The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Thailand’s red-shirt heartland bides its time Posted: 29 Nov 2013 05:27 AM PST "I hate them," said Chantee, a rail-thin 65-year-old grandmother with teeth stained red by betel nut. Nang, also 65, refused to be outdone. "I want them dead," she countered, sending both into wheezy hysterics. As thousands of largely middle-class Thais flood Bangkok streets in protests aimed at overthrowing the government of the populist Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, one volatile factor has been absent from the streets: the red-shirted protesters who helped bring her to power. In the background, the red shirts remain a potent force, despite being hobbled by a bitterly divided leadership and the atrophy that comes with more than two years of their side being in power. In interviews with Reuters, red-shirt leaders and members said they are avoiding direct confrontation with anti-government protesters, which would likely provoke bloodshed, but they are marshalling their forces, just in case. Like the province it sits in, Udon Thani, the village of Hua Khua is part of the rural north and northeastern heartland that is the support base of Yingluck's Puea Thai Party and her self-exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed as prime minister in a 2006 military coup. Hua Khua is one thousands of communities that movement leaders call "Red Shirt Villages". These days, this means little more than one tattered office bearing Thaksin's image, but support for the government runs high. Love for Thaksin stems from pro-poor policies during his time in power, including easy credit and near-free healthcare. More recently, his sister's government has maintained support with a rice subsidy scheme, which has been derided by the opposition. The economy in the northeast grew 40% between 2007 and 2011, nearly twice the national average. There are signs support may have slipped a little. A survey found Puea Thai's support in the northeast dropped from 80% after her election to about 64% in the third quarter of this year. Support for the opposition Democrats has stayed low. Residents bridle at what they see as the Bangkok elite's condescending belief that the Thaksin camp has been able to win every election since 2001 by buying votes. "This is about respect," said Thasadaporn, a rice farmer. "The law says that if you get elected, you get a four-year term." So far, Thaksin's supporters have stuck to a policy of showing their strength while avoiding the kind of violence that could trigger military intervention. Red shirts have been bussed in their thousands for regular rallies at Rajamangala Stadium, in a Bangkok suburb far from the government buildings targeted by their opponents. A major gathering is planned for Saturday evening. "We don't want to have any reaction between the two groups," said Tida Tawornseth, the chairwoman of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), the largest red shirt group. The red rallies have been limited in size by the fact that the rice harvest is now on, tying up much of the protest muscle in the fields, leaders and members say. If the crisis drags on and harvest time ends, that should no longer be a factor. "We don't want the anti-government protests to stop," said Paritporn Hongthanithorn, a leader of the Red Shirt Village Committee, which oversees Hua Khua. "Keep it going," she said, "We'll see you there." Another key factor holding back the red shirts is their own deep internal division. Splits have emerged over the willingness of some leaders to pursue political careers under the Puea Thai banner. The UDD suffered a rift with Yingluck after Puea Thai proposed a broad-ranging amnesty bill that would have quashed a two-year corruption sentence against Thaksin, paving the way for his return. Although the bill would have freed jailed UDD members, it would also have dropped murder charges against anti-Thaksin leaders accused of ordering a 2010 crackdown that killed scores of red shirts. Both sides opposed the bill, which has now been shelved amid the protests. Disillusionment with Puea Thai has led some red-shirt figures to meet over the last year to discuss establishing a new, non-Thaksin party for the movement. Nothing has come of it yet. Even in Hua Khua, the effect of division is visible. The Red Shirt Village movement, launched in 2011, has split into three factions, Paritporn said. Of the three groups, hers is the only one on speaking terms with the UDD leadership. Up the road in the provincial capital, Udon Thani, is one person Paritporn is not on speaking terms with: Kwanchai Praipana. He leads the biggest pro-Thaksin group, People Who Love Udon, which is separate to the UDD. Kwanchai styles himself as a true Thaksin loyalist and was a supporter of the amnesty bill. Contradictorily, he is also a critic of red shirts who have joined the Puea Thai government. "The people have seen so many red shirts take positions in the government. It makes them feel these people are not fighting for democracy, but fighting for themselves," he said. Combined with the rice harvest and the difficulty of organising protesters to support, rather than oppose, a government, Kwanchai estimated he is able to marshal about half as many protesters as he could in 2010. Kwanchai sent hundreds of his supporters to Bangkok earlier in the week, but was barred from going on stage by the UDD leader, Tida. She accuses him of being an opportunist who has attached himself to Thaksin for his own benefit. He reckons she wants to steer the movement down the dangerous path of opposing Thailand's revered monarchy. In spite of the division, Kwanchai is sending his people to the main rally in Bangkok. If the current protests trigger a coup, or the judiciary forces Yingluck from power, the trickle will turn into a flood. "It will be chaos," he said. - Reuters, November 29, 2013. |
| From village headman to deputy PM to protest leader: Suthep Thaugsuban Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:11 AM PST Each night for a month Suthep has delivered barnstorming speeches to rapt supporters around Bangkok, railing against what he sees as the scourge of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra and a graft-riddled government. In his distinctive baritone, he has accused Thaksin of pulling the strings of his younger sister Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government from overseas. Tens of thousands of opposition protesters have followed Suthep's call to action, fired up by his rhetoric and a loathing for Thaksin, who was ousted by royalist generals in a coup in 2006 and now lives in self-imposed exile. It is a dramatic role reversal from three years ago when, as deputy premier under the previous government, Suthep oversaw a crackdown on pro-Thaksin "Red Shirts" that left scores dead in Bangkok's shopping district. He faces murder charges linked to the killings, and now has an arrest warrant outstanding for orchestrating the occupation of government buildings during the current protests. For a man under fire, he remains unrepentant. "Do I look worried?" the veteran politician told AFP during a break from whipping up the crowd, lowering his glasses for dramatic effect before erupting into laughter. "When you work for the people you have to forget everything. Whether you win or lose is not important. The people are important." Kamnan Suthep, as he is reverently known by supporters for his lineage as a village headman in Thailand's south, appears galvanised by the protests, stage-managing rallies and leading marches across the city. It is a renaissance for the wily 64-year-old who has emerged intact from three decades in the spin-dryer of Thai politics, rising from village headman to lawmaker and then deputy prime minister from 2008-2011 under a Democrat Party-led government. As the protests snowballed, he resigned as MP to lead the anti-government charge. Analysts say it is indicative of Thailand's often contorted and confusing political stage that many are willing to accept his anti-corruption pledges despite the fact that he has faced allegations of graft. Equally surprising are the renowned political bruiser's references to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as influences on the current civil disobedience campaign. Surrounded by half a dozen minders from his native southern Surat Thani province where his family are prominent in the lucrative palm oil and shrimp farming businesses, he said his efforts are to free Thailand from Thaksin's grip. "I don't hate him. It's nothing personal, but Thaksin destroyed Thailand's democratic system, destroyed the virtues and ethics of the people," he said. His manifesto for change, which critics say is as bold as it is imprecise, focuses first on toppling the government, and then establishing an unelected "People's Council" of representatives from different sectors. The council would run the country during a "transition period" aimed at rebooting Thai politics before new, democratic elections. Analysts have expressed alarm at his loosely defined ideas for a new Thailand, more so in a coup-prone nation where victory at the polls has rarely guaranteed a full term of power. The kingdom has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since 1932, and has a judiciary with a record of dissolving political parties and banning their executives. Few doubt Suthep's political prowess. "He is intelligent, capable and knows every nook and cranny of Thai politics," said Voranai Vanijaka, a political commentator with the Bangkok Post daily. "I'm certain there's something he's not yet revealing, a strategy we are yet to see," he added. The rallies were triggered by a controversial amnesty bill introduced by the ruling party which could have allowed Thaksin to return to Thailand without going to jail for a graft conviction that he contends was politically motivated. The amnesty issue gave Suthep an opportunity to "regenerate his image" after the 2010 crackdown, says former Thai diplomat Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Japan's Kyoto University. "By making Thai politics seem like a dangerous place where Thaksin threatens the future of the nation, Suthep can then cast himself as the saviour. He's the man of the hour and he's sending a message of fight or die." More than three decades of political bobbing and weaving do not seem to have dimmed Suthep's appetite for battle. "You could call this his final stand," says his stepson and protest spokesman Akanat Promphan. Neither has his star lost its lustre among his most ardent supporters. "Suthep is motivated by working for the people," said Prasith Rungboonkong, who has left his rubber farm in the south for a month to join the Bangkok protest. "If his aims are not achieved, it'll be karma for the country." - AFP, November 29, 2013. |
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