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

 

REMEMBER the mayhem of April 2009? Almost a year on, and Bangkok is getting jittery again. When the Red Shirts protested outside police headquarters near Siam Square on Wednesday the road was closed for a while and phone calls and Tweets flew; obstructing downtown Bangkok always creates a stir.

But the Red Shirts have been holding meetings, rallies and dinners every day up north and in the north east. Up in the north east, in many places it is normal to wear a red shirt. It is the opposite in Bangkok.

A political education class in progress; the red shirts hold at least one a week around the region - and soon in Bangkok.
ST PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh

Last weekend I – accompanied by another foreign correspondent - spent last weekend in Udon Thani and Sakhon Nakhon, on a mission to assess the strength and organisational capability of the Red Shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).

The trip was prompted by news that the Red Shirts recently had at least two very big rallies in Khon Kaen and Ubon Ratchathani – which were completely unreported in the mainstream Bangkok media.

Red Shirt rally at Sakhon Nakhon last Saturday night: events keep supporters engaged.
ST PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh

First stop was Kwanchai Praipana’s radio station. The place is like the headquarters of a slightly ramshackle revolution, but soon Kwanchai who runs the Udon Lovers group and is a key motivator, fund raiser and organiser for the Red Shirts, will have a brand new radio station on a plot five times the size outside town.

That will have double his current 100 kilometre range. The over 6 million Baht investment for the new facility had been raised locally, Kwanchai said.

Kwanchai, a portly barrel of a man with a voice turned gravelly from cigarettes and hours of haranguing crowds at rallies or listeners through his studio, told us he would take "not less than 20,000’’ Reds Shirts from Udon Thani to Bangkok when the movement was ready to mobilise in the capital.

Radio host Kwanchai Praipana - key organiser
ST PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh

Outside, black clad ex-Ranger paramilitaries lounged about. They are the Red Shirts’ new "guards" – emerging just a few months ago to be seen at rallies. As Kwanchai held court on the benches outside the small studio, around 20 of them filed in and lined up, shouting out their roll numbers in a quasi-military style drill.

Notwithstanding the latent menace of the black clad "warriors" – though there were no weapons in sight - is the fact that the majority of Red Shirts we saw at the events over the weekend, were middle aged fathers and mothers.

One perceptive local resident – who is not a member of the movement – said that was probably because as parents and breadwinners, they had been the first to feel the positive impact of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s policies – and the first to feel the absence of his strong direction from Bangkok.

And it seems that despite the current Democrat Party-led coalition government having pumped money into the system, it has not translated into political good will in Isan. Locals insisted that there were still no tangible benefits. Kwanchai put it another way, saying "The villagers don’t accept the government as legitimate.’"

The urbane and sophisticated prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to power just over a year ago in a parliamentary vote.

While we talked with Kwanchai, a white SUV with black tinted windows arrived. Out stepped the rogue major general Khattiya Sawasdipol, better known as Seh Daeng. The Major General has been suspended from the army and is an suspect in a mysterious grenade blast in a building in the army headquarters in Bangkok which houses the offices of army chief General Anupong Paochinda.  

"He’s a hero, a hero!" bellowed Kwanchai, flashing a thumbs up sign.  

Seh Daeng, suspended by the army’s top brass, now supports the Red Shirts. He returned recently from a meeting in Dubai with Thaksin and the hawkish retired general Panlop Pinmanee who spoke of starting a "people’s army". Seh Daeng fished out his camera and showed us a picture of the three of them, all smiles in Dubai.

UDD leaders have sharply distanced themselves from such talk. But the hyperactive Seh Daeng basks in the media glare, lambasting many icons of the establishment.

His bravado only cements his image among his fans. Our conversation was interrupted by a call from a radio station which wanted to interview him. He paced up and down, talking volubly, then his voice rose in irritation and he shouted "Why are you asking me such foolish questions’’ and hung up.

He downplayed worry over the "people’s army."

But he said "This time we have the black warriors - but only for security, in case the people are shot at."

Maverick major general Seh Daeng - ''This time we have the black warriors''
ST PHOTO: Nirmal Ghosh

Seh Daeng was to do the rounds of events later that night, where people would welcome him by tying traditional Isan cloth around his waist.  

"He gives us moral support," said Sunan Angkaew, 39, a used car dealer from Udon Thani. "It is good to know that he is on our side, that we have some support from military men."

Read the full report on the Red Shirts in Thursday's print edition of The Straits Times.