TEXT BY PATRICK WINN
PHOTOS BY PAILIN WEDEL
The well-to-do face of Thai political unrest.
The bathroom tile is slick with black liquid. I’m hesitant to enter barefoot, but a grade school boy has pointed to the “No Socks and Shoes” sign scrawled in Thai on a torn square of cardboard. He’s sitting behind some bureaucrat’s desk, which is absurdly huge for a little kid. Right now, however, that passes for authority so I lose the socks. We’re deep inside Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s executive compound. I shouldn’t be here, nor should the roaring mob outside, but we are and I have to pee. The boy offers me a handful of toilet paper and smiles. Barefoot, I sidestep the inky puddles inside the bathroom, tiptoe around gummy wads of tissue, and take a leak at the seat of Thai political power.
Welcome to the biggest, messiest party in Bangkok. Roughly 10,000 Thais—nearly a million if you ask the invaders—have seized the prime minister’s Government House headquarters, a sprawling complex of Venetian architecture in the middle of the capital. The first protesters arrived on August 26 gripping golf clubs and broken table legs. Then came a cheering mob of thousands, high on revolution, united under a promise to stay until the prime minister quits.
Nearly two weeks have past and so far, they’ve kept their promise. The grounds of the Government House’s now host a weird, violence-tinged Lollapalooza.
Panties are sun-drying on manicured shrubs. Protesters live out of tents pitched in the prime minister’s parking garage. Trucked in port-a-johns stink up the alleys. Vendors sell fish skewers alongside Sid Vicious t-shirts. Cops in riot gear ring the perimeter, but they are hopelessly outnumbered.
So what’s bugging so many people in the “Land of Smiles”?
1. The last prime minister, former Manchester City Football Club owner Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted in a coup two years ago and hit with a slew of corruption charges. Despite all that, his right-wing political ally, Samak, won the ensuing election anyway. A lot of Thais were pissed.
2. As Thaksin’s corruption trial neared, he fled to London via Beijing during the Olympic Games. He now lives there in self-imposed exile. The same Thais were doubly pissed.
3. Since the decade’s start, Thaksin, Samak, and their allies have tried catering to poor, rural Thais, offering government loans, $1-per-visit healthcare and debt clearance. While critics have called this vote buying and reckless pandering, Samak & co. have called it “working,” and power has shifted away from old-money elites.
The siege—paired with a short-lived takeover of seven other ministries and a TV station—appeals to Bangkok’s upper and middle classes. Wealthy and mad, they’ve backed the People’s Alliance for Democracy, the group leading the raid on Samak’s compound. The PAD calls it the “Last War.” Their stated and slightly ironic goal is to peel back democracy in favor of an appointee system led by educated elites, who would assign leaders mostly through appointment. (According to their plan, only 30 percent of politicians would be seated through elections.)
CONTINUED
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Anonymous, on Sep 28, 2008 wrote:
Another premeditated ’color revolution’. How typically third world. |
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Anonymous, on Sep 15, 2008 wrote:
folks in thailand aren’t ready for democracy. that’s what the educated (and, yes, elite) realise and that’s why they’re having this sit in. the poor are too easily influenced by whoever will give them cheap (temporary) healthcare or rice or whatever. remember that pol pot had the support of the majority of cambodia because of this same type of thing. they threw the countryside peasants a bone and became very popular. this situation is quite different but that’s a parallel. the thai king is an honest guy and would do whats best for the country.... but i’ve heard his son is a fucker so they do need to more towards a different system. i wonder what’ll happen once the king dies? it was because of him that the last coup was bloodless. |
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Anonymous, on Sep 13, 2008 wrote:
Thai politics is fucked up. There is no such thing as a ’grass roots’ political party there. It is all about rich old dudes, getting themselves in good spots so that they can stick their hands in the pockets of others and find a good toe in for their young stupid sons to become old rich dudes.
The fact is that Bangkok politics mean fuck all to the millions outside of the capitol so it is easy to buy votes, either by populist policies that make the poor feel like Bangkok does give a shit or by literal vote buying since you only have to buy off the local village head man to get the whole village. What the local don thinks is way more important to your way of life in country Thailand than what is going on in Bangkok which is this whacked world of social climbing ’hi-so’s’ (high society as they call them in Thailand).
I blame the King of Thailand myself. They all love that guy o the point that they are shit scared of saying anything about him BUT you never see him directly lashing his cash on stuff for the poor who love him so much. He even charges and appearance fee to attend universities to hand out degrees.
They need a real revolution there - The poor people should rise up and ditch all of those bastards that are holding them back with their ’social caste’ thing |
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Anonymous, on Sep 11, 2008 wrote:
I want to see those cartoons. I bet they put Johnny Ryan to shame. |
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Anonymous, on Sep 10, 2008 wrote:
Hey Bored Barista, Get back to work and make me a crappucino! |
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Anonymous, on Sep 10, 2008 wrote:
I heard Ko Samui is beautiful this time of year... |
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Anonymous, on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
Yes, I can. I live in BKK
jiggix@gmail.com |
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| boner jamz, on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
can you imagine how disgusting poor people feces is in thailand? |
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Anonymous, on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
wow a class-based analysis in these parts? color me red! |
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| Bored Barista , on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
it’s like the warriors but everyone’s a dork |
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| A Taipan, on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
Everything about this situation is off. All that I know is that a government appointed by elites always spells trouble. I see more turmoil in the future for decades to come. |
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Anonymous, on Sep 9, 2008 wrote:
Wait wait wait. The rich are mad that they’re outnumbered by the poor? And the poor voted for someone they didn’t like?
I’m in favor of sticking it to the man and all, but this sounds pretty silly. |
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