Here’s the BBC’s video report and text piece.
Parts of the story seem to have first appeared in Phuket Wan last week.
Here’s a Bangkok Post story.
Reuters and the AP also have stories.
And Saksith Saiyasombut has a post at Asian Correspondent summarizing the news.
(Image: BBC.)
As I Tweeted yesterday, I was delighted to see that my piece on all things vintage Thailand was included in WSJ Scene Asia’s list of their top Asian travel stories of 2012.
The story, which ran in August, is online here.
I’m a little late in noting this, but Thailand watchers may be interested in this Bloomberg story from December 11:
Facing eviction from her home of six decades, Amporn Pannarat personifies the dilemma facing the fund supporting Thailand’s monarchy as it seeks to boost returns and regenerate Bangkok with its first commercial development project.
The 78-year-old watched over the years as office towers and Four Seasons and St. Regis hotels went up around her aging concrete house near Lumpini Park, now one of several dozen left on land about the size of Manhattan’s World Trade Center site. The Crown Property Bureau’s plan to build condominiums on the location puts it at odds with an image of altruism maintained by a fund that eschews profit as its central objective.
The shift to build commercial properties, instead of just leasing land to private developers, risks exposing the CPB to scrutiny it has largely avoided because of laws used to shield the monarchy from criticism. The bureau, which has a portfolio estimated at $41.3 billion — more than three times that of the British throne — provides few details of its earnings and how they are spent.
There are stories from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The AP, Reuters, and The Financial Times. And Bangkok Pundit has some analysis.
The AP reports:
Vast crowds of devoted Thais turned out Wednesday to catch a brief glimpse of their beloved king as the world’s longest-reigning monarch celebrated his 85th birthday with a rare public appearance.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej sat on a throne on a balcony overlooking a plaza packed with a crowd that police estimated at 200,000 as he delivered a brief homily on national harmony.
The WSJ says:
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej – the world’s longest-reigning monarch – emerged from the hospital Wednesday to speak to his country and mark his 85th birthday, calling for unity in the politically fractured nation.
The monarch said that he had always believed “that your best wishes and goodwill to each other is an important key to making unity happen,” speaking softly at the balcony of the Dusit Palace while seated in a golden throne. “If Thais keep this morality in mind, I hope that Thailand will … maintain its strength in the long run.”
And the BBC has some video footage.
One more item, following my last dispatch, to file under post-rally readings: some analysis from Bangkok Pundit.
As a follow-up to my previous post, I wanted to point out some stories on Saturday’s anti-government protest in Bangkok:
Embedded above and on Youtube here is a BBC report.
Bloomberg summed up:
Thai anti-government forces called off a rally yesterday aimed at toppling Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra because of a poor turnout after clashes left two police officers in critical condition.
“I quit,” Boonlert Kaewprasit, a retired general leading the demonstration, said in an interview after he called off the rally. “I told the truth. I needed a million people, but we were interrupted when police fired tear gas and blocked people from coming.”
Police said as many as 20,000 protesters attended the rally on a rainy day in Bangkok, short of the 500,000 that demonstration leaders had predicted. Boonlert had earlier threatened to storm Yingluck’s office complex after police used tear gas and detained about 100 people who attempted to breach a road block set up as part of crowd-control measures.
The AP reported:
Protesters calling for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down rallied in the heart of Bangkok on Saturday, clashing with police in the first major demonstration against the government since it came to power last year.
Organizers had spoken of mobilizing hundreds of thousands of supporters. But only around 10,000 turned up, and by dusk the leaders called the rally off.
Nevertheless, the tense gathering served as a reminder that the simmering political divisions unleashed after the nation’s 2006 army coup have not gone away. The coup toppled Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, triggering years of instability and mass-protests that have shaken Bangkok.
The WSJ said:
An antigovernment rally in Bangkok fizzled under tropical downpours Saturday, but the stench of tear gas wafting through the streets was a jarring reminder of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s struggle to escape the shadow of one of Asia’s most divisive politicians: her older brother Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted as prime minister in a 2006 coup.
Map via The Nation.
The AP reports:
Thailand will deploy thousands of police officers and has invoked a special security law for an anti-government rally Saturday that is expected to be the largest since Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra took office in 2011 and that officials fear could turn violent.
Authorities expect tens of thousands of protesters, a turnout that would serve as a sharp reminder of the deep political divisions in the country despite two years of relative calm.
Yingluck on Friday accused the protesters of seeking to overthrow her elected government.
The demonstration is being organized by a royalist group calling itself “Pitak Siam” – or “Protect Thailand” – at Bangkok’s Royal Plaza, a public space near Parliament that has been used by protesters in the past.
While the group is a newcomer to Thailand’s protest scene, it is linked to the well-known “Yellow Shirt” protesters, whose rallies led to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s overthrow. The same movement later toppled a Thaksin-allied elected government after occupying and shutting down Bangkok’s two airports for a week in 2008.
Bloomberg says:
Thai police warned of a plot to abduct Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra as her cabinet approved using an internal security law to manage an anti- government rally scheduled for tomorrow.
“We have some worrisome intelligence that there may be violence when a lot of people gather,” National Police Chief Adul Sangsingkeo told reporters in Bangkok yesterday. “We are also very concerned about rumors about riots and the abduction of the prime minister.”
And:
“Despite the noise, there appears to be little likelihood of any eruption, as the UDD red shirts have judiciously announced plans to give the protest a wide berth,” JP Morgan equity analyst Sriyan Pietersz wrote, adding that the political tension may damp overseas demand for Thai stocks.
The WSJ reports:
Amid the buildup to the protest, Thailand’s national police chief Gen. Adul Saensingkaew alleged that investigators had uncovered a plot to abduct Ms. Yingluck and hold her hostage, although analysts said the claim and the imposition of the security laws, are typical of the heated atmosphere around large-scale demonstrations in Thailand. Other unsubstantiated rumors abound, including conspiracy theories that Mr. Thaksin’s opponents plan to fire on the protesters in order to discredit Ms. Yingluck.
“Stories of ‘third-hand’ plans to attack protesters or plans for protesters to ‘arrest’ Prime Minister Yingluck are part and parcel of emotional political events in Bangkok, and are more political drama than an actual threat,” Bangkok-based security consultancy PSA Asia said in a note to clients Thursday.
Theres’s also a story from Reuters, and English-language newspapers The Bangkok Post and The Nation have more.
And finally, for updated news, embedded below and online here is my Twitter list of Bangkok journalists.
Following my post yesterday about President Obama’s upcoming Southeast Asia visit this weekend, I wanted share another story on U.S. engagement with the region.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review military ethics training in the wake of a series of investigations that involve high-ranking military officers’ conduct…”
And:
Speaking at a news conference in Bangkok earlier Thursday after renewing the U.S.’s military relationship with treaty ally Thailand, Mr. Panetta said he isn’t aware of any additional government or military officials who received emails from Ms. Kelley.
The scandal has emerged as a major embarrassment for the U.S. military establishment, overshadowing not only Mr. Panetta’s trip to Australia, Thailand and Cambodia, but also Mr. Obama’s scheduled visits to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia, where he plans to attend a major regional summit. The U.S. “pivot” back to the Pacific is a hallmark of Mr. Obama’s foreign policy, and analysts expect Washington to step up its bid re-engage with East Asia over the next four years.
Among other things, the visits to the region of top U.S. leaders are expected to focus on finding a common approach with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations on resolving competing territorial claims with China in the South China Sea. The U.S. also hopes to improve military-to-military cooperation in the region, including with the armed forces of Myanmar, until recently viewed with deep suspicion by Washington for its North Korea-backed weapons program.
“Given the rising military power of China and ongoing tensions in the South China Sea, there was a consensus—within Washington, anyway—that America has to increase its military presence in Southeast Asia,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “Expect a lot more ship visits, training exercises with the armed forces of Southeast Asia and capacity building support, especially with the Philippines, which is the weakest link in the Asean chain.”
Update, October 22:
I’m embedded, at the end of this post, some responses I received on Twitter.
File under: Unsolved mysteries…
Here’s a photo I snapped recently of the top of a metal post built next to a fire hydrant here in New York City.
Yes, it says “SA Thailand 5.”
The post is one of several I’ve seen that are positioned as barriers to protect fire hydrants from cars, much like the two posts in this photo.
Why does this post say Thailand on it?
I’ve done some searching online, and can’t find any references to a company called “SA” (or with any name that would be abbreviated SA).
Could this simply be a straightforward — though somewhat odd — case of New York City officials purchasing less expensive goods from abroad rather than paying more for American-made items, as seemed to be the case with the NYC manhole covers from Kolkata?
Does anyone have any thoughts?
@newley @thailandvoice Thaksin’s behind it!
— GlobalMouthful (@GlobalMouthful) October 17, 2012
@newley @thailandvoice I’ve only seen “Siamese Connection”, this one in the East Village. twitter.com/tri26/status/2…
— ไตร กาญจนดุล (@tri26) October 17, 2012
@newley SA = steel alloy
— MulletFarm (@MulletFarm) October 17, 2012
@richardbarrow @newley what’s strange about that? many cast metal companies in TH. In this case, prob. Siam Fittings: siamfittings.th.com
— KristoferA (@KristoferA) October 17, 2012
I’ll keep you posted as I learn more…