director enough to get their kids through school with some qualifications, pay the army to keep their kids out of national service, the guys that after a bottle of Hong Thong in the local Karaoke, jump into their new trucks .. I think you will find a few in town to protest against corruption.

[mogandave]

Not to make a total generalization...

Indeed

[thaisaregrt]

I should be able to tell you all some great answers over the coming days, they are now camped a few hundred yards away from our house outside the police training school, moved there this afternoon.