Advertisement
Published: April 7th 2006
MBK skywalk breakdancers
These guys gather to breakdance every night on the skywalk. They're pretty crazy. They don't use cardboard and wear very few pads.We have been through Bangkok several times already. Bangkok is a transportation hub and a place to run errands and do other tasks. Since it is so hot, we've been to see several movies that were much better than the wretched "Frankenfish." We saw "The Constant Gardener," "A History of Violence," and "Crash." All were great films, but "Crash" was fantastic and completely deserving of its recent Best Picture Oscar. We highly recommend all these movies, especially "Crash," though the extensive violence in "A History of Violence" might be disturbing for some viewers. We only need to see one more movie at this theatre to get a free ticket.
Many of you may have noticed on the news that were massive protests in Bangkok before the elections on April 2. The protesters demanded that the Prime Minister Thaksin step down and asked people to boycott the elections. They are outraged that his family members pocketed almost US$2 billion from the sale of a Thai state company to a Singaporan firm. This company (Shin Corp) was established by the PM. Since Bangkok is a huge city, we didn't see anything except for trucks full of police headed to the main protest
site. The day before we arrived back in Bangkok, opposition protesters were camped out by Siam Paragon, a shopping mall right by where we normally stay. You would never know that the day before, 100,000 people were gathered in that area because the remnants of the protest were completely gone.
The Thai news was full of speculation about what would happen on the elections on April 2, but things were very quiet, another normal Bangkok Sunday with people out shopping. Most areas in the north and rural areas voted for Thaksin and his TRT party, while southern voters and people in Bangkok boycotted the election. Thaksin is loved by rural voters because of his agriculture and loan reforms, and hated by voters in other areas because of the perceived corruption and cronyism.
As a result of the boycott, many TRT candidates were unable to get the required 20% of he vote in their districts, even when they were the only candidates on the ballot. Therefore, there are not enough representatives to vote in a new PM and new elections will have to be held.
Although the PM stepped down, we think that nothing will change. They will
just be exchanging one crook for another. The protesters have been so intent on getting rid of Thaksin, they haven't thought about what comes next. Although Thailand's future is a bit uncertain, there is no reason to cancel any travel here, as the protests have been quite peaceful. No one wants martial law to be declared and everyone is afraid of the effect that such drastic measures will have on tourism and the business environment in Thailand.
The other interesting news from Bangkok is that a mentally ill man destroyed a sacred Buddha statue at the Erawan shrine in Bangkok. This poor man was beaten to death afterwards. I posted photos of this shrine and mentioned it on an earlier blog posting. People are outraged, but they seem to be more concerned about the shrine being destroyed and what effect it will have on tourism because it is one of the most popular destinations in Bangkok for Asian tourists. Astrologers are ominously predicting dark times for Thailand in the near future due to the current political upheaval and destruction of the shrine. I hope that they are wrong and that Thailand can get through this.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0262s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
K. Pipat
non-member comment
Thai protests.
The Thais are not blindly shouting just to get Thaksin out as someone may think. We have many things in mind that have to be done after the fall of Thaksin. These include getting a royally sponsored Prime Minister, fair and open investigations into thaksin alleged wrongdoings, confiscating his assets if he is proved wrong or corrupt, amending the charter to get rid of loopholes that allowed this worst crook to climb up to power and that let him succesfully manipulate almost all constitutional watchdog agencies, investigating the watchdog agencies who let themselves be controlled by Thaksin and, as a result, failed to performed their duties properly and finally holding a fair new general election. All of these can be done only after Thaksin no longer stays in power. His prompt resignation within April when there is still no Lower House will enable us to invoke Article 7 of the constitution to ask for a royally sponsored interim Prime Minister who will see to it that all the mentioned house-cleaning missions are achieved. We are also going to petition the Administrative Court to look into the dirty and disgusting election on April 2nd. If it is found illegal and declared void, there will be no Lower House until a new general election is held. What we are doing is to derail not only Thaksin himself but also the more dangerous Thaksin regime and its political ideology.