Starting Points: Thaksin Shinawatra

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Jun 9, 2010

Many Thai workers, now out of poverty, are in dissent

Image by __maurice via Flickr

By Andrew Higgins
Wednesday, June 9, 2010; A10

NONBON, THAILAND -- San Silawat has three dogs, two cows and a parrot. He grows rice and spring onions on a small plot of land. But he's hardly a pauper: He's added a second floor to his house and built a blue-tiled patio. His son plays computer games in the front room. His daughter recently bought a Nissan pickup truck. His granddaughter studies nursing in Bangkok.

For all his relatively good fortune, however, San is certain about one thing: "Life is definitely getting worse," said the 62-year-old farmer, grumbling about the price of gasoline, school fees and a political and economic system he sees as rigged in favor of the rich.

Last month, San and six friends from this village in northeastern Thailand piled into a pickup and drove 14 hours to join "red shirt" protests in Bangkok. During nine weeks of demonstrations, scores of other rural folk from Nonbon and nearby settlements made the same 390-mile trip.

Beneficiaries of an economic boom that, in just three decades, has cut the proportion of Thais living below the poverty line from 42 percent to about 8 percent, San and his family represent both the promise and the peril of Asia's dizzying transformation.

From China in the north to Indonesia in the south, hundreds of millions of people are now living far better than a generation ago. But the gap that separates them from the rich has often grown wider. As their fortunes and expectations have risen, so too has their frustration. And, as recent turmoil in Thailand has shown, this can mean big trouble.

San and his neighbors rallied to the red shirts not because they are hungry, uninformed and desperate but because they are no longer any of those things. Though still very poor compared with Bangkok residents who cheered the red shirts' defeat when government troops moved in on May 19, they are a better-off, better-informed and far more demanding voice in national affairs than their elders. San buys and reads a newspaper every day.

"Farmers in the past didn't ask for anything. They just did their farming," said his daughter, Tasaneeporn Boran, standing next to her brand-new black Nissan, which she bought in February.

"We now know what is going on," she said. "We know what we want and don't want." What she doesn't want most of all is a "government that only looks after the rich, instead of ordinary people."

Continental divide

It is a demand that raises alarming questions not just for Thailand's Eton- and Oxford-educated prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, but for governments across Asia struggling to manage rising expectations amid growing, but unevenly spread, prosperity. Thailand's protests began in March not during a recession, but as the economy recorded first-quarter growth of 12 percent, its strongest performance in 15 years.

China, meanwhile, saw its economy surge by 11.9 percent -- and has since been hit by a wave of labor unrest, including a strike over wages at a Honda factory in Guangdong, one of the country's wealthiest regions. China's Communist Party has staked its future on a bet that economic growth will reinforce, not undermine, stability. But Thailand's experience shows how easily such calculations can come unstuck.

Instead of political calm, growth in Thailand has brought increased tension. When the country set off the 1997 Asian financial crisis and fell into a deep slump, political stability in Thailand actually increased and then plunged as the economy took off again, according to the Worldwide Governance Indicators, compiled by experts from the Brookings Institution and the World Bank.

Over the last four decades, Thailand's economy has grown an average of about 7 percent a year, and average real per-capita income has roughly tripled since the mid-1980s. But, according to a recent report on Thailand last year by the United Nations Development Program, the Southeast Asian nation is beset by "persistent inequality" that defies a widely accepted theory that the gap between rich and poor widens during an initial phase of development but then narrows.

Thailand's income inequality is roughly the same as that of much poorer nations such as Uganda and Cambodia and slightly worse than that of China and the United States, both highly unequal in terms of income distribution, according to data in the United Nations 2009 Human Development Report.

Despite the income gap, the people of Nonbon have unquestionably benefited from their country's rapid development. Tasaneeporn recalled growing up in the 1970s with no electricity, no running water and no paved roads. Only one family had a TV.

The main economic driver in the region at the time was the U.S. Air Force, which used a big airfield in the nearby city of Ubon Ratchathani to launch bombing runs over Vietnam and Cambodia. Now, a recently widened four-lane highway -- dotted with convenience stores and shopping centers -- connects Ubon Ratchathani, the regional capital, to farmland around Nonbon.

Tasaneeporn's brother recently got work in the city at a new luxury hotel. The job gives him a small, steady income -- and puts him in daily contact with people who have far more money.

'Voice of the People'

The most vocal red shirt supporters in these parts are not the destitute -- people like Sritta Sorsrisuk, a 71-year-old farmer who has seen two of his six children die. "I don't care about politics," he said, sitting in a tumbledown shelter next to his tiny plot of land. But others "talk about it all the time: red this, red that."

More keen on the red shirts is Usasorn Anarat, a neighbor of San's who traveled to Bangkok twice to join the protests. Thanks to her husband, who works in Qatar, and modest profits from a rice farm, Usasorn has a monthly income of about $1,000, far above the local average.

Like San, Tasaneeporn and nearly everyone in the villages around here, she's a huge fan of Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former prime minister who was ousted by the military in 2006 and is now wanted for "terrorism" under a Thai warrant. Thaksin, Usasorn said, "loves the country, won elections, and they chased him away."

Thaksin, a billionaire, regularly visited the Thai countryside and launched a raft of programs to help rural residents, including cheap health care, easy credit and handouts of about $30,000 to each village head. He even stopped off in the village next to Nonbon.

"Nobody had done that before," said Tasaneeporn. Her father managed to shake Thaksin's hand. He now has a picture of Thaksin pinned on his living room wall, along with photographs of Thailand's king.

After Thaksin and King Bhumibol Adulyadej, now 82 and hospitalized, the most popular person around here is Phichet Thabbudda, a rabble-rousing radio announcer known as "DJ Toy."

He founded and ran the "Voice of the People," a shoestring local radio station that won a big following with fiery denunciations of the government and the well-to-do. He also organized convoys of vehicles bound for Bangkok

Echoing the rhetoric of red shirt leaders in Bangkok, DJ Toy spoke of Thailand as a nation divided between hard-working but impoverished "serfs" and an oppressive, greedy "aristocracy." This played well in Nonbon and in other villages across northern Thailand. But Jamnong Jitnivat, a longtime local campaigner for farmers' rights, said it distorts reality. The real issue, he said, is a government bureaucracy out of touch with an increasingly well-informed and better-off population that now "demands much more than before."

When troops moved in to dislodge protesters in Bangkok on May 19, DJ Toy's radio station thundered against the crackdown and called on listeners to show their anger. Protesters burned down city hall in Ubon Ratchathani. The following day, police and soldiers arrested DJ Toy at his home, raided his studio and hauled away his antenna.

San, the rice farmer, said he misses his broadcasts but still keeps up with events by reading the newspaper and watching TV. "We all know what is happening," he said. "We know who is good and who is bad."

Jun 2, 2010

Thai Parliament Reflects Nation’s Anger

Narong Sangnak/European Pressphoto Agency

Sathaporn Maneerat, an opposition legislator, showed his solidarity with the red shirts in Parliament on Tuesday in Bangkok.

By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — Thailand’s conflict moved from the streets of Bangkok to the chamber of Parliament this week, as angry and irreconcilable as ever, with members from both sides trading accusations late into the night.

Interspersed with video clips that brought the sound and horror of battle into the chamber, the debate revived unanswered questions about snipers, arsonists, killings at a Buddhist temple and mysterious assassins dressed in black.

Framed as a parliamentary no-confidence motion against the government, the session on Monday and Tuesday provided the first public forum to debate the violence during a two-month demonstration by an antigovernment movement known as the red shirts that ended when the military moved in on the protesters’ encampment on May 19. A total of 88 people were killed and more than 1,800 wounded during the protests and crackdown.

The no-confidence motion was defeated on Wednesday in a 246-to-186 vote, The Associated Press reported. But no possible outcome seemed likely to ease the intensifying polarization of the nation, in which the rural heartland seems increasingly disconnected from the more comfortable life of the capital.

During the sessions, opposition members accused the government of shooting unarmed demonstrators as well as medical workers, and of placing snipers on an elevated railway track to fire at protesters taking shelter in a temple.

The government blames the protesters for instigating the violence, going so far as to suggest that black-shirted gunmen among them killed their own people to frame the government.

For nearly two months, mostly poor protesters occupied parts of Bangkok, particularly the commercial core of the city, demanding that the government step down and hold a new election. By the time Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva offered to hold an election in November, it appeared that compromise was no longer possible, and the violent eviction followed.

In Parliament, the opposition accused the government of unprovoked massacre, echoing the position of its figurehead, the fugitive former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who had hired an expert on war crimes to bring international charges against the government.

The government has in turn brought terrorism charges against Mr. Thaksin, accusing him of being behind the violence. He remains abroad, evading jail time for a corruption conviction.

Mr. Abhisit said the government had never ordered the killing of protesters, and the finance minister, Korn Chatikavanij, suggested in an interview that the killings had been staged by the protesters as provocations.

“There have been certain incidents in which the paramilitary arm of the red-shirt movement were quite willing to shoot their own to place the blame on the government,” Mr. Korn said.

In addition to the killings and the burning of more than 30 buildings on the final day of conflict, the police said Tuesday that during the crackdown there were 62 bomb attacks, 39 cases of arson, 18 cases of manslaughter and attempted killing, and 34 cases of robbery and looting.

Suthep Thaugsuban, the deputy prime minister in charge of security, denied that snipers had fired at a Buddhist temple, Wat Pathum Wanaram, a haven that became a trap for thousands of people taking refuge in the core of the protest area. But Mr. Abhisit conceded that many such questions remained to be investigated by an impartial panel he had promised.

Though the parliamentary session was unlikely to sway opinions, it gave opposition politicians a chance to put forward their views at a time of strict censorship. Citing the crisis, the government has shut down thousands of Web sites and pages, as well as opposition radio stations, prompting condemnation from within and outside Parliament.

May 28, 2010

Thailand tries to go after financial backers of 'red shirts'

Image via Wikipedia

By Andrew Higgins
Friday, May 28, 2010; A01

BANGKOK -- Victorious over rice farmers in flip-flops and riffraff with slingshots, molotov cocktails and a few guns, the commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army has moved swiftly to contain another menace: a golf-loving steel tycoon and maker of Nestle instant coffee.

Multimillionaire businessman Prayudh Mahagitsiri is now No. 21 on the latest installment of an expanding financial blacklist issued by the Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation, a body handling Thailand's gravest political crisis since the founding of the modern Thai state in 1932.

Prayudh, along with 151 other businessmen, politicians, lawyers and other alleged financiers of "red shirt" protests, has seen his bank accounts frozen and been ordered to report details of all financial transactions since September to authorities. The aim, said an emergency decree signed by Gen. Anupong Paochinda, is to root out threats to "national security and the safety of citizens" and "get rid of this problem effectively and immediately."

Last week, the Thai military forcibly ended a nine-week protest that had paralyzed central Bangkok, resulting in a frenzy of arson and looting. In all, more than 85 people died in the mayhem and earlier violence.

One of Asia's most vibrant economies is now getting cleaned up and back in business, but the government's campaign to rip out the roots of the protests once and for all has turned on some of Thailand's wealthiest businesspeople.

This economic assault has highlighted a curious and highly volatile feature of a raucous struggle often seen as a battle between Thailand's haves and have-nots. Although many rank-and-file red shirts are relatively poor and many of their most strident critics -- "yellow shirts" -- are fairly well-to-do, Thailand's far-from-resolved confrontation is also a clash within Thailand's elite.

"This is an ideological conflict mixed up with a business conflict. Business competition has always been muddled with political competition. But this is much more vindictive," said Chris Baker, a longtime resident of Thailand and co-author of a recent book about Thailand's billionaire former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

On Tuesday, Thailand issued an arrest warrant on terrorism charges against Thaksin, a U.S.-educated former policeman who made a fortune off mobile telephones, TV, golf courses and other ventures. He won two elections, styled himself "CEO Prime Minister" and presided over a period of roaring economic growth -- and also mass executions of alleged criminals -- while serving as leader from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup. He's now in self-imposed exile abroad.

"They are tightening the noose," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. Arrests, censorship and the financial inquest have put Thailand on "a slippery slope," he said, adding: "The creeping fear is that this could become a witch hunt. The question is: Who is next?"

Noppadon Pattama, a former foreign minister whose bank accounts have been frozen, denounced the financial probe as "clearly politically motivated." Like many on the financial blacklist, Noppadon is close to Thaksin.

The government denied engaging in a political vendetta. The money probe, said spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, is "not a tool for political conflict" but a response to a security threat. "People who have nothing to hide have nothing to worry about," said Panitan, a political scientist who taught for a time at Johns Hopkins University.

Twenty companies, most of them owned by relatives or close associates of Thaksin, are also under investigation. Like individuals on the list, they are barred from making bank, stock, insurance or other transactions without government permission. Authorities have made public no evidence of wrongdoing and have stumbled over details: One blacklisted company closed years ago.

Thailand's business community, like the rest of the country, is bitterly divided.

When Bangkok lurched toward anarchy last week, mostly pro-Thaksin red shirts turned with fury on property owned by rich families they viewed as hostile or lukewarm to their movement. Police stood by as rioters torched branches of Bangkok Bank and the country's biggest shopping mall, CentralWorld.

The arson attacks mirrored, albeit with far more violence, a campaign launched in early 2006 by opponents of Thaksin to boycott businesses close to the then prime minister. Six months later, the military removed Thaksin and set up a commission to investigate his business network.

That investigation began a long effort to choke off Thaksin's money. It climaxed in February when Thailand's Supreme Court confiscated $1.4 billion of frozen Thaksin assets. The court ruling allowed him to keep about $900 million. Soon after the court decision, red shirts began mobilizing for an occupation of downtown Bangkok.

Sean Boonpracong, a former resident of Herndon, Va., who helped lead the red shirt invasion, said after release from military interrogation over the weekend that protesters got $130,000 a day -- far less than official estimates -- from "friends of Thaksin" for food, generator fuel and other supplies. He denied that any had been used to buy weapons, adding that red shirts discussed setting up an armed wing but rejected the idea.

Some of those on the blacklist sympathized with the red shirt cause, which boiled down to a demand that the government quit and call early elections that would possibly return Thaksin's allies to power. A shopping center owned by one targeted businessman leased space to a host of now-defunct red shirt ventures, including an anti-government TV station, a journal called Red News, the Red Cafe and also the Red Shop, filled with Thaksin dolls, Thaksin T-shirts and books praising Thaksin.

Other tycoons suffered heavy losses from the turmoil they're accused of bankrolling. Particularly hard hit was Panlert Baiyoke, owner of the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, an 88-story Bangkok landmark with 658 guest rooms. The hotel had just one guest last week. This week it had 20.

Prayudh, the coffee maker and chief executive of a steel venture called Thainox Stainless, declined to comment on allegations that he helped fund the protesters.

The government has given no evidence of misbehavior by Prayudh other than a long association with Thaksin. The corporate headquarters of Thainox displays a 2001 photo of Prayudh receiving a business award from Thaksin.

Prayudh made his first big money from a coffee joint venture set up in 1972 with the Swiss multinational Nestle. Nophadol Siwabur, director of corporate affairs for Nestle in Thailand, said the blacklist "is essentially a private matter for Mr. Prayudh." Nestle, he added, "keeps a strict neutrality in political matters."

This hasn't helped Nestle escape the consequences of politics: Its Bangkok offices were in CentralWorld, the shopping and office plaza torched by protesters.

May 17, 2010

Terror Spreads in Bangkok

Manish Swarup/Associated Press

Thai policemen marched to remove a barricade put up by antigovernment protesters near the victory monument in Bangkok on Monday. More Photos »

By THOMAS FULLER and SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — Chaotic gun battles in central Bangkok marked a new phase of the city’s spiraling violence Monday as residents hoarded food and the government warned die-hard protesters that they should leave their encampment or risk “harmful” consequences.

Protesters roaming the lawless streets of a strategically important neighborhood near the protest zone threatened to set fire to a gasoline truck as bonfires, some from piles of tires, sent large plumes of black, acrid smoke into the sky.

Security forces armed with assault rifles were deployed in greater numbers across the city after many firefights, including a nighttime grenade attack on the five-star Dusit Thani hotel, a landmark in the city.

The attack and a subsequent prolonged gun battle suggested that Thai security forces were up against more than just protesters with slingshots and bamboo staves. The mayhem of the crackdown, which follows two months of demonstrations by protesters who are seeking the resignation of the government, has made it difficult to understand who is battling whom.

A government official, Korbsak Sabhavasu, said late Monday that a protest leader had called him to discuss an end to the standoff, a development that offered a glimmer of hope that the violence might subside. The Associated Press reported that Mr. Korbsak said he had told the protest leader that the army would stop shooting if protesters returned to their base in the city.

But there have been many false starts in recent weeks, making a resolution to the crisis far from imminent.

The government suggested that Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 coup, was behind the shadowy forces battling the army on Bangkok streets.

Satit Wongnongtoei, a minister in the prime minister’s office, spoke of a “commander who lives overseas” who is intent on “causing violence and loss of life as much as they can by using weapons of war.”

The government on Sunday issued a ban on certain banking transactions linked to companies and accounts held by Mr. Thaksin and his family.

The protest movement defiantly encamped in Bangkok began as a reaction to Mr. Thaksin’s ouster but has expanded to resemble a large social movement by less affluent segments of Thai society rebelling against what they say is an elite that tries to control Thailand’s democratic institutions.

On Sunday, Mr. Thaksin issued a statement through his lawyer that called on “all sides to step back from this terrible abyss and seek to begin a new, genuine and sincere dialogue between the parties.”

It seems plausible that some of the attacks in recent days have been carried out by disaffected elements of the military or police. The attack on the Dusit Thani hotel in the early hours of Monday may have been a retaliatory move by a faction loyal to Khattiya Sawatdiphol, a renegade major general allied with the protesters who was shot on Thursday. Security experts speculate that General Khattiya, who died on Monday, was shot by a sniper stationed at the Dusit Thani hotel, which has served as a base for hundreds of security personnel members in recent weeks.

The government has insisted that soldiers fire only in self-defense, but the death toll has been lopsidedly among civilians since violence intensified last Thursday. Government statistics said that 34 civilians and two soldiers — including General Khattiya — had been killed since Thursday, and 256 people been wounded, almost all of them civilians.

Protesters have attributed some of the deaths to snipers who are stationed in several places around the city on top of tall buildings.

The Foreign Ministry explained in a memo distributed on Monday that the sharpshooters had been deployed to “look out for danger and protect others.”

The memo summarized in chilling detail a video taken of a military sniper shooting someone suspected of carrying a “bomb,” the memo said, without more detail.

“The shot was made in a controlled manner,” the memo said. One of the soldiers in the video is then quoted saying, “Man is down! I see it!”

Most of the violence has occurred in the streets that surround the protesters barricaded encampment, where protest leaders appear increasingly anxious.

Nattawut Saikua, a hard-line protest leader, said he was prepared to negotiate without preconditions if the government would accept a cease-fire. He dropped the demand he had made Sunday for mediation by the United Nations.

The government responded that there would be no talks while the violence continued.

With the apparent involvement of various armed groups, the fighting may have moved beyond the point where any protest leader can declare an effective cease-fire.

The protest site, in the heart of Bangkok’s main commercial district, which at its peak was filled with tens of thousands of demonstrators, had thinned to perhaps 2,000 on Monday afternoon. Where entire families had camped in a festive atmosphere, mostly men remained. Garbage was strewn everywhere.

Army aircraft circled above the site dropping leaflets urging people to leave. Guards in black with red scarves escorted people who chose to leave. A man circulated among the guards handing out small packets of sticky rice along with 100 baht bills, worth about $3.

Protesters filled small Red Bull energy drink bottles with gasoline and then demonstrated their plan to propel them by swinging a golf club. Small groups of people occasionally looked up and pointed at surrounding department stores where they said they believed snipers were hidden.

Outside the site of the sit-in, on Rama IV road where much of the worst fighting has taken place, trucks loaded with tires raced in, unloaded them as if at a racetrack pit stop, and sped away. Crowds watching from a safe distance applauded. The tires were stacked by the road to replenish a continually burning barricade.

At one point in mid-afternoon, the crowd, at a new makeshift stage near the Khlong Toey slum, faced the burning wall of tires and sang the national anthem.

Tension radiated from battle zone, and at one point unknown gunmen carried out an attack on a hospital.

Hundreds of businesses and bank branches were closed after the violence caused the government to declare a national holiday and postpone the opening of schools.

The American Embassy in Bangkok canceled a “town hall” meeting about the security situation scheduled for Tuesday because of the risk that those attending would be put in “harm’s way,” a statement from the embassy said Monday. Embassy officials will instead address concerns of Americans living in Bangkok on the Internet.

One American photographer, Paula Bronstein of Getty Images, described being trapped in the Dusit Thani when the attacks occurred.

“If you’ve ever heard the sound of a grenade, it’s really loud if it goes off really close,” she said. “It didn’t take long before we realized the hotel was under attack. The gunfire was just indescribable. It was just nonstop. And it was coming from both directions.”

After the attack guests were told to go into the basement of the hotel, where they remained until morning.

“There was a woman who had fainted, and they were trying to make her come to and it was really just more confusion and everyone was yelling,” Ms. Bronstein said.

The hotel closed its doors to guests Monday afternoon.

Mariko Takayasu contributed reporting.

May 14, 2010

Thailand Edging toward Civil War?

Thai General Linked to Protests Is Shot in Head During Interview - NYTimes.com

By THOMAS FULLER and SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK — A renegade major general who allied himself with the protesters who have paralyzed Bangkok for weeks was shot in the head and critically wounded here on Thursday as the military began sealing off a barricaded encampment of antigovernment protesters.

The general, Khattiya Sawatdiphol, 58, had become a symbol of the lawlessness and impunity that have torn Thailand apart as the protests have pitted the nation’s poor against its establishment.

He was shot during an interview with a reporter for The New York Times about 7 p.m., one hour after the military announced the start of a blockade and cut off electricity and water to a tent city of thousands of protesters.

Photographs

Rogue General Shot During Thai Protests

The reporter, who was two feet away and facing the general, heard a loud bang similar to that of a firecracker.

The general fell to the ground, his eyes wide open, and protesters took his apparently lifeless body to a hospital, screaming his nickname: “Seh Daeng has been shot! Seh Daeng has been shot!”

He was later reported to be on life support. Within hours, protesters were clashing with security forces in Lumpini Park in Bangkok.

The general rankled both the government, by joining the so-called red-shirt movement, and many protest leaders, for his refusal to back down. The government accused him of a role in the violence that has taken more than two dozen lives since the protests began in mid-March. In the interview on Thursday, he described other leaders of the protesters as cowardly “idiots.”

Nonetheless, the general had assumed control of security for the protesters, placing his own black-shirted paramilitary fighters at entrances in the makeshift barriers around their encampment, and he claimed the loyalty of a small but intense group of protesters.

Although the government called him the main impediment to peace and suspended him without pay, he was allowed to move freely, exposing the impotence of the authorities here.

“I deny!” he cried in English, with a laugh, when asked in an interview on Sunday about the dozens of bombings that have set Bangkok on edge and about the mysterious black-shirted killers who escalated the violence on April 10 that killed 26 soldiers and civilians. “No one ever saw me.”

The military, which has held back from clearing out the protesters for fear of bloodshed, now appeared ready to crack down. The general’s last words before being shot were, “The military cannot get in here.”

But even as the military moves to seal off the area, it remains stymied by the likelihood of resistance that could expand outside Bangkok into rural areas that are the heartland of the opposition.

And the protests themselves are only the latest and most dangerous manifestation of what seem to be irreconcilable differences in the country. Thailand’s social contract has frayed, posing a challenge to an entrenched hierarchical system with a constitutional monarch at its core.

There are several levels to the protesters’ demands, including the return of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006 and is now abroad evading a corruption conviction, and a desire for a more equitable democratic system in which their voices would carry greater weight.

The protesters first accepted and then refused a government offer to hold an election in November in return for an end to their sit-in. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva withdrew that offer. He previously called General Khattiya a terrorist.

The reversal of the agreement with the government was a sign of growing factionalization of the protest movement — the Thai news media reported that a number of the leaders stepped down on Thursday — and raised fears that even if some of them agreed to break camp, others would hold their ground.

General Khattiya’s involvement with the protest movement underlines fractures in the military, and more broadly in Thai society, after four years of political turmoil.

“The people won’t go home,” the general said on Sunday night, as admirers crowded around him at a McDonald’s restaurant in the heart of the protest area. “Just stop? Compromise? All these people, the hard core, they want to stay longer.”

When the bullet struck him on Thursday, General Khattiya was facing a road, an overpass and a business district with several tall buildings.

In the minutes afterward, more gunshots were heard, and there were later reports that 20 people had been injured, though the cause of their injuries was unclear.

The protesters clustered around a high fence surrounding the park, throwing stones and firing slingshots and possibly shooting firearms at soldiers inside. One protester was shot in the head and was taken away by an ambulance, even as gunfire from within the park continued. He was later reported to have died.

Still later in the night, gunshots and explosions could be heard.

General Khattiya reveled in the attention he was receiving, from the prime minister, the press and the protesters, who he said “believe that because Seh Daeng is here they won’t die.”

“That’s why everywhere I go people cheer me and ask for my autograph,” he said. Along with a knife and a canteen, he carried a blue marker pen and wrote his name on shirts and caps as he posed for pictures with his admirers.

Before he was shot, the government had announced that armored personnel carriers would be used to cordon off the area in what appeared to be the beginning of an operation to disperse the thousands of protesters who were camped out outside shopping malls and luxury hotels.

A half-hour before he was shot, General Khattiya was addressing a scrum of reporters at sundown at the barricades. Most peeled away, leaving the general in a conversation with the reporter.

The general commented on his uniform, saying it was the one he had worn when fighting communists three decades ago. He spoke about working with the protesters and about how it was different from his previous military missions.

He described himself as leading a “people’s army” that was bracing for a crackdown by the military.

This clash would be “free form,” he said, adding, “There are no rules.”

Seth Mydans contributed reporting.

May 2, 2010

Message Battle Heats Up in Thai Crisis - NYTimes.com

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

By THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — Viewers of Thai soap operas now have a choice: they can follow the over-dramatized acting and weepy plot lines of shows like “The Glass Around the Diamond” or they can read pro-government political messages scrolling on the bottom of the screen.

“The Thai people love peace but when we go to war, we are not fearful,” reads one of the dozens of messages broadcast on two government channels exhorting people to oppose the protest movement that has paralyzed parts of Bangkok for more than seven weeks.

“Sometimes the Thai people have to fight bad Thai people,” says another.

Thailand’s political crisis is playing out on the streets here, where antigovernment protesters, who are demanding new elections, are defending their fortified encampment in the commercial heart of the city. But political battles are also being waged through television, Facebook, community radio stations and Internet chat rooms.

After a failed crackdown on the so-called red-shirt protesters last month, the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is leading a two-pronged campaign it hopes will strangle support for the protest movement. The government is sharpening its public relations message while trying to shut down the opposition’s media, a plan that in some parts of the country appears to be backfiring.

A constant crawl at the bottom of television screens, which started running in March on two government-owned stations, makes the case that “malevolent” protesters are hurting the country and should go home. And an advertisement implores: “Thais should love each other because we all live in the same country.”

Image via Wikipedia

At the same time the government has shut down an opposition television station and at least 420 Web sites affiliated with the red shirt movement.

Officials are also accusing red shirts of trying to overthrow the monarchy, an incendiary charge that protest leaders reject.

In an interview with foreign correspondents on Sunday, Mr. Abhisit suggested that the government would try to shut down community radio stations, which have multiplied throughout the country in recent months, especially in the populous red-shirt stronghold of the northeast.

He accused the radio stations of being “command centers” for the red shirts and playing a “coordinating role” in the unrest.

“We are trying to restore order,” he said. “I’m not going to say that no media is allowed to attack or comment on the other side. But certainly no media should be allowed to play the role of inciting violence.”

The prime minister also said he had not ruled out using force to end the standoff in Bangkok. “We are now in the process of cutting off support and sealing the area off before we actually move in,” he said.

But a crackdown does not appear imminent, especially after 25 people died and 800 were injured in the botched attempt to clear protesters on April 10.

Mr. Abhisit said Sunday that he remained patient and that the “best solution is one that does not involve violence or confrontation or conflicts.” An aide said the prime minister would soon release a “political roadmap” that could bring reconciliation to the country after four years of turmoil.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The overarching strategy for the government appears to be demonizing the protesters and hoping that public opinion swings against them, a process that could take months. Mr. Abhisit and his advisers warn of “terrorists” among the protesters.

So far, the public relations campaign has had mixed results. In Bangkok there is growing anger at the red shirts over the barricaded streets and their incursion last week into a hospital, which caused panic in the wards. But there is also deepening frustration over the government’s inability to drive out the protesters.

“The government is good at building up their image from these messages on television, but no one is taking any action to solve the problem,” said Yont Klomkleaw, a manager for a market research company in Bangkok.

On Sunday, the prime minister’s Facebook page had about 600 comments, many of them supportive; “fight! fight!” was a common refrain. But there were also critical postings. “Sometimes, words alone may not be enough,” wrote one commenter, Anyarporn Tansirikongkol.

In the provinces, especially the red shirts’ base in the north and northeast, the government’s efforts may be backfiring, with many villagers rejecting the messages as spin and propaganda, a view encouraged by the movement’s leaders.

“The government is just lying to the people,” said Jarungkiat Chatchawat, who runs a food stall in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen. “It doesn’t have any influence on me.”

One military intelligence officer described the red shirt movement as spreading “like a virus” in the northeast.

The red shirts broadcast their message using community radio stations and, until recently, the satellite television station PTV, which was shut down by the government last month.

Their public-relations campaign has focused on a few key words, notably the “double standards” in Thai society applied to the poor compared with the rich and well-connected. They also call the Abhisit government illegitimate because it came after court decisions that barred two prime ministers from the opposition camp.

The red shirts say they want to bring genuine democracy to Thailand, a message that sells well in the north and northeast, where many farmers and villagers feel their voice was muted by the 2006 military coup.

In Bangkok there is more skepticism about the protesters’ motives.

“This is not about democracy, it’s about thuggery,” Voranai Vanijaka, a columnist for The Bangkok Post, wrote in the Sunday edition of the newspaper. “It’s about nothing less than forcing the government to bend to their every whim and every will.”

Mr. Voranai suggested the red shirt movement was a vendetta by Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire who was removed as prime minister in the 2006 coup, after a court in February ordered a large share of his assets seized by the state.

Although the references are often oblique, Mr. Thaksin and his allies appear to be the target of many of the government’s messages. One message running on the bottom of television screens warns:

“Don’t become a tool, don’t be naive and don’t hurt the country for the sake of only one person.”

Poypiti Amatatham contributed reporting.

Apr 13, 2010

I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor - Thai Expectations - NYTimes.com

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

By PHILIP BOWRING

BANGKOK — The chaos and bloodshed that erupted on Bangkok streets is a brutal reminder of the law of unintended consequences. The 2006 military coup that deposed the elected prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and subsequent use of the courts to keep his allies out of power, have raised a specter more dangerous to entrenched interests than Thaksin ever was.

The longer this confrontation between red shirts and the military-backed government continues, the less important will be Thaksin’s own role as opposition leader-in-exile and the more powerful genuinely radical forces will become. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s departure is now likely, which should calm the situation in the short term, but some of the conditions for the rise of leftist demagoguery or Peronist-style rightist populism clearly exist. Thailand is in uncharted territory and analysis of the many past coups and confrontations provide little guide to the future.

Thaksin was an astute billionaire who abused the power that his party’s dominance in Parliament gave him. But his pro-poor spending won him popular support without being fiscally irresponsible or undermining Thailand’s tradition of open markets and private capital. Many of today’s class-warrior red shirts have scant regard for Thaksin but are riding on his supporters’ backs toward what they hope is more radical change than he espouses.

Once the red shirts were viewed by their opponents as a Thaksin-financed rabble of rural poor. But the evidence in recent days is that they enjoy the sympathy of large numbers of Bangkok’s own lower-income groups — taxi-drivers, street vendors, security guards and construction workers. Even those most inconvenienced by the demonstrations, the tens of thousands dependent on tourism and other disrupted businesses, are not all on the side of law and order.

The legacy of the demonstrations will be lasting. Even the military top brass is not sure of where it now stands, with some urging compromise on all sides to avoid more bloodshed, which would test the loyalty of the rank and file, many of whom are considered sympathetic to the red shirts. Other state institutions, notably the courts, have also come to be widely seen as politically motivated.

Enough Thais have been shocked by the score of recent deaths that compromise will most likely win out in a society where politics is more opportunistic than ideological. The Thai economy is built more on small farms and businesses rather than great estates or industrial combines. But compromise will have to recognize the rising expectations of low-income groups, not only for more equitable income distribution, but also for greater political representation.

Expectations have been fed by Thaksin’s rhetoric and by Thailand’s lively media. Economic fundamentals too now favor the poor. After three decades of low birth rates, Thailand has little growth in its workforce, so the bargaining power of lower-income groups is increasing. Bangkok’s middle class now has to rely on maids from Myanmar to cook and clean. Income distribution is actually no worse than the average in developing Asia — and better than in neighboring countries like Malaysia and China. Moreover, the Thai economy has been growing steadily. But in Thailand’s open and homogenous society expectations have been growing faster. They must now be satisfied.

In Asia » Do Thais Lack Spirit for Democracy?

By John J. Brandon

As Thais begin to celebrate Buddhist New Year (known as “songkran”) next week, they will be doing so under the specter that forces inside the country will not have reached an acceptable agreement in resolving the nation’s four-year political impasse.

Since mid-March, thousands of anti-government demonstrators, known as “red shirts,” from the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) have tied-up traffic in major intersections of Bangkok, including the city’s commercial center where shopping malls and banks were closed for three days earlier this week. Today, after protesters pushed through the main gate of the parliament compound, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency in Bangkok to help restore order, the red shirts are demanding that Mr. Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call for new elections.

Red shirts protest this week in Bangkok's commercial center. Photo by Flickr user Pittaya, used under a Creative Commons license.

They vow to stay put until Mr. Abhisit steps down. The red shirts believe Mr. Abhisit lacks legitimacy because neither he nor the political party he leads, the Democrat Party, has won a popular mandate in an election.

In many respects, the red shirts have borrowed a page from their political opponents’ playbook. The supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) (also known as the “yellow shirts”) were successful when they took to the streets to help bring down former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in September 2006. Subsequent governments were surrogates for Mr. Thaksin. In response, the yellow shirts staged high-profile protests, including taking over the Government House for three months in 2008, followed shortly thereafter by shutting down Bangkok’s two major airports for a week.

Many of Thaksin’s supporters are furious over what they call “a silent coup,” led by members of Thailand’s established elite, including the military, which allowed Mr. Abhisit to form a government. In reality, since neither the Democrat Party nor the Puea Thai Party (to which the red shirts belong) received a majority of seats, Mr. Abhisit was able to cobble together a coalition of smaller parties to create a majority in the parliament. Members of this coalition had been previously aligned with Mr. Thaksin and then switched their allegiance to Mr. Abhisit and the Democrats. The optics may look lousy, but there is nothing illegal about this. As prime minister, Mr. Abhisit has the backing of the military and the palace, the likelihood of him being removed is remote. Mr. Abhisit will continue to rule, but how effectively remains in deep question.

Even if Mr. Abhisit were to capitulate to the red shirts’ demands to resign, a new election is unlikely to resolve Thailand’s political tensions. Neither the Puea Thai nor the Democrat Party would win an outright majority of seats in the Parliament. Therefore, smaller parties would play a critical role in how a new government would be formed. As political ideology has never played a factor in Thai politics, this would all be about who can cut the best deal by promising power and influence.

So when will things come to a head? Will there be violence? Last Buddhist New Year, the red shirts engaged in aggressive and violent acts causing loss of life, injuries, and damage to property. A car thought to be carrying Mr. Abhisit was viciously attacked and according to reports, had the prime minister been in the car, he very likely would have been killed. In the days before state of emergency declared today, the red shirts clashed with riot police and forced MPs to use ladders to scale the walls of parliament compound to escape. There appears to be a misconception in Thailand over the past few years that democracy equals intimidation — whether that means blockading major city intersections in Bangkok and forcing the country’s commercial center to close, tossing grenades at government buildings, shutting down a major international summit attended by Asian leaders, occupying the Government House, or closing a major international airport. It is these types of instances that behooved a retired Thai army general to comment to me recently: “Thailand’s political system is complicated, but lacks sophistication. The people understand the mechanics of what is involved in a democracy, but regrettably the public lacks the spirit.”

To his credit, Mr. Abhisit has never denied the red shirts the right to air their grievances, but has appealed to his opponents to work within the system rather than conducting mass protests on the street. But Mr. Abhisit’s appeal has not gained any resonance because many of these protesters have little or no faith in the political system. Conditions inside Thailand have been exacerbated by the failure of the country’s democratic institutions to bridge the divide between a new capitalist class that has won the backing of the rural poor with populist policies and an established elite that is seeking to maintain its traditional grip on power.

As Thais begin to celebrate their New Year among friends and family with the spiritual aspects of water and renewal, perhaps they will reflect upon the need for citizens to develop or rediscover that same public spirit to promote democracy, that rather ironically a former senior military officer said is missing. In all likelihood, it will take years before a political resolution is reached. Where ever one stands in the Thai body politic, this impasse is not something to feel celebratory about.

John J. Brandon, who briefly lived in Bangkok, Thailand, and continues to travel there regularly, is The Asia Foundation’s Director of International Relations Programs in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at jbrandon@asiafound-dc.org.

Apr 12, 2010

Panel Calls for Thai Premier’s Party to Be Dissolved - NYTimes.com

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By THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — The battle of wills between the Thai government and tens of thousands of protesters barricaded in the streets of Bangkok appeared to turn in favor of the protesters Monday when the country’s army chief shunned a military solution to the crisis and the prime minister’s party suddenly and unexpectedly faced the prospect of dissolution.

Two days after repelling a blood-soaked military crackdown, the protesters cheered jubilantly at the announcement that Thailand’s election commission had recommended that the party of the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva be disbanded on charges of receiving an illegal donation.

“This government’s time in power is nearly over,” said Veera Musikapong, a protest leader to throngs of protesters in the commercial heart of the city. Mr. Veera and other opposition figures said they would maintain their demonstrations to pressure Mr. Abhisit to resign.

The announcement by the election commission came hours after the head of the army, Gen. Anupong Paochinda, appeared to rule out further military action to remove protesters, saying “the situation requires that the problem be solved by politics.

Mr. Anupong also described the dissolution of parliament, the main goal of the protesters, as “a reasonable step.” The general’s comments were a stinging blow to Mr. Abhisit, who is portrayed by protesters as a puppet of Thailand’s elite and who came to power 16 months ago as part of a coalition brokered in part by the military.

For the past month, Mr. Abhisit’s besieged government has operated from a military base on the outskirts of the capital as protesters, many of them farmers from the provinces, expanded their debilitating street protests.

Mr. Abhisit has appeared increasingly isolated following thefailure of the military to dislodge protesters on Saturday after running battles that killed 21 people and made parts of Bangkok resemble a war zone. Erstwhile government supporters accused Mr. Abhisit of being powerless while the opposition decried the deaths.

Protesters have put important portions of Thailand’s capital city beyond the government’s control. Armed with sticks and poles, red shirted protesters have erected checkpoints at major intersections, blocking police and the military. Although not quite anarchy, the protests have created a vacuum of law and order.

Even outside the two large protest sites, some police say they have stopped issuing traffic tickets, despite an increase in the number of motorists running red lights, driving down the wrong side of the road and parking where they wish.

“If I can stop them I will. But if it puts us in danger, we will let them be,” said Police Lt. Col. Dejapiwat Dejsiri, a senior police official at a precinct in the tony Sukhumvit area of Bangkok. “It’s like there is no law anymore,” he said.

The Election Commission’s decision on Monday may tip the scales toward the opposition movement but it is unlikely to resolve the country’s underlying political crisis.

The commission’s recommendation will be forwarded to the attorney general and ultimately the country’s Constitutional Court. If found guilty, Mr. Abhisit’s Democrat Party, the country’s oldest, could be dissolved and it leaders, including Mr. Abhisit, barred from politics for 5 years.

The Democrat Party would be the third political party in three years to be dissolved.

“The system of political parties is on very shaky ground,” Gothom Arya, a former election commissioner. “There is no stability.” Mr. Gothom, among others, has called for revision of the law that holds the entire party accountable for electoral offenses.

The two parties disbanded earlier were affiliated with Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister removed in the 2006 military coup. Mr. Thaksin is a hero and inspiration for many in the current anti-government protest movement but is despised by some members of the elite who see him as corrupt.

The stalemate between protesters and the government is a reflection of deep divisions in Thai society that revolve around issues of income inequality and the power of unelected institutions such as the powerful bureaucracy, military and royal entourage.

These tensions have existed for years but one major stabilizing force in Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has often been able to bridge divisions in the country. Many Thais are hoping that Mr. Bhumibol, who is 82 and ailing, will intervene to resolve the stalemate.

Thai television Monday carried remarks by the secretary-general of a charitable foundation, Sumet Tantivejkul, who has worked with the king on many projects.

“His Majesty the King has always warned ‘don’t demolish the house,’” Mr. Sumet said. “The house is now close to collapse. We have to protect the country.”

Image by Images History via Flickr

Signs of the protesters’ continued impunity were amply evident Monday. The Thai media reported that one group of red shirts abducted the head of the CAT Telecom, the state-owned telecommunications company. Several hundred protesters “guarded” a government satellite station, Thai media also said. Both actions were meant to prevent the army from carrying out orders to take an opposition-run television station off the air.

On the eve of the traditional Thai new year, large convoys of red shirts paraded coffins through Bangkok symbolizing the protesters killed on Saturday to illustrate what they said was the brutality of the government.

Law enforcement in Thailand has always been patchy and the freewheeling nature of Thai society has often been counted as an attribute for the country’s economic dynamism.

But the lawlessness of protests during the past four years of political turmoil, including the seizure of Bangkok’s two international airports 17 months ago, has frightened foreign investors and raised questions about the stability of the country.

The protests are driving away tourists and draining the resources of the state. Many police stations in Bangkok have threadbare staffs because officers have been mobilized to serve as riot police.

Apr 7, 2010

Thai Protesters Storm Parliament - NYTimes.com

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By SETH MYDANS and THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand declared a state of emergency in the Bangkok area on Wednesday after antigovernment demonstrators broke into the Parliament building, forcing government ministers to flee by helicopter.

The televised announcement came after nearly a month of street demonstrations by the red-shirted protesters, who have paralyzed the city’s commercial district and paraded through the city in defiance of government restrictions. They are demanding that Mr. Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call new elections.

The declaration of a state of emergency gives the military the power to suspend certain civil liberties and ban public gatherings of more than five people. It creates a Crisis Solution Center under joint civilian and military control.

“We need to plan and implement everything to the last detail and with thorough care,” Mr. Abhisit said. “The last thing we want is for the situation to spiral out of control.”

He added, “We do this not with the intention of cracking down on innocent people but to sanctify the law.”

The brief invasion of Parliament earlier Wednesday, the failure of security forces to stop it and the hasty retreat by government officials had added to a growing sense in Bangkok that the government is not in control of the situation.

At a rally shortly the invasion a protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan, was defiant. “If you want to kill us, come on in,” he said. “But if you consider us your brothers and sisters, put your weapons down.”

The ministers, in their dark, tailored suits, could be seen on television clambering over a back wall of the Parliament building and then boarding a Black Hawk helicopter under armed guard.

At the front of the building, red-shirted protesters and their black-uniformed enforcers shoved and wrestled with Parliamentary guards, pushing back security officers with riot shields.

“The Red Shirts were very crazy and yelling,” said Sgt. Paisan Chumanee of the police. “We didn’t know whether they would use violence. To avoid provoking more anger, we used the helicopter.”

The move on the Parliament building came shortly after the conclusion of a cabinet meeting at which ministers extended the Internal Security Act, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, the government spokesman, who was one of those evacuated from the Parliament building.

Mr. Panitan defended the ministers’ hasty retreat, saying they would not have been able to leave on their own “without confrontation.”

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thangsuban, who is in charge of security for the government, was one of those evacuated to a military headquarters after the protesters wrestled with his security guard, seized the guard’s weapon and emptied out the ammunition.

“This is the Parliament! Why are you carrying a gun?” an opposition lawmaker shouted at the guard.

Mr. Abhisit, a target of the protesters, had departed a few minutes earlier to the military headquarters, where he has been based during the protests. He later announced that he had canceled a planned trip to the United States for a nuclear security summit meeting next week because of the continuing unrest.

The protesters, known as the Red Shirts, are the latest front in a social and political struggle between the rural and urban poor and the ruling elite that saw its pre-eminence challenged by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.

Mr. Thaksin is abroad now, fleeing a corruption conviction, but he is believed to be financing and coordinating much of the protests.

The protesters are demanding the dissolution of the government, which came to power in December 2008 through a parliamentary vote, and new elections. Mr. Thaksin’s supporters form an electoral majority, and it is widely believed that they would win a nationwide vote.

Mr. Abhisit’s term in office runs until the end of 2011. In recent unsuccessful negotiations, protesters demanded that he step down within 15 days, and he offered the possibility of a new election within nine months. The talks broke down in an impasse but could be revived.

In defiance of government orders, thousands kept up a blockade of the main commercial district, where they have forced shopping malls, hotels and banks to stay closed since Saturday. In a show of impunity on Tuesday, convoys of red-shirted protesters roamed the city freely, pushing through military and police blockades with little resistance.

One commentator, Tulsathit Taptim of the daily newspaper Nation, called it “arguably the best day so far for the red shirts and definitely the worst for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.”

He added: “Bangkokians’ frustration was palpable — and so was the red shirts’ renewed confidence. Also, for the first time, the prime minister must have started questioning the loyalty of some in the military.”

In a telephone interview, Mr. Panitan, the government spokesman, denied reports in the Thai news media that military commanders were refusing orders to use force against the protesters.

“We gave the military clear guidelines,” he said. “They cannot use force or weapons against the people.”

He added: “We are required to solve the situation positively. That’s the job of the prime minister.”