PAD|People's Alliance for Democracy
This is the unofficial/personal blog site from one PAD member.

Some say the PAD should be viewed as a military organisation Why don’t you show up the picture of his shield from the front side? The shield clearly stated “POLICE”. Is he a policeman (not in his working hour?) I can’t say, but what I can say is many of this POLICE shields were donated by good policeman when they were ordered to retreat.

Claiming victory, the yellow-clad hordes from the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rolled up their mats and sleeping bags.

They queued for souvenir autographed scarves – yellow of course – from the leaders who had taken them into this astonishing act of insurrection, and boarded buses and pick-up trucks for the ride home.

An army of cleaners, technicians and security personnel moved in behind them to get Bangkok’s $4bn (£2.7bn) state-of-the-art airport back into operation.

Within a few days the mass sit-in will just be a surreal memory.

But the questions their actions have raised about the state of Thailand will continue long after the last plastic hand-clapper is picked up and disposed of.

How could a country as advanced and as dependent on exports and tourism as Thailand allow such a vital transport hub to be stormed by a mob that never numbered more than a few thousand?

What is the PAD, and what gives the movement the confidence to commit its dramatic acts of economic sabotage without fearing any legal sanction?

Weak police

The airport sit-in shows the PAD’s skill at pulling off bold and unexpected stunts.

When the first PAD convoys approached the airport last Tuesday, they said they were only going to protest against then-Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who was due to arrive back from the Apec summit in Peru.

The government had a strategy of avoiding confrontation – it did not want a repeat of the disastrous events in October, when several PAD supporters were seriously injured in clashes with the police.

The police were under orders not to use force and retreated.

No-one thought the PAD would try to take over one of the world’s biggest and busiest airport terminals.

Thai police were reluctant to confront protesters

In fact, PAD organisers told the BBC they had carefully planned the seizure of the airport weeks before.

The weakness of Thailand’s police is also important.

Police in Thailand is weak, I agree so. They have to make money for their living, and politicians are involved to make money. Thai people generally accept that the Thai Police are corrupt as much as Thai politicians. However, since they are armed and a law keeper, they are usually used as a tool of politician to get what they want.

Thailand need to get a better welfare to police as well as ending such an influence from politicians.

They have proved no match for this determined and organised movement. They are poorly trained in riot control, and lack the status of the army.

Look, what is in his back pocket?

You are wrong about this, they are seen as a group of army, look at what they did on October 7. Marching in line and throwing a bloody grenade into a crowd. Some police really didn’t expect this to be cause such a tragic, and now they know the truth about their commanders so they begin to stand on PAD side. Look at this police’s back pocket in his combat gear, what is in it? (From this Final Battle Album)

This might also be why, the crooked politicians need to bring police force from remote area, where they baerly know the truth.

And you should also realize that among the protester, there were also their wife, and their elder relatives. One screen at the Suvarnabhumi Airport, there was a woman dressed in yellow pointing and yelling at one police man. That police man turned out to be her husband, and she yelled at him telling him “I told you not to come.. blah blah ..”

You may argue that it could be a power of PAD propaganda and PAD’s speaker that kept injecting things into officers’ ears 24 hours a day, but don’t they have their own brain to think?.. Don’t we have our own brain to think?.. We all were brainwashed?.. why ? Many protesters, starting from being annoyed by PAD, but later joined PAD because they started to listen of what haven’t been told by other media, and lots of things seem to make sense to them. too many co-incidents?

One more thing is that PAD was fully alerted all the time, we have eyes and ears everywhere. All of the plans were unable to work when we know about it.

When it became clear that the PAD was set on taking over the airport, the local governor asked the army for assistance. None came.

As throughout this year, the army’s refusal to help contain the PAD has left the government with no means of resisting this insurgency.

The police are up against an organisation of considerable logistical strength.

It is a remarkably well-trained and well-funded movement.

Well-trained agree, well-funded agree. Next time you may like to tell us where the fund are from? After announcing on a PAD stage and broadcasted through ASTV, it usually took less than an hour to get food/drink donated to the demanding areas. Some might take a bit longer, for example – donation of old tires took a few hours, donation of “the body of the old buses” took three days (to build barricade at the government house) What PAD asks on stage, PAD usually gets it.. in a matter of time. No need to mention about instance route of money – starting from 500 Baht to 5 millions Baht..

Logistical efficiency

One of the many retired generals supporting its occupation at the airport observed that it should be seen as a military, not a civilian organisation.

Behind the “aunties with clappers” and well-groomed young women clutching lap-dogs that are the public face of the movement are squads of hoodlums, armed with batons, metal spikes and hand-guns who man the barricades and hunt down intruders.

One morning I followed them as they dragged an alleged government spy off to an undisclosed location, kicking and punching him.

I was unable to find out his fate. Some of these thugs are members of private armies run by retired generals.

After all of these days, when police just let go of the suspects who accused of firing gun shots and bomb at PAD for nothing, many PAD guard started to be angry. No need to mention about those theft who pretended to be PAD that went in the protest areas just to steal stuffs especially at the airport.

Those thefts needed to be learned, if police could do nothing, what else PAD could do? Just let them go? I don’t want to give any more comments about this.

“Another lesson for Thai Government, when Thai police does nothing to protect unarmed civilians.“

The PAD’s logistical efficiency is impressive.

Within hours of occupying the airport it had ample supplies of food, water, blankets and medicines for the thousands of supporters who joined the sit-in.

ESCALATING CONFLICT September 2006: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ousted in military coup February 2008: Samak Sundaravej sworn in as prime minister August 2008: PAD protesters occupy government buildings, demanding the government step down September 2008: Mr Samak dismissed for violating conflict of interest law. Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin’s brother-in-law, becomes prime minister October 2008: Thaksin given a two-year jail sentence for corruption in his absence 26 November 2008: Anti-government protesters take control of Bangkok’s main airport 2 December 2008: Thai court rules that PM Somchai should be banned from politics, and his party should be dissolved 3 December 2008: Protesters vacate Bangkok airports Thai crisis exposes class struggle Q&A: Bangkok protests

The food never ran out. You could get your mobile phone charged, or have a massage. PAD cleaners were brought in to keep the floors and toilets in order. The duty-free and check-in areas were sealed off and vigilantly protected by PAD guards.

The PAD’s propaganda arm is equally impressive.

It runs its own television station, ASTV, which is widely broadcast and pours vitriol on the government.

Everywhere the movement goes it takes mobile stages, on the back of trucks, which blare out speeches and music from dawn until the small hours of the following morning.

The message is simple: Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is evil, stole the people’s money and will destroy the country. The poor rural people who voted for his party were all bribed, and unable to think for themselves.

“Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is evil, stole the people’s money and will destroy the country.” This is one part of the message.

“The poor rural people who voted for his party were all bribed, and unable to think for themselves.” But this part is not right, please remove the word “all” from the sentence.

We also have many other things on the stage, including sufficiency economic theory, dhama talk, analysis of the situation, analysis of Somchai and Samak government, analysis of Thai media, analysis of Thai education, talking about how new politics should be and how it can help Thai people…and many many many other things

Isn’t it too stupid to repeat the message you mention for 24 hours?

Some of those taking part in the airport occupation had been listening to these firebrand speeches for months, without a break.

Here you are wrong again, we have a concert as a break every few hours, some people call it Thai Woodstock Festvial, We have lunch break of Dhama talk. We have etc etc.. please also note tha

Some of those taking part in the airport occupation had been listening to these firebrand speeches for months, without a break.

Here you are wrong again, we have a concert as a break every few hours, some people call it Thai Woodstock Festvial, We have lunch break of Dhama talk. We have etc etc.. please also note that people in the protest didn’t believe everything from the stage, but they reserve what they disagree and fight for the common things they agree. You just walk away from the speaker when you don’t like something… It is simply easy as that.

They all passionately believed their actions were worth the cost to the country, to see Thailand’s politics cleaned up.

The question of who is behind the PAD is a subject of intense speculation in Thailand.

I met a lot of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs at the airport who were helping keep the PAD supplied.

But much bigger Thai businesses are widely believed to be financing the movement, including at least two national banks.

Widely believed by the red shirts? I don’t think those banks have anything to do with PAD. It is just something the red shirt gangster made up just to find a reasonable lie to explain who are behind PAD. They can hardly believe that PAD is supported by normal people like everyone you see in your normal life.

Thank you again BBC, and Jonathan Head..

The rest of your analysis …. well you know it..

No related posts.