More Protests

I continue my slow ascent into Isan awaiting Songkran. This afternoon I spent two hours going north to Khon Khen while traveling in a completely full bus. It was so full that they threw me and my closest nine friends in the baggage compartment. Half the guys passed out along the bags, three more held the door slightly open so we wouldn't suffocate. The ninth guy (a full sized man) sat on my lap for over an hour. It was not comfortable.

The Water Festival doesn't officially start until Tuesday so in the meantime I thought I would amuse myself with the other festivities currently taking place, the protests. I expected to completely miss them as initially it seemed they would be localized to Bangkok, but they appear to be spreading, or at least preparing to spread. As I'm in the capital of the province it only makes sense that this is where mobilization is taking place.

An estimated 25,000 registered with the local redshirts in the central park today. There's currently a long line of people turning in simple information sheets with their mobile numbers and email addresses in preparation for a call for demonstration. They're also getting their picture taken, not exactly sure why. I spent the evening mulling around and trying to get some local commentary on what's going on. While there's a peaceful demonstration in the park. A stage has been setup for local leaders to talk (unfortunately, I have no idea what they're saying), and maybe a thousand people are around listening to the speeches and just hanging out. Honestly it has a bit of a carnival atmosphere as there are lots of food booths and the kids are playing on the exercise equipment. There was an odd age distribution in the park. I would say 95% were over 45 with the remainder being unaccompanied kids. Who knew it was the middle-aged and elderly that would be the source of dissension.

I quickly exceeded my knowledge of Thai (first I asked where the bus station was, and then I asked how much x cost) and found a couple separate people to chat with regarding the demonstrations and their opinion of what's going on. Here's a quick summary of what I heard tonight.

The coup four years ago was illegal and unnecessary, it was a power grab by the Democratic Party who don't like Thaksin. The following election was falsified. With the People's Party disbanded twice and eventually winning the majority and yet not being able to form the government. Half of the People's party tricked the voting populace and left to join a coalition led by the current Prime Minister Abhisit. The recent court case and corruption charges against Thaksin are totally ridiculous. He was grossly wealthy before he was the PM, and didn't use his office to further his wealth. That's just silly, why would he do such a thing? The charges were trumped up to kick him out of government and keep the people down. Finally the people have had enough and want their true democratically elected leader back. The Democratic Party knows that previous elections were valid and if they ordered elections today, they know they would lose. So, the Democratic Party will do everything to prevent the coalition from falling apart and ordering new elections. Including purposely shooting at and killing unarmed civilians. The protests have been completely nonviolent, the military is trying to intimidate the people and will go to all causes to keep them down. Protests will escalate, and we expect a change.

With a number of people already dead, I don't think this is going the right direction. While the holiday is set to begin, I think that's not going to stop the demonstrations, if anything I expect an increase in fury as holiday= free time+ alcohol. Not exactly the recipe for quelling dissension. We'll see. I'll try to post some photos soon.