Red Shirts!
On 19 May after two months of increasingly hostile and violent protests here in Bangkok between the so-called Red Shirts and the government/military we saw the unimaginable happen. In a dark day for Thailand and a disaster for the peaceful, fun-loving and happy reputation of all Thais, dozens and dozens of people were killed in the streets by gun fire as their protests finally broke up and the crowd was dispersed. Over the course of those two months about 90 people died, mostly on that last day and mostly Red Shirt (the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship is the official party name) supporters but also some military, police and even journalists.
Unfortunately Julie and I live within a couple minutes’ walk to where the final showdown took place and in the weeks leading up to it we were bombarded 24×7 by the speeches, songs and general crowd noise of 5,000 people down below. And with the crowd extending down to our beloved Lumpini Park we had it in stereo from the back balcony. It was especially unnerving on the nights we heard gun fire and watched the home-made fire works go off to keep the military helicopters away from the crowd. While the world watched it on the 6 o’clock news we sadly watched it from our balcony.
I’ve got some photos from the early days when most of the protesters were very peaceful and friendly. When you put aside all the other politics what the Red Shirts really wanted was an election so they could vote for a government rather than have one appointed. At that stage the demonstration place sometimes took the mood of a crowd all wearing their favourite team’s jersey before going into the stadium for the big game.
On the Saturday after the forced disbursement of the crowd the scene was a strange mixture of shock and joy. Based on what little is known, apparently a few hard core extremists, really just anarchists keen to inflict maximum damage, set fire to a number of buildings around town, mostly in the main camp of the protesters just down near our street. Large building complexes, a lovely old cinema and the great Central World Shopping complex were all burned to the ground. All this senseless destruction was there for the world to see.
But also that Saturday was the joy of seeing hundreds of young Thais, all volunteers, many wearing a new T shirt with the Thai colours and the words in Thai and English ‘Together We Can’ scrubbing down the streets, the footpaths and the walls around the protesters’ camp. Other volunteers were handing out water and ice cream, playing music and all joining in this strong grass roots community project. It is this sort of effort and attitude that represents the real Thailand, not these burned out buildings.
I took some photos of both the shock and the joy – quite a contrast on what was otherwise a sad day.
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