IT is 10pm on a Wednesday night in Bangkok. And there’s a picnic in
front of the residence of General Prem Tinsulanonda, the 88 year-old
chief adviser to the Thai king. A “picnic” if you disregard the phalanx of riot policemen standing
guard along the concrete fence of Prem’s home, the red-shirted
protesters shouting “ok pai Prem (Prem get out in Thai)” and a poster depicting Thaksin Shinawatra as Superman. Free
food – fried noodles and bottled mineral water – is flowing. Most of
the protesters are sitting picnic-style on the road listening to
stinging speeches condemning Prem.
At 10.10pm, the protest turns into a Thai-style Lollapalooza
(American music festival). A musician on top of a six-wheeler truck,
parked right in front of the retired general’s house, blows a khene (a
mouth organ), playing a popular Isaan (Thailand’s northeast) folk song.
The protesters follow the beat with their red-coloured foot clapper.
Less
than two kilometres away, at a makeshift stage facing the Prime
Minister’s office, Jakrapob Penkair, a Thaksin loyalist spews venom at
Prem who is President of the Privy Council, the royal-appointed group
of advisors of the King. Thousands of red-shirted protesters
shake their foot clappers when the handsome Jakrapob unhurriedly and
sarcastically bawls: Prem Tinsulanonda. Wednesday was the day when about 100,000 red-shirted Thais took to the street.
They
demanded that Prem, two privy councilors General Surayud (installed as
prime minister following the 2006 coup which toppled Thaksin) and
Charnchai Likhitjittha (Justice Minister in the military-installed
government) and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resign from their
posts unconditionally. It was a day filled with tension with Thais fearing bloodshed or a coup. Tension was also fueled by three troubling events the day before.
Abhisit’s
vehicle was attacked with its rear window smashed by a handful of
red-shirted protesters when it was stuck in a traffic light in Pattaya,
about 150km from Bangkok. Three men were arrested in connection of an alleged plot to assassinate Charnchai, the privy councilor. The would-be assassins pointed to an Army major as the mastermind. And the alleged mastermind implicated a Navy captain. Newin
Chidchob, a former Thaksin trusted right hand man, cried on national
television when he pleaded to his ex-boss to stop “hurting” the
monarchy.
Back at Prem’s residence, as I surveyed the boisterous
hate-fest, I wondered if Thailand would become the next Nepal, the
Philippines or Myanmar. The Wednesday Bangkok Post column by Chulalongkorn University political scientist Thitinan Phongsudirak echoed in my view.
“We do not want Nepal as the institution of the monarchy is integral to Thai history and identity,” Thitinan wrote. “We
do not want the Philippines, whose periodic people’s power movements
begot neither political stability nor economic vibrancy. And we do not
want to turn the clock so far back as to end up in comparison to
Myanmar’s military dictatorship.”
But Bangkok is beginning to
feel like Manila with its street protests since 2006 when Thaksin was
still the Prime Minister. Before the red-shirted protest, it was the
yellow-shirted demonstrations of the PAD (People’s Alliance for
Democracy) which wanted to oust all things Thaksin.
However, it would be simplistic to assume that the red-shirted protest is all about Thaksin.
“But
the reds have been loud and clear that they are more than about
Thaksin, who is becoming a sideshow to the United Front for Democracy
against Dictatorship’s crusade for the will of the majority to shine in
a genuine democracy,” Thitinan wrote in Bangkok Post. “The
stage leaders of the red shirts are going after privy councilors that
they deem to have violated the constitution by masterminding the Sept
19, 2006 military coup and blatantly taking sides in post-coup Thai
politics.”
The columnist continued: “Despite repeated denials,
the evidence and revelations are overwhelming. Meetings and public
comments at key junctures happen to fit the sequence of events that
transpired from May 2006 through to the rise of the Abhisit government.”
So
how does Abhisit stem the “red tide”? Among other measures, he declared
yesterday a national holiday, extending the long Songkran (Thai New
Year) break to six days.
The Prime Minister is hoping the red-shirted protesters will go for an indefinite holiday.
