April 10th was the bloodiest day in recent history. But was it the bloodiest political turmoil as they say? Define political.
I had PTV and a couple of other channels (usually ASTV, Nation and / or Channel 11) on at the same time. I shall let others journal the history of today as they see fit, but a few things come to mind, in no particular order.
The event at Kok Wua was a setup. Yes, people can retaliate rather harshly, but setting up a gas tank bomb is not on-the-spot retaliation. Someone had to plan the ambush, create the bomb and, of course, someone had to detonate it. It was premeditated murder.
Lots of videos have been uncovered of men in black with machine guns firing. Laser pointers have been used to guide M79 fire to the unit commanders to create chaos. Videos have been shown on channel 11 of wounded soldiers on the ground, unable to get up, being hit by an M79 shell.
And yes, a video has been shown of redshirts having their head blown up. But who did it?
But as the chaos unfolded, PTV clearly showed the Redshirt leaders calling for reinforcements. The reinforcements, mostly volunteers sitting down, were rushed into a warzone to be slaughtered.
Slaughtered by whom? By panicking soldiers shooting indiscriminately as the Reds want us to believe? Or by the snipers and blackshirts captured in quite a few videos.
Major General Kathiya has gone on the record to claim responsibility for the M79 attacks on the army and has threatened the army that his Ronin team will strike again if they try to disperse the protesters. Other Redshirts claim that it was Newin's Blueshirts who fired the live ammunition to discredit the Redshirts.
Bottom line, the Redshirts gained a lot of sympathy at the cost of their followers. But if Kathiya did bring in the M79s, did he not tell the other leaders? And were those leaders so black-hearted as to send their followers into a trap just for political gain? With that thought in mind, my hatred of the Redshirt leaders grows even more, but not of the followers. They are the victims, used as pawns in Thaksin's cold game to further his cause; tricked into dying thinking they are martyrs, slain at the hands of the leaders they believed in.
But perhaps the only ones I hate more than the Redshirt leaders now are the Whiteshirt academics who just want world peace and seem to have had a field day today calling for peace and for the Government to step down. The smugness was there to be seen. I used to call this the Burtos Butros-Ghali syndrome. It is easy to call for world peace if you are just a figurehead (or a powerless academic) without having to take responsibility for the consequences. Giving in now means legitimising violence; giving into terrorism as it were; and sending out a clear signal that killing people for change works and is legitimate.
To quote M in James Bond, we do not and never will negotiate with terrorists. Abhisit should keep that in mind as he thinks of his next move.
Ah, Abhisit. What of our Prime Minister who has disappeared and run away to think, not showing strong leadership in a time where the nation requires it most? I liked what PAD Prapan Koonmee had to say of him.
Abhisit's indecision and incompetence led to the death of those soldiers and protesters.
I am sure that sentence will not go down well among my friends, but Prapan had a point. He argued that it was Abhisit's arrogance and denial of PAD that led him to be so alone. Prapan said that Abhisit had blocked his appointment as Advisor to Science Minister Khunying Kalaya but that Kalaya had insisted. Abhisit also blocked Samran Rodpetch's appointment to the Ministry of Culture.
Prapan argued that it was this arrogance; a desire to keep his hands clean at all costs, that led to him being surrounded by wallflowers: brainless nobodies who were clean alright, but incompetent, and that incompetence has shown deadly results this weekend.
Intelligence and planning could have been much better f the PAD were involved; making statements and fighting the propaganda war would have stood a chance against the Thaksin juggernaut, but no. He was Mr perfect, Mr inclusive. He could not be seen to be associated with the PAD; he could not be seen to show favouritism.
And it is this arrogance; this narrow mindedness that has left Abhisit to stand alone today.
Many people, many PAD did not agree with Prapan. Anchalee is one who clearly is pro-Abhisit. Prasong also suggested today that Abhisit's micro-management style and reluctance to let the military do the planning of what was a military operation was what led to the lives lost. If anything PAD are now split with many supporting him, others blaming him for the loss of life.
Personally I blame him for indecision; for lack of guts. There is so much he could have done in a firm way, non-lethally to stop things spiraling out of control. Take Thaicom. If I were in charge, I would have seriously considered signing an order to seize it from Shinsat and then blow up the satellite dish to prevent it falling into enemy hands. It is just money, albeit lots of money, but obviously worse less than life. Water cannoning the amplifier system at Rajdamnoen is another idea.
Someone needs to see that justice is done. Not justice only for the slain soldiers, but justice for the Redshirts sacrificed by their own leaders, too. They may have died believing it was the evil government that did but, but such belief, such lies do not mean that they do not deserve justice. Someone. Abhisit? Prayut? Someone else? Who knows. But someone needs to see that justice is served and that the truth is told.
Giving in now will mean the end of civilisation as we know it; would be tantamount to letting bullies have their way, only for a bigger bully to come along and displace him in the future. But giving up, making a dumb looking "Peace" sign and smiling like an idiot is so in-trend now. As Dr Seree said, the country is a mess because good people believe they must not take sides and have moral conviction.
These are just my ideas. You have the right to disagree with me.
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