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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 05:10 AM
Original message
Red shirts handing out cash to 'find democracy' (Thailand)
Edited on Sat Mar-13-10 05:16 AM by grantcart
Source: The Nation (Bangkok - English language paper)



Standing in a big crowd, a woman ticked off a name as a man standing beside her handed out two Bt1,000 notes to another woman in a red shirt. Others in the queue were heard shouting out their names.

This image was captured on video by a Nation correspondent in Nakhon Phanom, where protesters were preparing to leave for Bangkok tomorrow. Around 500 red-shirt protesters, led by Pheu Thai's Nakhon Phanom MP Chavalit Vichayasut, gathered at the city pillar and performed a rite to ensure victory before they headed to the capital. Fifty buses were arranged for the protesters.

The video clip showed a man announcing that every person joining the rally would get Bt2,000 on the way to Bangkok and another Bt2,000 on the way back.

A red-shirt leader said the money was meant to cover the red-shirt supporters' expenses during the mass rally.

Read more: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/03/13/politics/Red-shirts-handing-out-cash-to-&039;find-democracy-30124588.html



Fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was a billionaire before he took office and passed a special law allowing him to sell his communication company to foreign investors and reaped another B 2 billion is now engaging in one of the largest 'rent a mob' schemes in history with as many as 50,000 rural poor being bussed in from the North and Northeast for about $ 100 each.

Taksin is hoping to establish a Peronist type cult with lip service to supporting the rural poor. Red shirt mobs have become increasingly reactionary undermining democratic institutions and attacking gay rights meetings.

This is Taksin's last chance to exert power and he is spending millions on splinter and out of power parties. Reports are that the UAE, his latest sanctuary from corruption charges, has expelled him today.

For some reason direct link isn't working

Go here and click on #2 for link: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 07:16 AM
Response to Original message
1. Those aren't Red Shirts




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rasputin1952 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 10:09 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. ...
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formercia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. The blood just blends.
:rofl:

"But, I don't want to be a red shirt!"
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awoke_in_2003 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 12:38 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Notice Scotty never left the ship...
smart man
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MrScorpio Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 07:16 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Actually, he left quite a few times. One time, he was killed
And the God Apollo brought him back to life

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awoke_in_2003 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 09:04 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. shit, forgot that one. nt
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ShockediSay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 04:41 PM
Response to Original message
5. Sounds like the Repugs; money for power nt
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420inTN Donating Member (803 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Mar-13-10 05:36 PM
Response to Original message
6. Sound more like Brown Shirts to me. n/t
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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 01:33 PM
Response to Original message
9. kick
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JoeyTrib Donating Member (215 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 03:22 PM
Response to Original message
10. Weren't they handing out money in Iraq too?
Or at least stuff?
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paulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 11:06 PM
Response to Original message
11. how many millions of dollars did the yellow shirts cost Thailand
when they shut down Suvarnabhumi?

It's not like one side in this conflict is all good and the other all bad. In fact, the "red shirts" can lay claim, at least, to being the populists here - rather than the representatives of the monarchy/military/moneyed class that the yellow shirts are...

And it's not like corruption in Thailand is the sole province of the red shirts; you live there, you should know that.
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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 12:44 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. The Yellow shirts have no ambition to political power while the red shirts
only ambition is to return the facist Taksin to power

To be more precise the 'Yellow Shirts' do not back any particular set of politicians, particular parties or any particular coalition. They were not interested in installing their own politicians or politicans that would listen to them but simply eliminating Taksin and his increasingly fascist rule that included extrajudicial killings and the admitted killings of dozens of muslim children as retribution to deaths by extremists.

Saying that all groups are the same is the same bullshit as saying as the Republicans and the Democrats are the same in the US. I am well aware of the henchmen of Taksin because one of my
professors in school had to leave the US in the 1970s to avoid death threats by Samak. They are the same scum that have been supporting the most rightist tendencies in Thai politics for 40 years.

The yellow shirts were largely motivated to stop the wholesale sell off of the country by a single man who is increasingly seen as a meglamanical madman who was on his way of establishing a cult of personality never seen before in Thai politics.

The PAD not only does not have a particular political agenda it includes politicians who having had political power walked away from power inclucing the Chamlong Srimuang the former governor of Bangkok who lives as an ascetic with literally no worldy possessions. His party, the PDP, was a part of the government and he refused a cabinet position because anti corruption reform was not comprehensive enough. In effect he went into opposition against his own party and it collapsed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamlong_Srimuang

The UDD (the red shirts) on the other hand have no political agenda except one, the return to political power of Taksin. And everyone knows that Taksin will stop at nothing to return to Thailand and reclaim his Billions, including the next round that will include violence.



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paulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 08:34 AM
Response to Reply #12
13. oh, that the whole world's problems
were as simplistic and easily solved as you make the situation in Thailand out to be...

Taksin the "fascist", LOL! Like any Thai government has ever been a paragon of liberal democracy! At least he did more to help the poor in Thailand, especially the north, than any "yellow shirt" politician ever dreamed of.

The north/south dichotomy, the pureblood Thai vs hilltribe divide - has more to do with this conflict than simple good vs evil rhetoric.

There's a reason the yellow shirts call Taksin "squareface".


-----------------


One other thing - and this is for other readers who might find it interesting - since I'm presuming that you already know this - while Taksin owned the largest media conglomerate in Thailand, it's worth noting that the leader of the yellow shirts, Sondhi Limthongkul, owns the 2nd largest media conglomerate in Thailand.

Food for thought?
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Flaneur Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 12:23 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Taksin presided over the mass killings of drug users and sellers in 2003.
At least 2500 were murdered in his war on drugs. He needs to be swinging from the end of the rope, not returning to political power.
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paulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. it worked, too.
Edited on Mon Mar-15-10 02:50 PM by paulk
oh the horror!

yeah, I know - as a good, card carrying liberal I'm supposed to be appalled...

otoh, having been to Asia a number of times, I've always found it better to not judge the east by western standards.

that being a mistake the west often makes.

btw - I haven't been arguing for a return by Taksin to power - although I do think the military coup that deposed him was a tremendous affront to the democratic principle - something that as a good, card carrying liberal I'm also supposed to be appalled by. Taksin's party was elected twice by the largest landslides in Thailand's democratic history. He halved poverty in his first four years. He set up the country's first universal healthcare program. His war on drugs, despite it's controversial nature, was quite popular - because it ended the country's growing meth problem... He poured government money into the north of the country - something the power brokers in Bangkok did not like. The party Thaksin supported also won the first post coup election - the party was later banned by the Thai Supreme Court... the fact is, Taksin is still pretty popular in Thailand, especially in the north, and especially among the poor. Which, to my mind at least, is why the ruling class couldn't allow him to remain in power. Do you know why the "yellow shirts" wear yellow? Because yellow is the color of the monarchy - it's the color of the established power in Thailand, which Taksin and his lower class followers threaten.

What I'm arguing against is the simplistic portrayal of events in Thailand by "grantcart". It's not good vs evil, left vs fascism, etc. It's far more complicated than that. It's more of a rich vs poor, pure Thai vs indigenous peoples, class war situation - and I think it's worthwhile for readers of this thread to know that.


edited to add - by "north/south, I'm referring to the historical differences between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, not the far southern, Muslim areas of the country.

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grantcart Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 02:32 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. Its not easily solved but your premise is completely wrong and not well informed

The current situation has nothing to do with the 'Yellow Shirts'. The red shirts are trying to depose a democratically elected government, there are no yellow shirt demonstrations.

Every facist leader always throws some peanuts to the masses to get some support. At the same time the fix the political system, raid its coffers and engage in thousands of extra judicial killings.
Just like Peron, Taksin offers some superficial plans that are not financed and raids the treasury for personal gain. Without any new funding sources hyper inflation follows and the government's ability to function is diminished.

The 'yellow shirts' were not trying to put anyone into power but return to a constitutional form of government that could not be bought out.

Everyone familiar with the situation knows whats this is all about, Taksin is trying to get power so that he can wipe out the Baht 76 billion judgement against him.

He has been found guilty in a court of law and he is trying to get around it. His crimes are well known.

One thing that is pretty simple, put Chamlong Srimuang on one side of the equation and the other side is almost always wrong.

You are woefully uninformed on the reality of what is happening in Thailand if you try and establish any moral equivalency between Taksin and other politicians. The most ridiculous reference is to the 'north-south' conflict. Taksin escalated problems in the four most southern provinces and created a climate of violence and murder. Here is but one example of what happened under his administration:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Thailand_insurgency

In October 2004 the town of Tak Bai in Narathiwat province saw the most publicized incident of the insurgency. Six local men were arrested for having supplied weapons to insurgents. A demonstration was organized to demand their release and the police called in army reinforcements. The army used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd, and shooting started in which seven men were killed.

Hundreds of local people, mostly young men, were arrested. They were made to take off their shirts and lie on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs. Later that afternoon, they were thrown by soldiers into trucks to be taken to the Ingkayutthaboriharn army camp in the nearby province of Pattani. The prisoners were stacked five or six deep in the trucks, and by the time the trucks reached their destination five hours later, in the heat of the day, 78 men had suffocated to death.

This incident sparked widespread protests across the south, and indeed across Thailand, since many non-Muslim Thais were appalled at the army's behaviour. Thaksin, however, gave the army his full support. Those responsible for the ill-treatment and death of the detainees received the most minor of non-custodial punishments. Thaksin's initial response was to defend the army's actions, saying that the 78 men died "because they were already weak from fasting during the month of Ramadan."

Charges were filed against 58 suspects accused of participating in the demonstration. The trials went on at a slow place, and as of October 2006, the court had finished questioning of only two out of the 1,500 witnesses in the case. Police were also unable to find 32 Tak Bai protesters who were still at large after fleeing arrest.<39>

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont gave a formal apology for the incident on 2 November 2006.<40> The day afterwards, the number of violent acts increased fivefold, compared to the average in the preceding month.<41>



Since Taksin's removal attitudes in the South have changed completely and they went from being the most unhappy to the happiest regional group in Thailand




http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/11/06/national/national_30018161.php

"Southern people, who used to have the least happiness, emerged the happiest people in the latest survey," he said. "They were followed by people in the Central region, the Northeast, the North and Bangkok."



So to sum up this has absolutely nothing to do with 'yellow shirts' but is a democratically elected government standing up to a political gangster who is desperate to get back B 76 billion baht that he stole from the government. They don't even hide the fact that the 'red shirts' are a rent a mob group that have no political agenda other than reinstalling the Prime Minister who on Friday publicly acknowledged that he would 'repay them all' when he got back to power.

By the way if you love Taksin then when you have some time you can help rehabilitate Gen Shwe in Burma because he is being disparaged by those pesky supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi and all of these different Asian groups are basically the same.
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jberryhill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 04:09 PM
Response to Reply #11
17. The red shirts can lay claim to being the TeaBaggers here, you mean /nt
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paulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 07:22 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. clearly, you don't know what you're talking about
like Mr. Clemens said -

"It is better to be thought a fool and keep your mouth shut, than open it and remove all doubt."

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