absolutelyBangkok archive · Politics
Originally published Aug. 31, 2008
Is this the psychological warfare of the government? Letting the protesters at Government House live in growing misery? Soon no more need for riot police?
Daily Xpress calls beleaguered Government House a “refugee camp.” Even PAD’s archon Chamlong looks worn out and very very old.
“Mounds of garbage are piling up, bras hang drying from bushes and toilets overflow,” reports Xpress. “Some of the residents have to turn to garbage bags to relieve themselves (…) Built in 1908 by Italian architects, the two-storey gothic Thai Khu Fah resembles the Doge’s Palace in Venice. But the Venetian charm is gone.”
The Bangkok Post
(thanks for the nod PH) reports on the “protester’s survival kit (…) Protesters have to wait in a long line to use the toilet. As a result, plastic bags have become the latest must-have items in a PAD protester’s survival kit. If they can’t hold on any longer they use plastic bags instead.”
The PAD basically resides in Bangkok’s newest slum. We are in now way trivializing the eager anti-government resistance of the PAD crowd. But maybe their nerves start playing own little tricks. Not that anyone over there is demoralized yet. And PAD chief cheerleader Sondhi has declared they’d have back-up plans in place. The crisis is just on hold as the houses debate. The calm before the storm. But then again. A clean pillow? Quiet sleep without fear of being raided?
The standoff won’t go down in history as the people’s revolution without a single shot being fired I’m afraid. But the longer the standoff drags on, the higher the chances that many hardcore PAD favor a good night’s sleep over democracy.
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