IN BANGKOK
1400 hrs : Just returned from an early morning trip to Wang Noi near Ayutthaya, around 65 km from Bangkok, to check on what a report in today’s Bangkok Post calls the 'rural hordes'.
I got there at around 9am, to find at least 1,000 vehicles parked in an orderly manner in a big field beside the highway. Some were also parked on the side of the highway. Many were piled high with supplies.
Red Shirts on the road at Wang Noi
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
Several thousand Red Shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) were essentially relaxing at the restaurants or busy preparing and eating their own supplies of food and drink, after journeys from a dozen provinces in the northeast, which in some cases had taken them over 12 hours. Most of the vehicles were pickup trucks or farm trucks, with some buses and vans as well. A rough estimate of 10 people per vehicle placed the number of people there at the time at around 10,000.
A Buddhist monk with a UDD identity card and a red whistle around his neck sat next to us at one of the restaurants, eating a meal of pork and rice. The UDD has been holding religious rituals with the help of sympathetic monks. Two black clad security guards hovered nearby keeping an eye on him.
A few metres away Suporn Atthawong, known by his nickname 'Isan Rambo' sat almost regally in a chair flanked by bodyguards. Kwanchai Praiphana, chief of the Udon Lovers group who runs a community radio station at Udon Thani, also turned up.
62-year-old Red Shirt supporter Narong Oonsiri, also from Udon Thani, said he had joined the movement soon after the September 2006 coup d’etat that removed Thaksin Shinawatra from the premiership. He had voted for Thaksin, he said.
'This government is a hijack government. We have plenty of supplies. We will stay in Bangkok as long as it takes to win. We want elections; we think we have a 60-80 per cent chance of forcing them to hold an election.'
At around 11am when the number of vehicles had swelled significantly, the convoy started rolling. A kilometre down the road was a major checkpoint manned by police and soldiers – all unarmed. The convoy was shepherded between them, and cursory checks were made of the drivers' identity cards.
Unarmed soldiers keeping watch
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
The mood was festive; many Red Shirts played loud music and clapped and cheered as their trucks crawled through. The soldiers also smiled; some shook hands with the Red Shirts. There was no tension, which possibly augurs well for the big rally tonight and tomorrow. A short distance up the road, Red-Shirted supporters lined the highway, handing out bottles of chilled water to passing vehicles.
Meanwhile back in Bangkok, initial reports of the Red Shirts rally being on the verge of fizzling out, began to be tempered by TV footage coming in from the staging areas.
Besides Wang Noi, Red Shirts are advancing on Bangkok at other access points as well.
It is still too early to estimate numbers – a critical issue because many in the establishment have been saying the Red Shirts are losing steam.
But given the upwards of 10,000 at Wang Noi and similar numbers elsewhere, and the fact that the UDD can muster about 20,000-30,000 in Bangkok alone as per government spokesman Dr Panitan Wattanayagorn’s own estimate, it seems the security forces’ projection of around 150,000 people will quite easily be met.
Highway from Wang Noi leading to Bangkok
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
It remains to be seen whether the number grows. Certainly this rally is a major one. The UDD also knows it has to make a statement to prove it has not lost support.
Meanwhile, where is Thaksin Shinawatra? Some reports now say he is in Switzerland. Earlier reports last night indicated he had flown to Cambodia but that was not independently confirmed. This morning he was reported to have flown to Germany – but according to a reliable source he would not be allowed entry into Germany so that seems to be ruled out. He is due to phone in to the Red Shirt rally in Bangkok sometime this weekend.