BangkokPundit

Pravit of The Nation has a story (with a great photo) on the red shirt rally. Key excerpt: Red-shirt protesters, at least 100,000 strong, occupied Rajdamnoen Avenue Saturday and more kept flowing into the capital from all over the Kingdom Saturday night....Arrivals quickly set ...
Read more »

7:25 p.m. Red shirts giving out money? The Nation reports (together with video): This image was captured on video by a Nation correspondent in Nakhon Phanom, where protesters were preparing to leave for Bangkok tomorrow. Around 500 red-shirt protesters, led by Pheu Thai's Nakhon Phanom MP Cha...
Read more »

1:55 p.m. Matichon has photos of the various smaller symbolic protests and the reds travelling from yesterday here. Matichon also has an article with some photos from today here. ? 1:40 p.m. ...
Read more »

The first report by The Nation was that it was definitive that Thaksin was in Cambodia: PM's secretary Chavanon Indharakomansut said Thaksin travelled to Siem Reap province of Cambodia by his private jet.Thai foreign ministry has already contacted its embassy in Phnom Penh to monitor Thaksin's activ...
Read more »

At the various checkpoints outside of Bangkok, the security officials are checking car for weapons and whether the occupants are Thais or foreigners (Deputy PM Suthep was stressing the foreigners aspect as per the ThaiPBS evening news last night). Afraid that the red shirts will be carrying explosive devices, the authorities have wheeled out...
Read more »

In response to BP's comments on whether Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva can wait it out, Federico Ferrara,* Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore, passes on some comments as excerpted below: It strikes me that whether or not Abhisit can just "wait it out" depends on how the red shirts...
Read more »

Isra News recently reported: In wake of a recent corruption scandal in which a police general was transferred to an inactive police and investigated after he was accused of taking “tea money” from police officers who wanted to be moved to “goldm...
Read more »

Supalak in The Nation (yes, The Nation) The government, with collaboration from the mainstream media, managed to portray itself as an angel and the red-shirt group as former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's evil lackeys - ready to use all violent means to bring their boss back to power....
Read more »

Seth Mydans in the NYT on this weekend's red shirt protests: While pledging nonviolence, protest leaders say they will gather hundreds of thousands of mostly rural supporters for mass rallies and blockades of government offices, starting on Friday and building over the following days.Thousands of buses, trucks and farm vehicles are expected to converge...
Read more »

Bangkok Post: "We will do everything we can to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.? If a House dissolution or my resignation could help the country move ahead, I would have no problem with doing that.? But we would definitely not allow a coup to happen," said the prime minister.Mr Abhisit said...
Read more »

With the attention on the upcoming red shirt rally, we should not forget the continuing violence in Thailand's deep south. AFP: Suspected Islamic militants shot dead three Thai workers and set their bodies on fire in the middle of road Thursday in Thailand's troubled south, police said. BP: One can only hope they were...
Read more »

Ok, ok, Thanong is the only source, but still amusing to see him getting worked up about this. His first post: What should Abhisit have done under the current circumstances? Here are his limited options:1. Re-evaluate the crisis situation. Don't underestimate the Red Shirts' rally, which could turn violent. Admit the fact that the...
Read more »

Here is a YouTube clip uploaded at the end of January. From around the 5 minute to the 6 minute stage, we have one second-tier red shirt leader, Arisman, at a red shirt rally speaking on a stage who states: ????????????????????? ?????????????????????? ???????????????...
Read more »

It sounds straight out of 1984, as The Nation reports: The authorities will set up the Peace-keeping Operations Command, also known as the government's war room, at the 11th Infantry Regiment in Bangkhen, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban said on Wednesday. BP...
Read more »

Rikker has the story and what happens when a bureaucrat brings her own chair to the office because she has back pain....
Read more »

Atiya on Thaksin the Bangkok Post: "Never thought of it. Never had a need to do so. And no need to be greedy either. I put on one wrist watch at a time, not several. Why should I be greedy? All charges of corruption were and are politically motivated... My wife is a good...
Read more »

The Bangkok Post: The UDD says it will be able to gather one million protesters, but the committee chaired by Mr Suthep expected only a six-figure turnout. BP: Only six figures? Now, you see what kind of numbers we are looking at. As that could be 500k. An ...
Read more »

The Nation with the headline "Shopping malls beef up security in face of red menace". Last time, there was a red menace or red scare was as Wikipedia reports: The Second Red Scare occurred after World War II (1939–45), coinciding with increased popular fear of communist espionage consequent to a Soviet Eastern Europe, the......
Read more »

Matichon reports Chalerm as stating that a source telephoned to tell him that a war room has been set up in London to destroy Thaksin, but it is not the government. They have 3 plans: 1. There will be an incident at Ratchawithi in order to suppress the protestors. 2. Get people to wear...
Read more »

AFP: THAILAND will imprison and hand out heavy fines to any migrant workers who attend mass anti-government rallies in Bangkok this weekend, the labour minister said today. Migrants would be subject to a five-year jail term and fines of up to 100,000 baht ($3358) if found among protesters...
Read more »

VOA: Sunai Pasuk, A representative for Human Rights Watch in Thailand, says both the government and the UDD need to provide convincing assurances they will operate within the law, human rights and democracy. He said Mr. Thaksin is trying to force the government to negotiate."Thaksin is playing two cards at the same ti...
Read more »

AFP: The Red Shirts say they expect up to 600,000 people to attend this month's rallies, with people starting to gather from around the country on March 12 before the main demonstration two days later. Patrick Winn for Gl...
Read more »

Access to water resources is an issue that affects not just consumers, but also farmers in rural areas. Chang Noi has an op-ed over the decline of water in dams and the low water level of the Mekong River and the political implications of this. Key excerpts: Finally, in a drought year, the afflicted...
Read more »

The Nation: Share prices of the Shin Group Of Companies this week continued to nosedive, as investors were concerned over future revisions in the concessions awarded, mainly to Advanced Info Service and Thaicom.Shin ended the week at Bt21.50, down 8.26 per cent from last week; AIS slumped 12.78 per cent to ...
Read more »

About a month blogged on the speculation that Sanan from Chat Thai Pattana, one of the Democrat's coalition partners, may be the person who Puea Thai nominates as the PM candidate in the upcoming no-confidence debate vote. As blogged then: In the upcoming no-confidence debate, the government can change if there is a vote...
Read more »

Pravit in The Nation lists a few reasons, but it is the double standards reason which BP thinks reasonates the most and that is the logic of "The logic of double standards" This issue is almost totally ignored by most of the mainstream mass media. However, it has been the main reason for the...
Read more »

Thai Rath reports that the police held a press conference yesterday evening to announce the arrest of two persons involved in the explosives attack outside a Bangkok Bank branch on Saturday, February 27. The persons arrested were a 42-year-old man and his nephew. The uncle stated he was contacted on the day of the...
Read more »

PPT has a post on Korn's recent Facebook and then Bangkok Post op-ed on the court seizure decision. Largely agree with that PPT states, but does with to highlight this part from Korn's op-ed: Back to the question, though: ...
Read more »

Already mentioned the story that PAD leader Sondhi L was seeking a pardon, but the Bangkok Post reports further: The public prosecutor is urging Bangkok police to seek an arrest warrant for Sondhi Limthongkul, leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy and the New Politics Part...
Read more »

One of the claims by the prosecution in the Thaksin asset seizure case was that: Telecom concession fees were converted into an excise tax to benefit their massive AIS shareholdings. The Nation summarizes this part of...
Read more »