Samudra manthan

Samudra churning or Samudra manthan is the Hindu myth about the churning of the sea of milk. Using the great naga wrapped around mount Mandhara on top of Lord Vishnu in the form of a tortoise, the devas and demons cooperated in churning the sea to achieve the ultimate prize, the nectar of immortality, Amrita. Even though the Amrita was supposed to be shared by both the devas and demons, Lord Vishnu used trickery to deny the demons the nectar. Embolden by the effects of the amrit, the gods would go on to defeat the demons. You can see a sculptural representation of this myth in the foyer of Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok.

Although this is meant to symbolize a spiritual exercise, it could also be used as an analogy for the political process and this especially true in Thai politics. For all their good intentions, politicians must ultimately resort of deceit, trickery and misrepresentation, to achieve their goals and win the hearts and minds of their constituents. We hope to use this space as a forum to make some sense of what it is all about and in the spirit of reconciliation find out what it is the Thai people really want after the election.

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02 June 2011

The Democrat Party

As Thailand's oldest party, the Democrat Party is known for it more conservative position and a champion of the constitutional monarchy.  Their support is mainly centred in the more affluent constituencies in Bangkok and Southern Thailand.  They are currently the main coalition government party and their current leader is Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.  A few of their key members were also at one time members of the People's Alliance for Democracy.  Since the 2007 parliamentary election, the Democrat Party adopted a more populist platform to win more support in the North and North-east regions but could not gain any significant advantage over the People's Power Party.  After the PPP was banned by the Constitutional Court, the Democrat Party was able to form a coalition when a number of PPP coalition MPs crossed the floor and back a Democrat-led coalition government.

01 June 2011

Red Shirts

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship or UDD are commonly referred to as 'Red Shirts'.  As a political pressure group they are diametrically opposed to the People's Alliance for Democracy and their actions.  There have been many open clashes between the two groups.  The UDD was originally formed to protest the military coup and subsequent military government, which overthrew the Thaksin government in 2006.  Their protest stopped after the 2007 general election won by the People's Power Party.  The UDD organized a number of  counter demonstrations during the 2008 crisis.  After Abhisit Vejjajiva became Prime Minister, the UDD organized major anti-government for the next two years, insisting that the Democrat led coalition was not legitimate and calling for new elections.  The UDD protested led to several violent clashes with the army where more than 80 civilians were killed and 1378 were injured.  In the final military crackdown, UDD leader surrender to prevent further bloodshed, while the famous shopping district of Ratchaprasong was set on fire. 

Yellow Shirts

The People's Alliance for Democracy is also known as the National Liberation Alliance but are more commonly referred to as PAD or 'Yellow Shirts'.  At one time their leaders included the media tycoon, Sondhi Limthongkul and General Chamlong Srimuang.  Originally formed as a coalition of protesters against the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, they were a major player in the Thai political crisis of 2005-2006, the 2008 crisis and the Cambodian-Thai border dispute surrounding the Preah Vihear Temple.  After the Thaksin government was overthrown, they announced that their goals had been achieved and they voluntarily dissolved.  The PAD protest resurfaced following the 2007 election of the People's Power Party, who were perceived as affiliated with the former Thaksin's parties and their policies.  PAD mobilized support around the country and caused major disruptions in transportation services including seizing a number of regional airports in the south.  Eventually the protests escalated to a blockade of the Parliament house, taking control of government offices at Don Muang Airport and finally taking control of Suvarnabhumi International Airport.  The sieges and protest came to an end when the Constitutional court dissolved the PPP and banned its leaders from politics. 

Can't watch a game without a scorecard

Over the next series of posts I will attempt to go into the background of Thailand's political crisis with a hope of creating some understanding as to what has developed.

30 May 2011

Birth of an Idea

A number of years ago, I was in Vientiane, Laos preparing to take the train that evening to Bangkok.  I was traveling with a friend, Lucas Li, who was also a film maker and neither of us knew what would greet us when we arrived back in Bangkok in the morning.  The events the past several weeks had thrown the whole region into turmoil.  Protests by the 'yellow shirts' had moved from the parliament house to the airports and no flights were coming in or out of Thailand.  It didn't really matter too much to either of us, Lucas was meeting family in Bangkok and I didn't have anywhere I had to be for a few weeks.  Before we left to go our separate ways the next morning, I mentioned to Lucas that he should think about developing a film about what was happening here.  A few months later, Lucas and I met up back in Australia, while in Thailand a new government was in power and protest against that government was being lead by the 'red shirts'.  With these new developments, I brought up the subject of a film again and we talked about different ways we could approach this.

Fast forward to this years Australian International Documentary Conference and again we were talking seriously about developing a film on the Thai political landscape.  This time we felt we had a pretty good handle on how to approach this type of film.  The idea was to make the film more about the people rather than the groups or political ideology.  We would want to include families from various socio-economic strata and political leanings in Thai society and investigate how the political machinations have affected them and where they think the solutions lie.