On Saturday, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made his trip to the heartland of his political ally Newin Chidchob and his Bhum Jai Thai Party coalition partner. All major news outlets extensively reported the event although it seems there was only a little live television coverage, on ThaiPBS.
The Nation (12 July 2009: “Rousing Welcome for PM”) and the Bangkok Post (12 July 2009: “Blue shirts guard PM on tour”) both had similar cover pictures of Abhisit mounted on local vehicles. The Nation wrote that the welcome of Abhisit was “unstinting” and quoted a Democrat Party MP as saying that Abhisit had more than 70% job approval rating in the northeast. Abhisit himself is quoted as saying, “The inspection of the area was fine.” Remarkably stiff and bureaucratic.
But as both English-language newspapers reported and was clear on ThaiPBS, Abhisit’s visit was only made possible by a huge official and unofficial security operation. Abhisit was surrounded by black-clad minders with earpieces and by a legion of police. The Post reports there were 3,000 police involved in the operation.
Indeed, the ThaiPBS live coverage did not show unstinting support but a rather unemotional and small crowd of somewhat sullen and seated villagers listening to an uninspiring speech by an official. Later news stories showed a little more enthusiasm for Abhisit.
As reported by the Bangkok Post, Newin’s blue shirt thugs provided security along many of the routes and 500 of them surrounded 200 red-shirt protestors, preventing them from moving for up to 7 hours and refusing to release them until they made a humbling apology to Buriram residents. The Post reports that the blue shirts were hired by the Bhum Jai Thai Party.
According to the Post, Abhisit’s gratitude to Newin was expressed in a phone call, and Abhisit claimed to have been in touch with Newin by phone during the whole event. Making his indebtedness clear, Abhisit promised massive expenditures in Buriram.
The Democrat Party has little support in the northeast and this stage-managed security operation is unlikely to boost that, especially as Abhisit said little and, at times, appeared uncomfortable. But both they and Bhum Jai Thai have been stunned by recent election defeats. Being surrounded by police and blue shirts may not be send the right message, but the coalition allies seem to believe that they can take back ground by promises of huge spending.
1 Comment
July 13, 2009 at 5:56 pm
[...] Take Action New: Abhisit and the blue shirts [...]
Comments are closed.