Isaan or Bust!

We are back in business! Tomorrow I am going to bus it to Khon Kaen, a gateway city to the Isaan region of Thailand and then onwards to the notorious ' Red villages' of Isaan.

Isaan is one of the poorest region of Thailand and it is the heartland of the Red Shirts. The Red Villages are a recent development, I don't know the exact details but I think they started popping up after the bloody clashes in Bangkok last year and many Red Shirts were fearful of further violence. The first Red village sprung up when their leader decided that they needed to show people that they were not afraid to be Red and so they hung red flags all over the village.

That understandably caused much concern in Bangkok, many people still have memories of the Communist days and rumors began flying of Red Shirt militant camps and weapon caches.

I don't know what to expect but I doubt I would see anything like that. If not the least because I had to tell them I was coming. Still, it is extremely unlikely that the Reds would be arming themselves in any large scale fashion.

What I do expect is a sense of cautious optimism. They've won the election and are now waiting to see what sort of government will appear from all the wheeling and dealing that is going right now. Experts are predicting mid August before the new government comes into power.

Day 7 – Seeing Red

No doubt by now anyone interested in this topic would know the big news. Puea Thai (Red Shirts) has surprisingly won a indisputably decisive victory, claiming 261 out of 500 seats. Yingluck now looks to become the first female Prime Minister of Thailand. I was at the PT headquarters yesterday, sandwiched amongst journalists, camera operators, bloggers and red shirts supporters. The excitement kicked off at about 3pm when the results of the Exit Poll showed that Peau had over 300 seats. Though not accurate, the writing was on the wall for the Democrats and the Red shirts started gathering in force to celebrate. Many of them had been supporting the reds since Thaksin was ousted in the 2006 army coup.

When the lady herself arrived in her car outside the OAI Tower (the Party HQ) the crowd and the press went into a frenzy, immediately mobbing her and her entourage as they exited their vehicles and shoved their way towards the building. At times it looked like the crowd would descend into chaos, especially going up the stairs with many of the top-heavy camera operators swayed like they were about to topple over backwards. After 5 excruciating minutes Yingluck’s entourage made it into the elevator taking them up and away from the trigger-happy crowd.

Their champion safe upstairs, the red shirts gathered around the various flat screen TVs set up for the occasion. The atmosphere grew increasingly festive as the official results started rolling in and by evening hundreds of Red Shirts were gathered outside cheering and chanting ‘Yingluck! Nai Yok!’, Yingluck! Prime Minister! Many of the supporters came from the rural Issan province and they started playing traditional music and dancing. It was infectious; a few of the foreign journalists were even pulled reluctantly into the mix.

Yingluck is not only the first female Prime Minister, but also the youngest and probably the least experienced, never having held a public office prior to the election. This was made clear to me yesterday at about 10pm when she came out to address her adoring fans. Before her were 3 veteran members of her party who worked the crowd and spoke at length about their policies and intent. Each spoke for about 20 minutes, constantly assuring the crowd and the foreign press that Yingluck was held up by interviews and would come down as soon as she can. The hours wore on but it didn’t curb the people’s enthusiasm and when she finally came down she was baptized by a firestorm of camera flashes, turning her into an incandescent angelic figure with hands held together to wai the crowd.

Yes, she is beautiful, yes, she is friendly but when she spoke she lacked the commanding presence that one would expect of a future PM and it was very, very brief. The crowd didn’t seem to care though and they hung on her every word and roared with approval at every syllable.

Yingluck’s appointment was a stroke of genius. Whatever her brother had done, however inexperience she is, the Thai people wanted change and nothing can be more different than this woman with her brilliant smile and perfect skin.

Perhaps another point to consider is that the Army would be far more hesitant to take down a public figure who has endeared herself to the masses and the world media so quickly. Certainly any move to oust her now would be PR disaster for Thailand and would provoke some serious reaction from the people.

Make no mistake though, she is a puppet for her brother whose image was depicted on flags and badges worn proudly by many of the red shirt supports. The democrats have already vowed to oppose any move to grant Thaksin amnesty, but they are a minority and stopping Thaksin democratically may not be an option.

Bangkok Post : Parties dismiss Democrat 'revelations'

Bangkok Post : Parties dismiss Democrat 'revelations'
This hardly constitutes a move toward reconciliation.  Just more political grandstanding and provocations by the major parties.

Thailand’s Democrat Party rally: Reclaiming (the truth about) Rajaprasong | Asian Correspondent

Thailand’s Democrat Party rally: Reclaiming (the truth about) Rajaprasong | Asian Correspondent
There was little evidence of reconciliation at this rally, just politics as usual and more finger pointing.

Avoid Ratchaprasong, reds told

Avoid Ratchaprasong, reds told
Let's hope they take this to heart, even though this rally seems like a provocation, I am hoping that they listen to their leaders and stay away. 

Rally 'not just to woo voters'

Rally 'not just to woo voters'
Let's hope that there is some sincerity in this obviously political stunt.  If this is the case then it should not have been advertised as a political rally but an open forum with invitations to the other party to participate.  I know they want to look like they are taking the high road but from all the political rhetoric of late, this appears to be more of the same.  I will try and keep an open mind and hope for the best. 

Democrats go for broke

Democrats go for broke
It seems a bit underhanded and may end up working against them, considering that they did not come away so clean after the events of last May. It would be better to focus on reconciliation.

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. 

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.