Asia After Hours

Thaksin is back !

Thaksin (Pheu Thai/Yingluck) won the elections and will most likely return to Thailand from his exile sooner or later.
I started to get “involved” with Thaksin around end of 2008. On April 4th, 2009 I indicated on this blog the upcoming class war in Thailand which about 1 year later got named “war against the elite”. To the time of this post http://www.globalnanpa.com/blog/?p=582
and the video “Big Bunda Land” (original upload got deleted from Vimeo) no fucking ass worldwide had posted anything or believed that buildings would soon be burning in Thailand.
First I correctly predicted the Jakarta bombings, then I indicated the upcoming class war in Thailand.
Very interesting is that Wikipedia (and everyone else) state that it were the red shirts who burned down the Central World shopping mall, the largest mall of South East Asia. Thaksin always refused to take responsability for that being done by the red shirts. He was talking of a 3rd group who had been active there, a professional group who could plan and execute such a thing. It should be pretty clear that a handful of amateur fires won’t let Central World completely burn out. I don’t think they will ever find out the truth and really investigate on that.

Anyways, I am glad that a bit more truth, justice and democracy is finally returning to Thailand. This will bring a lot of change along. Congratulations Mr. Thaksin !

Red in the Land : Red shirts bang it again, Bangkok

The protests today shall remember the army crackdown and its victims from May, 19th last year.

On May 9th the king approved the prime ministers request to dissolve the lower chamber of the parliament. New elections will be held on July 3rd.
Thaksin recently said that this election will become a “brutal fight”.
Thaksin’s youngest sister Yingluck will lead the opposition party, Pheu Thai. She got a good chance to beat the current, non-elected, prime minister Abhisit.

Because of the rain my footage isn’t as good as the two previous ones of the redshirts I did in the past. The vibe also wasn’t so good, moreover not as much people around as I saw in the protest in January. The rain simply made it chaotic, so this time I actually didn’t stick around for too long. The humidity and slight rain spoiled something which could have been a good opposition start promo action for the elections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8dPvOV3BJY

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Krung Thep : Glooom, Boom, Doom

This video got shot around mid of March 2010 shortly before the Bangkok crisis turned violent. In the next 2 months almost 100 people on both sides died, the military “ending” the red shirt protest with an armed crackdown on May 19th, storming the red shirt base camps. Beside from the human tragedy of people losing their lives, getting wounded or suffering emotional pain from family victims, Bangkok lost its largest shopping mall Central World which had been the biggest of South East Asia. It got burned by the red shirts shortly before the military crack-down happened. If the red shirts had not fled the sites many more might had been killed, it was doomed. The Dusit Thani hotel has large holes in 2 of their flors which got targeted by the red shirts with an RPG. A military sniper had shot Seh Daeng from there before, the international press having been right there. A few more sites got damaged. It is important to mention that resistance from the government was strongest to protect the city’s wall street and Bangkok Bank which didn’t got harmed. The key institution was protected best. Do you believe in the system ?

A military crack-down cannot solve problems. The conflict isn’t ended, it only disappeared into the non-visible like before. One thing is for sure : who controls the army, controls Thailand. The real decisive moment of Thailand’s future will come when the king dies. His son and Thaksin will then become the figures to look at again.

In the video you see a beginning scene at Lumpini park, it was shocking to see before the video from K. Todd Ruiz, reporterinexile, when the heavy armed Thai troups marched through the gate during the crackdown, May 19th.

Bangkok now probably gets a break from visible conflicts for a while which is good for business and tourism, not sure if you can call it justice. Everyone can/should have his own opinion. It is sad but pretty clear that the events of the last 2 months will hurt Thailand’s tourism, the country’s money machinery, for approximately maybe 2 years. This was worse than the tsunami, December 26th, 2004. People tend to forget natural desasters faster than political ones.

I still hope for Thailand that it recovers quickly, the land of smiles has so much beauty to offer. Like always, the conflict is hurting the wrong people. Bangkok, Krung Thep, is the world’s coolest city in my eyes. You cannot destroy its spirit. I will always love this town and its people…

http://www.vimeo.com/11983890

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Bangkok’s Red Shirt protests : ” War against the Elite” (4 parts)

If you don’t have that much time, then I recommend to check out part 4. It is a bit like a summary. Special thanks to Peter H.

Part 1 :

http://www.vimeo.com/10809602

Part 2 :

http://www.vimeo.com/10825945

Part 3 :

http://www.vimeo.com/10837822

Part 4 :

http://www.vimeo.com/10840319

Red Shirts Big Bang : Bangkok on the way to Civil War ? No, not as long as the king stays alive and can maintain stability…

The protests and the march had been very peaceful and well organized, no traffic jams at all. I set my personal time record from BKK airport to Rajadamri Road in 18 minutes : NEVER believe mass media ! I actually didn’t plan joining that but somehow got into the march at Siam and followed it over 4 hours to its end at Victory Monument. It had been an extremely exciting and memorable experience. The people were super-friendly, open-minded, non-armored and generous. The atmosphere was not agresssive at all. On the other hand it needs to be mentioned too that the red shirts got free food and drinks for coming to Bangkok those 1-2 days and at the rural side there is not much to do currently in March, season depending. I estimate to have seen around 20.000 people at the March. Leader Jaran Ditthapichai was hoping for around 100k people. It is hard to make a true estimate without real efficient calculation. On the way I collected about 2 hour video footage and I almost didn’t see anyone with cameras on the way, so the stuff is most likely pretty exclusive. Moreover I talked to some journalists from Bangkok Post, Times England, BBC and other people who all confirm what I always expected : their articles get “cleaned” and there is no true independent media out there. The best chat I had was with a very smart 16-year-old school boy from Bagna whose dad is British and who had a really good understanding for Thai politics and knew a lot of details like yellow shirts paying off people to cause conflicts which could have lead to an escalation. Good thing was that the police and not the military were blocking the streets. The police certainly are pro-Red Shirt, you see that in the videos. Too funny that even the US and British guys seeing the event agree on that the BBC and CNN are really some of the worst news agencies possibly out there. “What they want are dramatic news stories” (quotation from Time journalist in my video). Manipulated mind-fuck ! Let the bubble burst finally ! The lies make me more and more angry…

Kudos to Global Nanpa ! There are some deep talks and scenes coming up. It will take some time to edit the material,this is powerful and high-impact shit ! I also fly back soon to Jakarta. So no time for further updates. Apologies…

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