BANGKOK—By Sunday there was little to indicate that the busy Ratchaprasong intersection in Bangkok’s high-end shopping district had again been the rally site for thousands of red shirt anti-government protesters on Friday Nov 19.
There were no anti-government posters or pamphlets left that had littered the ground, to hint that a few days ago there had been a 7,000-strong crowd there who blocked traffic for several hours.
There weren’t even any discarded red streamers or graffiti to distract well-dressed Bangkokians from making their way inside the ritzy shopping malls now decorated with nonreligious Christmas decorations.
There also weren’t any signs of the red shirt propaganda materials or souvenirs “aimed at inciting disunity in society” that the chief general of the Thai military authorized police to take possession of on Friday.
Many of Sunday’s shoppers may have been unaware that days before thousands of red shirts marked six months from the day the Thai military used lethal force to end the April-May red shirt occupation of the area.
The epicenter for Friday’s return rally would have been directly under the walkway that now has a large sign on it already wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2011. During April-May, the protesters had a large stage set up at this point from where their leaders hatefully condemned Thailand’s Oxford educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government as being a front for the military and elite establishment. Most of those protest leaders are now in jail, others are in hiding.
The stage was also the center of the red shirt’s fortified encampment, which occupied key areas of central Bangkok. Holding the area hostage was their key bargaining chip in their failed bid to force Prime Minister Abhisit to dissolve the Thai Parliament and call an early election.
Only a short distance from the walkway on one of the intersection’s corners, a huge Toyota advertising billboard attempts to cover up the remains of a burnt out retail building. It was one of over 30 acts of arson by red shirts who went on a rampage after the Thai military’s final operation evicted them from their camp on May 19.
There were no anti-government posters or pamphlets left that had littered the ground, to hint that a few days ago there had been a 7,000-strong crowd there who blocked traffic for several hours.
There weren’t even any discarded red streamers or graffiti to distract well-dressed Bangkokians from making their way inside the ritzy shopping malls now decorated with nonreligious Christmas decorations.
There also weren’t any signs of the red shirt propaganda materials or souvenirs “aimed at inciting disunity in society” that the chief general of the Thai military authorized police to take possession of on Friday.
Many of Sunday’s shoppers may have been unaware that days before thousands of red shirts marked six months from the day the Thai military used lethal force to end the April-May red shirt occupation of the area.
The epicenter for Friday’s return rally would have been directly under the walkway that now has a large sign on it already wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2011. During April-May, the protesters had a large stage set up at this point from where their leaders hatefully condemned Thailand’s Oxford educated Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government as being a front for the military and elite establishment. Most of those protest leaders are now in jail, others are in hiding.
The stage was also the center of the red shirt’s fortified encampment, which occupied key areas of central Bangkok. Holding the area hostage was their key bargaining chip in their failed bid to force Prime Minister Abhisit to dissolve the Thai Parliament and call an early election.
Only a short distance from the walkway on one of the intersection’s corners, a huge Toyota advertising billboard attempts to cover up the remains of a burnt out retail building. It was one of over 30 acts of arson by red shirts who went on a rampage after the Thai military’s final operation evicted them from their camp on May 19.
At the end of it all, over a two-month period more than 90 people were killed and thousands injured, and today a state of emergency in Bangkok and nearby areas remains in place.
Widespread media and Internet censorship continues, as do arbitrary arrests and detentions without charge. Meanwhile, the government’s reconciliation process is seen by many, especially by the protesters, as self-serving and biased.
A warrant remains out for the arrest of the exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra—the man believed to the patron of the red shirts. The government has accused him of terrorism.
Meanwhile, it has been over a month since a bomb went off in the Thai capital, the last one was in the apartment of a suspected anti-government bomb maker. He was killed along with three other people who lived in the same apartment block.
But the economy is positive and tourists continue to come to Thailand, albeit in smaller numbers than usual.
There were dozens of them on Sunday at the Erawan Shrine situated on another corner of the Ratchaprasong intersection. Here they snapped photos of dancers performing in traditional dress and locals burning incense as they worshiped. Beggars, young and old, waited at the shrine’s gate, hoping for a possible handout.
Above the shrine, more potential shoppers—tourists and locals alike—alighted from an elevated skytrain that has just pulled up at Chit Lom station. Under their arms a few of the commuters carried Sunday newspapers that feature opinion pieces concerned about Thailand’s future. They ascended the stairs, passing two young bored soldiers wearing combat fatigues and carrying weapons.
Widespread media and Internet censorship continues, as do arbitrary arrests and detentions without charge. Meanwhile, the government’s reconciliation process is seen by many, especially by the protesters, as self-serving and biased.
A warrant remains out for the arrest of the exiled former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra—the man believed to the patron of the red shirts. The government has accused him of terrorism.
Meanwhile, it has been over a month since a bomb went off in the Thai capital, the last one was in the apartment of a suspected anti-government bomb maker. He was killed along with three other people who lived in the same apartment block.
But the economy is positive and tourists continue to come to Thailand, albeit in smaller numbers than usual.
There were dozens of them on Sunday at the Erawan Shrine situated on another corner of the Ratchaprasong intersection. Here they snapped photos of dancers performing in traditional dress and locals burning incense as they worshiped. Beggars, young and old, waited at the shrine’s gate, hoping for a possible handout.
Above the shrine, more potential shoppers—tourists and locals alike—alighted from an elevated skytrain that has just pulled up at Chit Lom station. Under their arms a few of the commuters carried Sunday newspapers that feature opinion pieces concerned about Thailand’s future. They ascended the stairs, passing two young bored soldiers wearing combat fatigues and carrying weapons.
