Wednesday, February 19, 2014

On The Ground In Bangkok

The media has been full of the horrific images of the violence in Bangkok as the corrupt Thai puppet government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has tried to use the police to clear the ongoing demonstrations and occupation of Bangkok by anti corruption protestors who are demanding her resignation.  Though she was able to declare a state of emergency, just a few hours ago, the Thai courts declared that it was illegal for her to use the police to attack the demonstrators. The western media has reported from a safe distance all through this crisis and relied on the Thaksin Sinawatra controlled media to supply them with a stream of propaganda and PR friendly press releases to help them report this in the Western press.  The Sinawatra regime has tried to portray the protests as a minority problem and tried to blame the violence on the protestors. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of the real violence has come from gangs who were bussed into Bangkok by the Shinawatra regime to brutalize the protestors. When the protestors resisted or fought back, these were the images that the official Thai media released. The reports from such prestigious news associations such as BBC and CNN give the impression that the Thai regime is well ensconced and the real details of what is happening are not being reported anywhere!
Well, if you want the inside info, here it is, from thebrainpolice! We are embedded in Bangkok. I have a number of friends who are involved in the opposition movement and my nephew, Tommy, who has lived in Bangkok for years is an extremely eloquent observer. These are the last days of the Shinawatra regime. It is over. The government controlled police force is backing down and if they continue to defy the courts, the next step is the Thai Army stepping in. But here is the real gossip from my nephew, Tommy this morning:

Oh there is SUCH exciting stuff going on here, with the protests. Today, Yingluck has been indicted for malfeasance and corruption in the rice-pledging scheme, and it looks like she's not going to be able to stay in office for more than a week or two, as the indictment is formalized and she will have to be arrested and then let out on bail.
And more things to be gleeful about - the government, which is broke, has been desperately scrambling to find money to pay the farmers whose rice they bought this year and last year, at the absurdly inflated prices, as part of the rice-pledging scheme. The farmers are now so angry at not being paid that they are starting to join the anti-government protests, and the rice farmers are at the pinnacle of Thaksin's vote-base. But here's the great part: None of the private banks would touch it. And even the government banks (the Agricultural and Farmers Cooperative Bank, or the Government Savings Bank) wouldn't agree to lend any money to the government for the rice scheme, since it's under investigation now for corruption and they're afraid they may never get their money back. The trade unions in these government banks have stormed their bosses offices to stop them from even considering loaning any money to the government. Well finally, a couple of days ago, the director of the Government Savings bank was persuaded (probably bought off) to issue a 20 billion Baht (more than half a billion dollars) to the government, with the first instalment of 5 million Baht. The guy first said that the loan was NOT for the rice scheme, but for "general government expenses and entirely normal", but then the next day confessed that the loan was for the rice scheme. There was almost instantly a massive run on the bank, and within 24 hours, people all over the country had withdrawn all their money from the Government Savings Bank - over 50 Billion Baht taken out. The news reports showed angry people queuing up around the block to get their money out, and staging demonstrations when the branches ran out of cash, and the people refused to accept cheques! The run continues today, and the director of the GSB has announced his resignation in shame, and the GSB looks in danger of failing, because they are coming close to maxing out their liquid assets on the withdrawals! Meanwhile, all of Thaksin's cronies and relatives are making a big show of "supporting the rice farmers" by noisily depositing their millions into the GSB, to show their support, and protesters are throwing rotten eggs at them as they come to the GSB branches to make their deposits!
Plus, the other great thing has been the donations to the anti-government protest movement. A week or two ago, the emergency decree authority (run by a big-time gangster and old Thaksin crony, named Chalerm) announced it would start freezing the accounts of people and companies discovered to be donating to the anti-government protests and issue warrents for their arrest, since so many big companies and so many prominent people were giving millions to support the oust-Thaksin movement. Well the first thing that happened was that the donations increased dramatically, and people started insisting that they be filmed by TV crews and give their full names and bank account branches when handing their donations over to Suthep (who is the leader of the protests). They just defied the emergency decree! So there is now a constant stream of people - millions of people, and many are famous movie stars, journalists, academics, aristocrats, government officials, famous writers and artists, sports stars, etc. - and just a lot of ordinary people, and the TV cameras roll all day long as they smilingly and gleefully hand over their 1,000 Baht or 5,000 Baht or 100,000 Baht to Suthep, and sing out their full names and addresses, so Chalerm can come and arrest them whenever he's ready!
Then, the civil court came out with a fabulous ruling that the protests are entirely legal and peaceful, and within the boundaries of acts of peaceful civil protest that are protected by the Thai constitution, and so donating anything to support such protests cannot be considered illegal, since the protests themselves are legal. Which in turn allowed a group of prominent companies and public figures, who had donated and been exposed and threatened to be arrested and have their assets frozen, filed a class action suit in the Constitutional court against the government and the emergency decree authority for criminal malfeasance, and it looks likely that the courts will rule in the protestor's favor again.
So every evil, wicked, clumsy thing these corrupt goons do to try to hang on to power and to stop the movement to oust them is back-firing, and is ending up in their having to retreat in embarrassment.
And to top it all off, we learned yesterday that Thaksin has made a pilgrimage to a certain famous astrologer and fortune teller in Burma, to see why he's having such bad karma these days - the same Madame Rosa (or whatever her name is) who was his chief policy consultant during his period in power, and his subsequent periods in absentia-power. And on the protest site stages, there is endless joking about this, and suggestions that Mr. Thaksin find a new astrologer, since this one doesn't seem to be doing him much good!
But these wicked devils are still not giving up, and some think things may get very ugly before they get pushed out finally. Just yesterday, four people killed by a bomb at the protest site just near Poo's house, and the rumors all say that it was the police who brought the bomb, and that it accidentally went off before they could toss it into the crowd. 


All of this contradicts what is being reported in the mainstream Western Press. More updates soon!

No comments: