Blue Shirts?

Before I left Chiang Mai on Monday, I joked about blue shirts and green shirts (in addition to the reds and the yellows) and now the blues have shown up. Basically, red shirts support the former prime minister Thaksin (the wikipedia summary leaves out the important point that he jumped bail and has since been convicted to two years in prison. Thus he's not in Thailand. It's in the entry way down near the end) who appeals to the poor. The yellow shirts support the current prime minister - Oxford educated Abhisit, called by some 'Obamark' because his nickname is Mark - and these, according to common belief (not necessarily truth) are mostly Bangkok middle and upper classes. I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of Thai politics and suggest readers read this and everything else with skepticism.

Mr. Kwai (kwai means water buffalo) has links to many Thai sources both in English and Thai. New Mandala and Bangkok Pundit (both linked on the right) are also decent (not necessarily neutral) sources as well.

Here's a comment from Mr. Kwai's post on red shirt demonstration and cancellation of the ASEAN summit. Note: honoring your parents is still very important in Thailand. Dissing them is a BIG DEAL.

chinesethai 11 April 2009 at 9:56 am

...FACT?
You obviously haven’t heard of the Blue Shirt before. The Blue Shirt belongs to Nevin’s faction. Actually, the Blue Shirt defected from the Red Shirt. Obviously, you are not aware that both colours have once clashed in Buriram when the Red Shirt threw rocks and fired bullets in front of his house in Buriram. That happened only a day after he announced giving his support to Abhisit.

Thailand’s English language media has disadvantages because news has to be translated into English while the situation keeps changing. CNN and BBC are also useless. Most of these journalists thought they were the experts but obviously they are telling you craps or half-truth such as the clip of Yellow Shirt shooting. They got shot first. The Yellow Shirt has to protect themselves when the police has taken the Red site. If you were them, would you be a sweet target? Common sense.

The country is unstable, yes. But if you are a well-wishing outsider and have that morality and neutrality, you are supposed to denounce anybody that will destroy this country, right?

And……may I re-post this?

90 Year-Old Mother of Jatuporn Prompan, Red Shirt Leader, calls her son to stop instigate chaos. “My son has not come home to visit me for 6 years.”

http://www.manager.co.th/Local/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9520000040302

So what did Jatuporn reply? “She is just an illiterate villager.” (From Pro-Thaksin Matichon Online)

http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1239250104&grpid=03&catid=01

Is the Red Shirt were the force for good when its leader has such background, deserting even his own mother?