Thousands of protesters gather in Bangkok, seek polls

[upi402]

Source: Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of protesters converged in Bangkok on Sunday to give Thailand's military-backed government an ultimatum: either call elections or face crippling demonstrations across the capital in coming days.

About 80,000 red-shirted supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a military coup in 2006, arrived in trucks, cars and motorbikes from rural provinces over the weekend, carrying red flags and blaring music about democracy and freedom.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100314/ts_nm/us_thailand_politics

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The article slants the current situation. True, the military did stage a peaceful coup. It omits the deeper story, however. The much loved King of Thailand, who has massive popular support of the people, approved the coup. A corrupt corporatist was using the media, much of it owned by him, to propagandize. Tahksin Shinawatra was also buying votes and using funds to gain the support of the very poor Isaan people in the north and northeast.

There was no other way to get this man out of power before he cemented authoritarian rule and looted Thailand while controlling businesses. Tahksin changed laws to enable his corrupt business practices. He is in exile and running from his conviction in Thailand.

The Thai supreme court just seized much of his wealth, and this court case spawned the current Red Shirt protest. Red Shirts are paid to protest. They want to the government who ousted Tahksin.

Red Shirts are claiming that it's a popular movement to restore a democratically elected leader. But the vote rigging is common knowledge. Tahksin did some good things for poor people. But these were inexpensive gestures that diverted poor people from seeing that he was looting the nation and exploiting his power in business there.

[Atman]

1. The Red Shirts forced us to cut short our vacation in Thailand last year

They did this is April, 2009. Shut down areas of Bangkok, and the military actually fired on them, killing four, I think. This time they were caught blatantly handing out $100 to poor people to come join their protest. Shiniwatra is a Bush/GOP style corporatist crook, paying of the poor and uneducated to distract them while he rigged the government for his personal gain. Except for that Shiniwatra actually paid the poor and educated when he fucked them.