News THINK
Reds go from mouthpiece to social force
- Published: 28/07/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: News
The red shirt movement has suffered some serious setbacks, but it is not dead yet and stands to re-emerge as more than a mouthpiece for Thaksin Shinawatra.
Formed in reaction to the 2006 coup, the red shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) movement has grown from being made up of mainly Thaksin supporters to a pressure group targeting double standards in society.
With many of its core leaders behind bars and its sources of funding either frozen or being monitored by the government, the red shirt movement has been left without any clear direction.
The emergency decree, which remains in effect in 16 provinces, has also worked to silence the group.
However, parties marking the occasion of Thaksin Shinawatra's 61st birthday on Monday were a reminder that the sentiment that fuels the red shirt movement remains alive and well.
Some believe that bombings in the capital, including Sunday's blast outside Big C Ratchadamri, which killed one person, are the work of hardliners in the underground red shirt movement.
A more convincing argument comes from those who say the bombings were the work of those who oppose the lifting of the emergency decree and want it to remain in effect.
Red shirt organisers have campaigned in support of their members being able to dress in red and gather at Ratchaprasong and Sala Daeng intersections every Sunday to call for democracy and justice for nearly 100 people who died during recent political violence.
The Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation has yet to offer a satisfactory explanation for the bloody clashes that took place between government forces and protesters in recent months.
The longer those incidents remain obscured by authorities, the more uncertain the public will be about the future, and the more angry the relatives and friends who lost loved ones will become.
A faction of the red shirt movement has regrouped that is not beholden to Thaksin but rather supports liberal values.
Small study groups are forming in urban universities and colleges nationwide and they offer a future for the red shirt movement that does not care about nor rely on Thaksin.
Some 80 red shirt thinkers and activists gathered on Saturday at a Nakhon Pathom hotel to discuss the group's future in the wake of the military's dispersal of their Bangkok protest on May 19.
Attendees included Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, Sombat Boonngamanong, Pichit Likhitkitsomboon, Suthachai Yimprasert and Nathee Sornwaree.
They agreed to try to mobilise a people's assembly to act in parallel to the government appointed reform panels.
The red shirt activists remained steadfast in their assertion that the will of the people could best be measured through elections and they condemned any attempt to deny the people's desires.
They said the judicial system at the district and provincial levels needed to be reformed, and they also proposed the lifting of the emergency decree, the implementation of fair social welfare measures, particularly for workers, and an overhaul of the tax system so the poor are not penalised.
The group plans to hold a regional assembly on Aug 21 and another in Bangkok in September.
With the Puea Thai Party lacking direction and forced to rely too much on "grade B and C" politicians, the movement among these activists and academics might determine its future as well.
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