Around 10,000 Red Shirts swamped Rajprasong intersection in Bangkok again on Sunday 19th September. The event was to mark a double anniversary: 4 years since the military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 and 4 months since the Red Shirts’ bloody eviction from Rajprasong after two months of anti-government protests.
Bearing in mind the explosions and fires which caused so much destruction in the capital on May 19th, not to mention subsequent terrorist activities around the country, plus the recent disappearance of 30 rocket-propelled grenades from a Lop Buri arms depot… there was understandable apprehension about possible violence on Sunday. It didn’t materialise. The events were peaceful, good-humoured and very upbeat, as seen in these two 4-minute films.
The first film covers the gradual reddening of the 8-laned Ratchadamri Road from noon when traffic reigned supreme until one o’clock by which time the rally had spilled onto and taken over half the road surface, initially prompted by a surge of motorcyclists from the south side of the intersection. During the April/May rallies the Skytrain walkway above the Red Shirts’ stage was closed to the public. On Sunday it was crowded with onlookers, as was the footbridge spanning Ratchadamri, next to the clock tower facing the inferno that was Central World and Zen on May 19th.
The second film, shot from 1.00 to 3.30 pm, is mostly seen from that same footbridge, either looking back towards the Skyway arches and the long line of shield-bearing police (many of whom looked fairly laid-back as they soaked up the party atmosphere and the throbbing drumbeat)… or looking northwards towards Pratunam. By 3.30 Ratchadamri was a sea of red. Gone was the Red Shirts’ tattered black plastic cover that in May had straddled the width of the road between the footbridge and the Skytrain. Now it was the turn of red banners and ribbons enthusiastically being tied in every direction, plus the many red balloons that were later released into the sky.
The most popular man of the day seemed to be the one seen climbing the footbridge steps, clad in military fatigues and lapping up the cheers which followed him. He was a lookalike of the swashbuckling Maj-General Khattiya Sawasdipol, known as Sae Daeng, an inspirational figure for many Red Shirts, who was shot in the head during an interview on May 13th.
This was a day to commemorate the 91 people who died in the anti-government protests earlier in the year. Candles were lit in their memory at the Rajprasong intersection and also at the nearby Pathum Wanaram temple where several people died on May 19th.
Prime Minister Abhisit will be encouraged by Sunday’s absence of violence but possibly rather intimidated by the large scale of the rally. Though an early end to the proceedings was called to ease the dispersal of such a huge gathering… the Red Shirts are certainly not going away.