Red Shirt Hatred
In the last few months, the red shirts have taken over the World Trade Center and parts of Ratchadamri and Ratchaprasong, roads in downtown Bangkok. The red shirts are officially known as the UDD, an abbreviation that I can never remember what it stands for, no matter how many times the Nation or the Bangkok Post say what it stands for. To me and to most Thai people, they will always be known as the red shirts or Se Dang (the Red in Thai).
Everybody in Thailand knows that they represent the interests of Thaksin Shinawatra. His primary goal is to make sure that when he comes back to Thailand, he will not serve a day in jail for the conflict of interest case that Thai courts convicted him of. He was only sentenced to two years, but he talks as if he has been sentenced to a hundred years. The Thai courts sentenced him in 2008 and he probably would have been out of prison by now if he actually took responsibility for his actions. He also wants to get back the money that the Thai government confiscated from him and his family. The big rumor is that Thaksin has been using the money that he stashed overseas to pay the red shirts to protest. There are pictures on the Internet of red shirts leaders giving money to some of the protesters if you choose to Google for them.
The red shirts have made speeches where they say that they are doing the protest for social justices. Whether they really believe in what they are saying is a big questions mark.
To me, the week of May 3rd proves that the red shirt leaders only care about their own skins. The current Prime Minister, Abhisit, came up with a plan that will end with an election on November 14th. This means that the Thai parliament will have to be dissolved in the last two weeks of September as an election has to take place 90 days after parliament has been dissolved. Even though this seems like a good compromise with the red shirts who have been asking for dissolution of parliament, they refuse to stop this protest. Do you know why they won’t stop? They will not stop unless they get amnesty for what has taken place during the protest. Like their master, they will not take responsibility for their actions and serve a day in jail for their actions. Could you imaging Jesus or Martine Luther King, Jr. taking a position? To me, they are most selfish protesters for social justice ever.
What have they done? They have:
-shut down a major part of Bangkok
-made it almost impossible to go from one part of the city to the other by motorized vehicle
-disrupted long distance train to keep soldiers from coming to Bangkok
-had two violent clashes with the Thai military in April of 2010
-disrupted service on the BTS Sky train by putting tires on the track
-could be responsible for the grenade attacks that have plagued for the past few months as the targets seem to be places that the red shirts hate
For all these actions, the red shirts want no punishment. It would be a great injustice if the red shirts get amnesty.
I do also have a personal message for the heads of Thai hospitals. If the red shirts come to your hospital and demand to search, you should tell them to go screw themselves. Chulalongkorn Hospital had to close for a week just because they allowed the red shirts to search the place. They had to send patients to other hospitals. Red shirts are just civilians so they basically have no authority. You should just tell to go to Hell. I am sure that they will appreciate it.