By Nirmal Ghosh
Thailand Correspondent
nirmal@sph.com.sg

 

In Bangkok

AFTER filing last night and having dinner, I took a taxi out to Government House just to get a feel of things, and check out if the police were indeed moving in to evict the People's Alliance for Democracy protestors who had taken over the compound.

It was an astounding sight.

The PAD rally had essentially engulfed Government House, which is the office of the prime minister. Not a single security guard was visible in a place normally tightly guarded and controlled. Volunteers from the PAD were manning the gates, scanning the contents of people's bags with flashlights. Inside the manicured lawns were a sea of yellow shirts.

Yellow. The colour of royalty in Thailand.

A sea of yellow engulfed Government House. SOURCE: REUTERS

Thousands sat, sprawled, slept and danced in the rambling compound with the beautiful historic building lit as usual, but its doors and windows shut and locked and its insides darkened. The PAD had moved in open-top trucks and loudspeaker systems, and rock bands were belting out nationalist songs. Volunteers handed out bottles of drinking water. The crowd was non-aggressive; not a single window was broken.

The day bore the imprint of major general Chamlong Srimuang, now an adherent of the ascetic Santi Asoke Buddhist sect who, in his young days, was schooled in counter insurgency. The PAD had ''attacked'' multiple targets at once, and succeeded in holding one major symbol of the state – Government House.

As of midnight, it was clear that there was no way the police was going to be able to evict the crowd, half of whom were women, both young and old. But the picture could change in the pre-dawn hours when the euphoria may dwindle and people fall asleep.

The question is how long can the PAD sustain this. Some PAD supporters from other regions like the south, said they had enough food and provisions for only three days.

The question also is how long will the government of prime minister Samak Sundaravej allow this to continue.

And a third question is if this crowd were to be evicted, how will the police time the operation and carry it out without being drawn into violence and bloodshed.

The game, as Sherlock Holmes was fond of saying, is afoot.

Samak could well wait the PAD out, but he has considerable public sympathy on his side if he chooses to move now. As for the PAD, which did little to endear itself to the public with its attacks on government installations during the day, they would consider the occupation of Government House a partial victory.

If police arrest the PAD's five leaders, the movement may falter. But general Chamlong and media maverick Sondhi Limthongkul are bound to have devised a contingency plan. And the PAD has its own powerful backers.

The drama may be over early tomorrow morning, or could drag on for two to three days or metamorphose into a new phase which will carry on for weeks.

At his press conference late yesterday afternoon for the foreign media, Samak referred to speculation over the coincidence that yesterday was also the 88th birthday of Privy Council president general Prem Tinsulanonda – who is widely seen as implacably opposed to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra and all he stands for.

''I don't know anything about that'' Mr Samak added hastily.

But he had a mischievous grin on his face as he said it.