IN BANGKOK
Sombhat Boonngamanong, 42, founder of the Mirror Foundation and a respected figure in non-government and civil society circles, was released from detention last week after being arrested on June 26 for tying a red ribbon at the Ratchaprasong intersection to commemorate the people who died in the area on May 19.
That act was a violation of the emergency decree imposed by the government, which is into its fourth month now in Bangkok and 18 other provinces. The decree gives the government the right to detain anyone considered a threat to security for a week without charge, shut down and censor media, and prohibits the assembly of more than 5 people. The last prohibition is aimed at political assembly, and is intended to prevent red shirts from mounting large gatherings.
Sombat, who is pictured on the cover of the widely circulated Mathichon weekly magazine raising his left middle finger in gesture of defiance, was turned into a celebrity by the Centre for Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES), the committee that has been administering the emergency decree from the fortified 11th Infantry Regiment base in Bangkok.
He was right back at Ratchaprasong again this evening. I got there at around 4.45pm to find three activists lying motionless on the pavement, their limbs red with food colouring resembling blood. A4 size sheets with the words ‘’People have died here’’ written in English and Thai, lay next to them. They lay just behind the big metal sign saying 'Ratchaprasong'.
Activists lay on the pavement. Reminder
of the dead from the violence in May.
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
A small group of people had gathered. A few wore red shirts, some emblazoned with red shirt slogans. One said 'Thailand needs Change'. Others held up the A4 pieces of paper and broke into shouts of 'People died here!' There were about 20-30 in all. The metal upright poles of the Ratchaprasong sign were wrapped in red tape and ribbon.
Some of the 20-30 Red Shirt supporters at the spot.
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
Sombat arrived at 5pm and began tying a swathe of red cloth across the legs of the sign. It was a classic media event, with a swarm of journalists – mostly photographers, TV cameramen and reporters – surrounded him as gave a short address. One man held a lighted red candle.
Sombat drapes the uprights of the street sign with red ribbon.
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
A squad of about 15-odd policemen stood by, but made no move to arrest him unlike the previous occasion.
Speaking to me in English, Sombat said: 'I want to tell the people the red shirts are peaceful. And I want to remind people of what happened (in May) around here because (we are not hearing) the truth. We want the government to take responsibility.'
Sombat: 'I want to remind people.'
ST Photo: Nirmal Ghosh
One man shouted encouragement from the pedestrian overhead bridge.
Sombat has been quoted as saying, 'Freedom which is gained through imprisonment is more beautiful than power maintained through taking lives.'
He became visible – though he has always remained low-key – among the first pro-democracy groups which protested in knots of a dozen to not more than 50 people, at Sanam Luang in the weeks following the September 2006 coup d’etat that unseated then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. He is credited with having had a key role in the founding of the red shirt movement, but was not part of the leadership.
He was among those red shirts who insisted on peaceful protests.
Sombat’s action – and those of the activists who joined him – a few hours ago, is reminiscent of those first protests, but the fact that he has already been detained once makes the action more significant. I spoke to a Thammasat student who was there and asked what the feeling was among the student community regarding the emergency decree.
He said the students were split between red and royalist yellow colours, mirroring the rest of Thai society. But many across political lines, were becoming critical of the extended state of emergency.
Sombat is pushing the envelope, and it is possible that more of such activities will follow. How the government – more specifically the CRES – handle them will be interesting to see.