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

 

IN BANGKOK

After hearing about the barricades that had been put up by the police and the army around Parliament House last night, I got there at around 8.45am this morning, to find scores of opposition Puea Thai MPs and several journalists milling around amidst coils of barbed wire, concrete blocks, heavy earth movers and fire trucks and perhaps around 1,000 police and army personnel, apparently unarmed but equipped with elaborate riot gear. I could smell the big cats in the Dusit Zoo just across the wall opposite Parliament.

Spooked? Thai army and police put up elaborate barricades around Parliament on Wed, March 24. ST PHOTOS: NIRMAL GHOSH

An army "psy ops" truck was in the middle of it, with an officer speaking through a loudspeaker trying to keep things cool while Puea Thai MP Sunai Chulpongsatorn screamed himself hoarse into a hand held microphone denouncing the heavy security.

Up to 1,000 soldiers and police with elaborate riot gear on all access routes to Parliament.

There were similar roadblocks at all access points to Parliament. But the opposition MPs were having none of it and though they would have been allowed free passage, they chose to boycott the Parliament session which began to look like it would fall short of the required 238 seat quorum. 
 
"This is not acceptable," Puea Thai spokesman Phiraphan Phalusak told me.

An angry Puea Thai MP Sunai Chulpongsatorn haranguing the soldiers.

Chiang Mai MP Julapun Amornvivat told me "It’s ridiculous, how will democracy work when he (Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva) surrounds Parliament with soldiers. He can’t even face his people. The red shirts are also Thais. A House dissolution is the only way out. They must give power back to the people, and if he wins, then fine, I’ll be happy to be in the opposition."
 
"But we have to bring the issues from the street into the House to try and resolve this."
 
Around 10.15am the red shirts of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) encamped on Rajadamnoen road a couple of kilometers away - who have been demanding an early election - said they would not be mounting any protests at Parliament.
 
Indeed there were no red shirts in sight at Parliament this morning. After a while the army’s psy ops truck was playing soothing piano music. That did not impress the Puea Thai MPs, some of whom took turns making short speeches from a sound truck, until eventually all dispersed.

It was a small but significant piece of political theatre. Clearly the government has been spooked by the sporadic but largely harmless grenade attacks on army and government establishments in recent days. MPs I spoke with shook their heads when talking about them. "Nobody knows who is doing this," said one, looking gloomy. Yet to the red shirts and the opposition, the elaborate security outside the House smacked of overkill.