Nirmal Ghosh describes the carnival-like atmosphere at anti-govt & anti-Thaksin protests.

In Bangkok

EVERY evening around 6pm, the 24-hour People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) camp near the UN building in Bangkok begins to liven up. When I dropped by recently, there was a band playing Thai and Isan (Northeast region of Thailand) songs on the stage, with the audience of a few thousand clapping along. 

Sausages, fish, chicken and squid were grilling on the sidewalk, and vendors were selling the obligatory Che Guevara and Bob Marley T-shirts, old books, new sandals, glowing earrings and twirling little lights made in China.
 
The PAD, which is anti-Thaksin and anti-government, produces an array of T shirts with royalist and nationalist messages on them. On a long white banner stretched along the road, PAD supporters draw messages and sign their names. Most of the content is pejorative, taking aim at the Samak Sundaravej government and its perceived shadow puppet master, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

When Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej objected to PAD co-leader Sondhi Limthongkul's T-shirt earlier this month, he probably didn't expect to trigger a fashion trend.
 
It all started on the first weekend of August, when Mr Sondhi who is of Chinese ethnicity, wore a shirt saying ''Look Cheen Rak Chart" which means ''Children of Chinese love the Nation". Samak got wind of it and asked Thailand's Special Branch police to investigate whether the slogan was ''offside because (Sondhi) used the racial issue to incite unrest.''
 
I now find the T shirts selling like the proverbial hot cakes – thanks to Samak. Ms Khum Toi, a feisty 53-year-old, said that while she had been wearing it for a while, Mr Samak's criticism inspired her to buy 10 more for her friends.
 
Sarosha Pornudomsak, one-time reporter for Channel News Asia and now one of the faces of Mr Sondhi's Manager Media group through his TV channel, said Mr Samak had misunderstood its message.
 
''Even non-Chinese like our Thai Muslim supporters who have their own tent where they pray, are wearing the shirt. It was simply a call for Chinese to come out and support us,'' she said.
 
Meanwhile, a wiry old man I met in the midst of the protesting crowd, wearing the T-shirt stuck his chest out and said with a grin ''If they want to arrest someone, they can take me.'

A supporter of the People Alliance for Democracy wears a mask of toppled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during a protest  to demand action on long-pending legal cases against Thaksin.
Source: AP