Newley Purnell
Just a quick follow-up to my last post:
For news about Saturday’s red shirt gathering at Rajaprasong to mark the second anniversary of the May 19 army crackdown, you can find stories from:
Elsewhere, GlobalVoices has a collection of images and various reports about the event.
Photo above: Sunday’s Bangkok Post front page.
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Today is the second anniversary of the May 19, 2010 army crackdown on red shirt protesters in central Bangkok.
As I mentioned earlier, red shirts and others are gathering at Rajaprasong today to mark the occasion.
This AP piece provides some context. Here’s an AFP story about today’s rally. And here’s a post I wrote about my experiences on that day in 2010.
I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update this post later, so I wanted to provide a few images of today’s gathering that I’ve come across on Twitter.
As ever, Richard Barrow is Tweeting from the scene. He snapped the panoramic photo above at 3:09 p.m. Bangkok time. Here’s a bigger version.
Richard says the following events are on tap for the rest of the day:
Scedule: Monk ceremony at 3pm, UDD leaders speaking from 6:20pm, Thaksin at 8pm, Thida at 8:30pm & then Amsterdam, Jatuporn, Nattawut…
— Richard Barrow (@RichardBarrow) May 19, 2012
Above is another photo from about half an hour earlier, courtesy of Pailin C (@_Willowtree_).
I think it’s safe to assume that crowds will grow as the day continues and temperatures drop.
The intersection is closed to traffic, and MCOT has advised motorists to avoid the area.
And shoppers who had planned to visit the adjacent CentralWorld should be advised that the mall has now closed, MCOT says:
CentralWorld announces it is closing as of 3pm, to resume normal operation on Sunday after Red Shirt gathering at Ratchaprasong ends
— MCOT English News (@MCOT_Eng) May 19, 2012
For ongoing updates, you can find me on Twitter: @Newley. Here’s my Thailand Twitter list and my list of Bangkok journalists on Twitter.
In addition, of course, you can consult The Bangkok Post and The Nation.
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MCOT reports today:
Some 200,000 red shirt supporters are expected to join activities held by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) — the red shirt movement — to mark the second anniversary Saturday of the 2010 protest against the then Abhisit Vejjajiva administration, red shirt co-leader Jatuporn Prompan said on Thursday.
Mr Jatuporn, also a Pheu Thai MP, said a stage would be set up beneath the Chit Lom BTS Skytrain station for activities at Ratchaprasong, Bangkok’s prime business and shopping zone, to mark the second anniversary of the May 19 protest clampdown.
He said some 200,000 Red Shirt supporters are likely to join the event. Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will address the crowd via video link between 7 and 8pm and will praise those who lost their lives during the protest.
Elsewhere, The Nation says:
Thousands of protesters are to mark the secondanniversary Saturday of a crackdown on anti-government demonstrationsin central Bangkok, which left up to 102 people dead.
“You will see about 100,000 people coming to Ratchaprasong Road inmemory of those who died,” Thida Tavornseth – chairwoman of theUnited Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), also known asthe red shirts – said Thursday.
And The Bangkok Post reports:
A total of 1,200 police will be deployed to ensure peace and order during the mass gathering of the red-shirts at Ratchaprasong intersection on Saturday, the second anniversary of the May 19 bloodshed, a police spokesman said.
100,000 red shirts? 200,000 red shirts?
Obviously, protest organizers worldwide are often likely to project a huge turnout for such events. It will be interesting to see how many UDD members — not to mention curious onlookers — show up on Sat.
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Al Jazeera ran a video report yesterday on Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws and the late “Uncle SMS.”
The piece is embedded above and is on YouTube here.
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AP reports today:
A Thai man in his 60s who became known as “Uncle SMS” after he was convicted of defaming Thailand’s royal family in mobile phone text messages has died while serving his 20-year prison term, his lawyer said Tuesday.
The case of Amphon Tangnoppakul, a grandfather who had suffered from mouth cancer, drew attention to Thailand’s severe lese majeste laws last November when he received one of the heaviest-ever sentences for someone accused of insulting the monarchy.
And:
Amphon was arrested in August 2010 and accused of sending four text messages to a government official that were deemed offensive to the queen. He denied sending them, however, and said he didn’t even know how to use the SMS function on his telephone to send texts.
He wept during his court proceedings, saying, “I love the King.”
AFP says:
A 62-year-old Thai man considered a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International for his 20-year sentence for royal defamation has died in jail, his lawyer said Tuesday
And:
“He had come to represent the enormous degree of injustice that was this lese majeste law and yet he wanted nothing more than to be a grandfather and to enjoy his old age,” Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki told AFP.
Reuters reports:
A Thai man who was jailed for 20 years after being found guilty of sending text messages disrespectful to Queen Sirikit has died in jail a few months into his sentence, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
The case last November of Amphon Tangnoppaku, 61, who the media nicknamed “Uncle SMS”, had stoked a debate about the harsh sentences imposed in Thailand for lese-majeste, or insulting the king, queen or crown prince.
Prachatai has this:
After being convicted to 20 years in jail for allegedly sending four offensive text messages to the secretary of former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in November 2011, his lawyers applied for his temporary release several times citing his medical need as he had been suffering from cancer among other illnesses. The latest request was made in February 2012 and it was rejected by the Appeals Court who claimed that “The illness which the defendant claims [as one of the reasons for the bail] does not appear to be life-threatening.”
There’s also a story from The Nation and The Bangkok Post.
And finally, for background info, here’s a BBC story from Nov., when Ampon was convicted.
(All emphasis mine.)
(Image: The Nation.)
Update: There’s also a story from The New York Times.
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Reuters reports today:
Thai authorities were investigating on Sunday a blast that killed 12 people and wounded at least 105 at one of the world’s biggest petrochemical hubs.
Explosions sparked a fire at a chemical factory at the sprawling Map Ta Phut complex – Thailand’s biggest industrial estate – on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people and workers from the area in Rayong province, about 180 km (110 miles) east of Bangkok.
The Bangkok Synthetics plant, 20-percent owned by Thailand’s largest industrial group, Siam Cement Pcl, produces butadiene and other raw materials used in the manufacturing of synthetic rubbers and plastic resins.
The blaze has been extinguished and many evacuees have returned home, said Verapong Chaiperm, governor of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, confirming the number of dead and wounded.
“The evacuation order has been cancelled while other nearby buildings and factories around the area are under security checks,” he said in an interview.
Authorities were investigating the cause of the explosions and were watching closely for the environmental impact of the spread of the chemicals, said Verapong
The Bangkok Post has more here and here.
A few years ago, as you’ll recall, Map Ta Phut was the focal point of a lawsuit about pollution and the Thai constitution’s environmental protection requirements.
(All emphasis mine.)
(Image: Bangkok Post.)
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Yet more news from the Thai parliament.
Late last month, as I noted, a graphic image of a woman was broadcast on large screens during a parliamentary session.
Now a member of parliament has given the Nazi salute and yelled “Heil Hitler” during an argument.
Thanks to Saksith at Asian Correspondent for pointing out yesterday the remarkable May 2 video, embedded above and on YouTube here.
The salute and “Heil Hitlers” start at around the three minute mark.
Here’s Saksith, translating a Thai news story:
Reports say that before parliament was about to decide [on a proposal], a little bit of chaos ensued when MP Boonyod Sukthinthai of the Democrat Party raised his hand to protest House speaker Somsak’s hasty attempts to end [the session], but the latter refused to listen and proceeded to the voting, leading to Mr Boonyod yelling loudly that he will protest until the speaker will listen to him, as he then shouted “Heil Hitler, Mr Speaker of the dictatorship! Heil Hitler!” – to which Mr Somsak still refuses to listen and requests the parliament to cast in their votes.
As Saksith notes:
This arbitrary and erratic display of Godwin’s law evidently shows the still volatile political climate that is being maintained, if not even increased by the parliamentary infighting over amendments to the constitution, to which the opposition fears potential abuse of power by the government (and most of all a carte blanche for Thaksin). Nevertheless, it also shows an unacceptable behavior by our elected representatives, who think that any rough measures for this political discourse is legitimate.
This is not the first time a Nazi-related story has made the news in Thailand. CNNGo ran a piece in Feb. about the issue.
(All emphasis mine.)
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Former Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva spoke at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand last night. (Details on the event are on the FCCT site here.)
Embedded below and collected here are my Tweets from the evening, in reverse chronological order.
As I’ve noted following Abhisit’s remarks at previous FCCT events, he is a highly adept politician, at least by Western standards: He stays on message, he uses his wit to good effect, he speaks excellent English, and he has a deep knowledge of policy issues.
Overall, my feeling was that the audience of non-journalists — Thais and foreigners alike — were fairly receptive to his remarks.
Abhisit received some cheers for a few of his statements, and though I heard some rumblings of discontent among some in attendance, the environment was not at all hostile.
(Of course, that may have to do with the fact that the non-media audience was self-selecting: His supporters are more likely to turn out to hear him speak, perhaps, than his detractors.)
To summarize a few notable elements of Abhisit’s remarks:
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…If I didn’t mention this I would be failing to keep you updated on Thailand news:
The BBC reported last Wed.:
Proceedings in Thailand’s parliament have been interrupted after the graphic image of a semi-naked woman flashed up on giant screens during a debate.
The close-up picture of a young woman striking a provocative pose appeared on monitors as an MP addressed the house.
The images appeared in between footage of the debate, on a controversial constitutional amendment.
The session was halted and the monitors hastily switched off after an MP complained.
The origin of the images is now being investigated. The Speaker, Somsak Kiatsuranont, said an official told him that the image’s appearance was the work of hackers outside of parliament.
Hackers? Or could the image have come unwittingly — or even intentionally — from others in the building?
As The Nation says today:
Electronic devices of a particular brand were found yesterday to be capable of sending data to display screens inside Parliament and could be responsible for a recent “porn pic” scandal.
Kamphi Ditthakorn, deputy secretary-general of the House of Representatives, who chairs a fact-finding team investigating the scandal, said yesterday the culprit could be a Samsung smart phone.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident on the same day, The Bangkok Post said:
In addition, an unidentified MP was caught by an unnamed photographer looking at an erotic photo on his cell phone during the House meeting today.
Note that the MP was looking at a different image — not the one that ran on the large screens. Click through for a photo of the MP.
It turns, out, as The Nation said:
A red-faced Democrat Party MP, a son of former party leader Banyat Bantadtan, Thursday admitted that he accidentally viewed a porno picture during a parliamentary meeting Wednesday.
Nat Bantadtan admitted during the meeting held to deliberate the charter amendment bill in the second reading that he used his mobile phone to watch a porno picture.
So, to re-cap:
1) A graphic photo was displayed on large screens in the Thai Parliament.
2) Later, an MP was photographed viewing an erotic image on his mobile phone.
For more info on both events, see this post by Kaewmala at Asian Correspondent, and this one by Bangkok Pundit.
Embedded at the top of this post and on YouTube here: A Thai-language news report about the first incident.
(All emphasis mine.)
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Following my recent post on Thaksin’s Songkran rally next door in Cambodia, I wanted to point out a related Economist piece.
The story examines the exiled former Thai prime minister’s relationship with Cambodia’s PM, Hun Sen:
As much as the rally was a testament to Mr Thaksin’s popularity, it was perhaps even more a reflection of the unusual friendship that has burgeoned between him and Mr Hun Sen over the past few years. At a cost that the Cambodian government has refused to disclose, thousands of its security officers were deployed along with hundreds of support staff including street sweepers, electrical engineers, health workers and many more besides. While much of Cambodia had been shut down over the weekend to celebrate the Khmer New Year, which took place Friday, the authorities in Siem Reap went into overdrive.
Read the whole thing.
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I'm Newley Purnell, an American journalist in Bangkok. I report for Bloomberg BNA, ABC News Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more.