Red, Yellow And Now Blue

Thai protesters break through Asian summit cordon

PATTAYA, Thailand

OLD SQUARE FACE

HAS HIS DAY......

Around 100 Thai anti-government protesters broke through an army cordon and moved towards a hotel hosting a summit of Asian leaders here Friday, an AFP reporter said.The demonstrators were part of a group of about 1,000 supporters of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra that gathered in the resort town of Pattaya shortly after the meeting with 15 foreign nations began.The main crowd briefly clashed with police before a smaller number forced their way through a group of soldiers deployed about 500 metres (yards) from the luxury hotel.Television footage had shown riot police and red-shirted protesters angrily pushing each other on a road leading to the hotel in the first major confrontation since mass protests began three days ago in Bangkok.The demonstrators shouted slogans against current premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, who has resisted calls to step down and order early elections."Abhisit get out! If this government does not accept our demands we will not go home," shouted the protesters."We will go peacefully to the hotel, we will not damage anything, any government property. But we have to show the world that this government is not democratic," protest leader Arismun Pongreungrong told AFP.The government hardened its stance on Friday, saying that it wanted to prosecute the leaders of the protests which have posed the biggest challenge yet to Abhisit's four-month-old administration.Abhisit said late Thursday that he had boosted security in Pattaya for the summit, which groups the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Red-shirts battle blue-shirts in Pattaya, but where are the yellows ???

Red-shirted protesters armed with giant firecrackers, Molotov cocktails, sling shots and batons, battled with local people who formed a line to protect the venue of Asean +6 summit venue here Saturday morning.The clash happened at 8:40 am.The outnumbered blue-shirted local people was scattered and ran for cover when the red-shirted people attacked them.Several explosion sounds of firecrackers were heard and the red-shirted people were seen as firing slingshots with bolts at the blue-shirted people who tried formed a line in front of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort Hotel.The red-shirted people formed a line and kept advancing until the two sides stood confronting less than one metre apart and the clash broke out.The red-shirted protesters were seen carrying Molotov cocktails but none had been thrown at the other side yet.Terrified local residents closed their houses and many were seen weeping with fear.So far, the security authorities had not step in to stop the clash yet.

They should have seen this coming as the government is not legitimate.

They could have appoint anybody to be the PM but still the question of legitimacy lingers.

Mark Vejj could have been a good foreign minister in another era but to be put into that premiership hot seat by the vested interests i.e read monarchy and the army and the wheelers and dealers of Bangkok's big businesses, Abhisit found himself abhorred by the rural poor and the upcountry ruling classes.

Question is: Will there be another coup ?

Can't really rule that out as coups happened in Thailand as often as lunar eclipses and the country is really in no position to sit this one out as the population divisions are consuming the country.

Will the king comes out to the rescue again ?

Highly unlikely as he was the main culprit in this whole saga but to solely blame him for this unmitigated disaster is a bit rich as he is the one that says the least but the whole bunch of his Privy Council should be held accountable for their nefarious motives in prosecuting the affairs of statehood since the ousting of Thaksin in 2006.The Army as usual will be the fence sitters and will sway to the winning side.Nice try again.

Get rid of Prem and his clique and let the people choose again would be the answer out of this predicament but this is not going to happen because as usual, vested interests is at play.

Thaksin could only lasts as long as he is not assassinated, i.e. stay alive and pull strings from abroad but his real power lays beneath his loyal peasants whose livelihood were helped by his previous governance and realistic policies on the subject of eradicating poverty from the less fortunates.But Thaksin is irrelevant to the cause now as the people tasted freedom from the first time during his administration and now adamantly won't give up what they had been conferred, the right to a better living standard and the right to get out from their poverty traps.

Thousands of "red shirt" protesters -- named for their clothing -- have rallied for days to demand that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down.
Their protests are not directly related to the Asian summit, but the demonstrations created so much chaos that summit members could not reach at least two of their meetings.
The disruptions included traffic around hotel meeting sites and conflicts among protesters. "Blue shirt" protesters and red shirts clashed, both sides armed with long sticks.
One of the meetings -- at which China, Japan and South Korea were to discuss issues including economics, regional security, North Korea and disaster prevention -- would still take place, possibly by phone, said Kazuo Kodama, press secretary for the Japanese government.
The other meeting was to cover similar issues, but details were not immediately available about when it would take place.
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In a strategy change among red shirts, demonstrators have been urged to go to the southern coastal city of Pattaya to support fellow red shirts in their protests, according to the Thai Public Broadcasting Service, which attributed the comment to Nattavut Saikuea, a protest leader.
Earlier, Nattavut had said that red shirt demonstrations might be suspended to allow Thais to celebrate the New Year from Monday through Wednesday next week.
The protesters say Abhisit was not democratically elected. They want him to schedule elections.
The demonstrators are loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup. He fled Bangkok last year while facing trial on corruption charges.

Such is life in Thailand that everybody don't like everybody's PM and the changes are in perpetual cycles.Heroes will be born, villains will be vanquished and the cycle continues.....

But maybe not this time, as people's power is a very potent instrument in REALPOLITIK.

We from the outside looking in, sometimes will get a clearer pictures that those participants themselves and we will just have to wait and see how this one play out......

BTW where are the PAD and Sonthi Limthongkul ???