The stand-off continues, tension mounts

Feelings running high at the red-shirt pro-government headquarters in Chiang Mai. As early as 6 pm there was both expectation and a lingering smell of Sang Som thai whisky in the air.... fortunately the over-exuberant youths present were few in number tonight.

A film was showing, with graphic clips of some of the worst of PAD excesses in recent weeks. Speaker after speaker condemned the total failure of the forces of order to act early enough to prevent the current ludicrous situation from arising in the first place. The feeling is clear - that powerful shadowy figures and interest groups are manipulating the situation to their own ends, and that the majority of the population - having made their presence felt through the electoral process - are now on the verge of being indefinitely sidelined, should the government give in to PAD demands and resign.

It was quiet in town, as most people were at the big rally taking place at Mae Rim, twenty minutes drive away, in front of Government House. I went out to take a look.

No suggestion here of the demonstrators taking over government buildings as Eve, tonight's adopted interpreter, went to some pains to point out. It would have been so easy for the several thousand-strong crowd to do so - there wasn't a policeman in sight. But she was adamant that this was not their way, that they would do all they could to continue to make their voices heard in a law-abiding manner. All the same, I can see that changing very rapidly, should the tanks move in...

(Sadly since the rally there have been bombings in Bangkok at Don Muang airport and Government House, with many wounded.)

The crowds rally in front of Chiang Mai's Government House, Mae Rim, November 29th. The numbers were impressive, but more would have turned up had there not been some entirely credible bomb threats. No police, no security on the way in, the park in front of the building in virtual darkness, it would have been a simple matter to plant a bomb and vanish in the confusion...

The speakers appealed for lawful protests so as to continue to contrast themselves with the antics of PAD

Eve owns a small business, the Kavil Guest House close to Thapae Gate in Chiang Mai. Hardly one of the PAD-stereotyped 'unintelligentsia' whose right to vote PAD believes should be limited in a 'New and Better' Thailand. Quite fluent in English, at ease expressing her insights and ideas, she was keen to explain her fears for the future.

A twelve room guesthouse charging between 180 and 250 baht (4 - 5 euros) a night is not going to make anyone rich, even in Thailand. Eve manages to get by on mostly full occupancy for a big part of the year. However the current turmoil is threatening her survival, despite having a few farangs booked in... they are only there because they can't get flights out of Thailand! When they've gone, she fears for the worst. Yet in discussing the occupation of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports in Bangkok she quickly revealed the Thai achilles heel. She almost defended the reluctance of the police to storm the sites, trying to explain how because of an ingrained Buddhism-inspired compassion and respect for life, that this was not the 'Thai way'.

Eve readily accepts that former leaders of the political party she supports are far from perfect. She deplores the PAD propaganda that all 'redshirts' are Thaksin lovers, anxious to see him return to power in Thailand. She emphasised that most pro-government supporters have moved on from Thaksin and are more concerned about the right to vote, the continuation of policies supporting the less privileged in more remote and impoverished parts of the Kingdom. Democracy has become the new rallying cry - there is no longer the cult of the personality that PAD supporters would have foreign observers believe - even if the PPP supporters retain a soft spot for the man that gave them reason to believe in themselves and a new form of Thai politics.

Over the course of the evening, a number of people approached her to translate their views for me, to find out the foreigner's take on all this. They especially wanted to point out that their movement is acting within the law, unlike PAD. That they are ordinary people simply asking for the right to express themselves, and to have their votes and views both heard and respected. For a people who tend to take each day as it comes, they were clearly very worried about the future.

Ning, a young Thai student training to be a doctor, married to an US citizen and living in New York, is back in Chiang Mai to visit her family. She explained that only a couple of years ago she was so proud of her country and its newly discovered democracy, happy to tell people in her adopted home how much she loved Thailand and thought it the best place in the world to live. Now she felt ashamed to be Thai.

Tourist guide Darunee, who spoke both English and fluent French, has seen her income dwindle to nothing in recent weeks. She sees PAD as a minority group representing the rich middle classes, holding the entire country to ransom.

It was a chill breeze that kept Thailand's flag fluttering above Government House tonight...

Thailand - caught in a humiliating political farce

Thursday 27th November - all flights to Bangkok from Chiang Mai cancelled

Those worried about making a trip to Thailand would be justified in thinking that the country is caught somewhere between a state of dangerous anarchy and a Broadway farce, going by reports from the international news media. People sporting colourful T-shirts seem to be in control of different parts of the country. A succession of politicians spend a few months in power issuing edicts which no one listens to, least of all the forces of order, until they themselves get kicked out for crimes against the state such as being paid a few quid to cook badly on TV, or whatever dirty linen their opponents can dredge up. Current PM Somchai has been accused of bribery. Worst of all he's allegedly been filmed taking an unidentified young lady out for 'dinner'. Scandalous.

Few tourists in need of advice at Chiang Mai airport. Even the Tourist Police are dozing off...

Just to confuse foreign onlookers a bit more the party in power has to change its name every so often. After Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party got the heave-ho from the military in 2006, it reincarnated as the People's Power Party - which itself will probably have to disband soon as it is accused of electoral fraud from the last time the people were allowed a vote. It will no doubt soon be reborn under a new name, and the same supporters will back it for the same reasons that made it popular in the first place, ie Thaksin-initiated policies giving certain hitherto unknown rights to the urban poor and the underprivileged country-dwellers in the likes of Isaan (NE Thailand province). A complete waste of time and energy then.

A bunch of old ladies and kids wearing yellow T-shirts and brandishing umbrellas are allowed to take over international airports and government buildings at will, while the police smile happily and politely open the doors for them.

The elected government is forced out of its official offices to take up residence in a Don Muang airport VIP lounge - but that doesn't last long either. The yellow T-shirt brigade moves in yet again, so the PM is looking for yet another home. If anyone's got a lock-up garage they don't need, please contact Somchai, c/o his gran somewhere near Chiang Mai, where he's currently holed up.

No sign of him here at the PM's Public Relations Office in Chiang Mai first thing Friday morning. The place was deserted (except for a single muppet standing guard, bottom right)...

The PPP supporters have gone for a nice vivid shade of red for their T-shirts just to make doubly sure we don't confuse them with PAD - the People's Alliance for Democracy. PAD has a novel concept of democracy, which mostly boils down to the belief that only its own supporters are clever and educated enough to understand politics. This is of course entirely consistent with the democratic principle, as there will be universal suffrage for all those privileged to have the brains in the first place to know to vote for PAD-supported policies. Stands to reason, dunnit.

The PPP supporters are most upset over the suggestion that they're a bunch of country bumpkins, and are demonstrating their superior intelligence by setting thugs on 60 year old PAD supporters, such as near Chiang Mai airport last night. The man was beaten to a pulp, and died.

The PPP politicians demonstrate their own intelligence by replacing the TV cook PM with exiled leader Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai, to ensure that the dispute with PAD could do nothing but worsen.

In the meantime accusations and counter-accusations are bandied back and forth about who paid what to vote for whom, as if such scandalous behaviour has always been unthinkable in whiter-than-white, corruption-free Thailand, and as if either side has a significantly better record than the other in that respect. Riiiight.

The Army itself seems clueless. All a frustrated military could do was show its muscle by engaging in a senseless spat with Cambodia over a few square metres of useless jungle near a pretty temple that was built by the Khmers in the first place.

On Thursday night PM Somchai declared a state of emergency in the areas surrounding the two international Bangkok airports. He seemed to suggest that it would be enforced by the police and backed by military Naval and Air Force units. No mention of the Army whose chief Anupong Paojinda has been making rumblings in recent days. The latter gravely announced on Wednesday that PAD should immediately vacate the airports and the government should resign. Both ignored his 'advice' and said they would do no such thing. Another in a long line of losses of face during this lengthy drawn-out charade.

To borrow a theme from Spike's excellent summing-up over on Pattaya Days, the red and yellow muppets involved should perhaps all put their sweaty T-shirts together in a boiling wash, and produce an orange muppet government of national unity, before the Thai military does its usual trick of sending in the tanks.

Other than some isolated incidents, if you didn't watch the news in Chiang Mai you wouldn't even know that there was a national crisis. Life goes on...