Red Shirt Rumble

The New Mandala, an excellent blog I follow, has an interesting post up about the recent red shirt protests. It sheds light on some key differences that emerged in the most recent unrest, and it's semi the kind of post I went to the October 7th protests to write (if only I had had more than an ounce of understanding of Thai politics then, plus a better camera and a blog worth reading. But still.. indulging curiosity about how movements happen and how societies function and fail).

Background: During the previous administration, the yellow-shirted PAD didn't like the Takshin/Samak/Somchai prime minister succession and had a nasty habit of surrounding parliament and government houses and besieging airports in order to express as much. The previous government fell (some say by corruption charges; others by a judicial coup), which pissed off the red-shirted Takshin/Samak/Somchai supporters (who had democratically elected said PMs) and brought the red shirts out into the streets in full force (they had been counter-protesting for a long time.. but never really with the direct intention of stunting governmental procedure).

Last Tuesday, Constance and I attended a ceremony where the government apologized and gave compensation to the people injured in the October 7th PAD protest. The day before, the red shirts replicated the PAD's parliament siege in order to keep the new government from starting work, and the protest peaked on the Tuesday when we were nearby receiving our apology.

It made us nervous. I tried to keep Con away from TVs. Thousands of riot police were stacked up and pushing back against the thousands of red shirted protesters, and the whole thing just made me sick as I knew it could only escalate.

It didn't. From The New Mandala:

It was a welcome change to be walking away from a street protest without a feeling of disgust and sadness; without feeling on edge from the mess that I had seen and photographed.

The last day of the Parliament siege by the Red Shirts saw a few lightly injured people. Most of them had fainted during the pushing at the side gate of Parliament when the police unsuccessfully tried to open it.

We know about the potential for violence in any street protest group, including the Red Shirts. Yet this protest was very carefully controlled by the Red Shirt leadership. Violent incidents were the absolute exception, and were immediately stopped by the leadership who were constantly at the frontline. The rhetoric on the stages was a careful balance of edging people on, humour and constant reminders to stay within the confines of the law. At night, Red Shirt leaders took turns singing songs on the stage. The protesters sang along and danced.

I don't want to sink into red shirts are all good/yellows are all bad sentiment. Both movements have worthy complaints to bitch about, and both movements display all the maddening side effects of groupthink and moral absolutism and cultish/end times rhetoric. The red shirts are likely to restart their protests after the holidays, and violence could ensue.

But..

The police and the red shirts showed incredible restraint last week in ways that the PAD increasingly didn't as their various demonstrations escalated. And for that, the police and the red shirts should both be commended.