on protesting and dying for nothing
NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images from Daylife.com
“Thai troops had fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of demonstrators, who fought back with guns, grenades and petrol bombs…” [NYT]
Obviously, the system isn’t working. Protesters fought back with more dangerous weapons than what the authorities have to protect themselves with? When does that ever happen?
And what is it with Thailand’s security that protesters are even allowed to, let’s say, take over the Government House for months (yellow shirts in 08), force a shut-down of an international airport for several days (yellow shirts again in 08), break into a high-profile meeting for country leaders (red shirts in 09), or storm the Parliament forcing lawmakers to flee (red shirts last week)… incompetence, lack of leadership, or, well, let’s put it bluntly shall we: not having balls and skills to deal with the situation?
The red shirts have taken Bangkok hostage, somewhat. The biggest shopping malls were forced to shutdown all last week. And if you’ve spent any time in Bangkok commercial district, you’d understand that these shopping malls aren’t just the place where people buy pretty clothes. The mega malls in Bangkok are the center of culture, commerce, and everything that has to do with modern urban lifestyle. A friend of mine opened her first ice cream + dessert shop just a two days before the red shirts got to the mall. It closed for a week right after that, so her stock went bad before the mall could open up again only for a few more days. That’s a small example of what happens with this kind of disruption – the damage from shutting down shopping centers might not sound so drastic, but it effects people’s work and livelihood.
What doesn’t get mentioned in the press that much is the fact that it is super hot in Thailand right now. April is usually the hottest month and the temperature in suffocating Bangkok reaches the upper 30s to sometimes 40C. These protesters are out in the scorching heat that most people would want to avoid, sitting on bare concrete that’s been beaten down with sun rays all day. If they were angry, now they’re cooking. I’m sure the heat has a lot of to do with it.
A friend of my sister is a reporter for Reuters, her camera man was hit by a live bullet and killed, he only arrived from Japan last week. So far, the death toll is 20.
The red shirts leaders will no longer negotiate because they “don’t negotiate with murderers”. Conveniently painting themselves martyr for the cause, while ignoring completely that negotiation is the core of a democratic society.
Soldiers, journalists, protesters are all amongst the dead, dying for mediocrity that is the never ending cycle of Thailand’s misguided democracy. There’s no higher ideologies they’re fighting for except to get their people in power. There’s never any mention of what they want from the government except for a new election. (And it was the same with the yellow shirts too, just different semantics.) The PM offered that he would step down in 9 months, but they refused.
The red shirts are hard at work protesting for a new election, which is what the opposition politicians want (and which is why they’re paying these people to be at the protests). The last time these people won an election, the yellow shirts and the aristocrats drove them out of power. You can pretty much expect what’s going to happen if the red shirts get what they want this time. As long as there is a big enough backing and support on both sides, I personally don’t see it ending anytime soon.
Perhaps the most tragically f*cked up part is that: dying for this, and putting lives on the line for this, isn’t going to make any difference.
Very well written !
Krittiya on 31 May 2010