Political protest in Chan!!

I wasn't sure what, if anything, to post today so I was having a little think whilst doing my Friday morning cleaning ritual.  If you don't get your jobs done here by about 8am quite frankly you're done for as that's when it really starts hotting up!  I'd just about finished when Mr John called to say there was a parade outside the school and heading towards ours.  I then got a text saying it was a Fathers Day parade followed quickly by another saying it was a political protest.

Like some sort of tabloid hack / paparazzi, I grabbed the iPad, jumped on the scooter and headed up to our local intersection.  There were whistles blowing, flags waving and some very excited people in the throng.

Now I guess you might be wondering why I've gone all political.  Well, don't worry I haven't but there have been quite a few protests in Bangkok over the last week or so and we have been discussing this with our mate Kob.  This has proved a little tricky as when you learn everyday English it tends not to include words like parliament, Ministry of Finance, establishment - thank goodness for Internet dictionaries!

So I will try to give you a potted "recent" history of what's going on here.  Please note that I make no judgements, moral or otherwise - I'm merely conveying some facts!  The current Prime Minister is a lady (Yingluck Shinawatra).  Her brother (Thaksin Sinawatra) was previously Prime Minister but he is currently in self-imposed exile (to avoid corruption charges) following a military coup in 2006.  He came to power because (according to World Time) he "mobilised Thailand's rural heartland".  His supporters are referred to as Red Shirts.  Opposing him are the Yellow Shirts, who  apparently are the more elitist of Bangkok traditional society.  With me so far?

The current Prime Minister is trying to introduce an Amnesty Bill so that her brother can return to Thailand and there's quite a few articles in the press that suggest he is pulling her strings.  Now I'm not a political animal but I have three older brothers and there's no way I'd do what they told me to do and they'd probably concur with me.  Who knows what goes on behind closed doors though - I'm just saying.

Anyway, in Bangkok on Wednesday the protesters occupied the Ministry of Finance and several other government buildings making it very difficult for employees to continue working.  The protesters want the Prime Minister to resign and as a result of these actions, she's introduced the Internal Security Act.  This Act gives law enforcement officials and the military additional powers, including the right to impose curfews, put up checkpoints, restrict the movement of demonstrators and search for weapons.

Now this all sounds mighty unsettling, but you have to remember we're four hours from Bangkok and, to be honest, I'm a little surprised that sleepy old Chan has come out onto the streets.  As you can see from the photos, it was a civilised affair really and I suspect they just wanted their voices heard.

You can read more about what's going on here through a number of news websites including Reuters