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| AP Photo, AsianCorrespondent.com |
Last week it appeared that the showdown between Thai protesters and the police was ending amicably. These happy faces are Thai police women saying goodbye to protesters leaving their compound just a week ago.
Now this week (Tuesday) amidst growing concern over anarchy Thai protesters refuse to abandon their takeover of the central city and Thai police have abandoned the area, and their leader, Suthep, proposes to eliminate the Thai police altogether. Protesters say they are not interested in elections and instead want some kind of "appointed" government. NYTimes reporter Thomas Fuller today has this to say about conditions in the central city:
Fearing confrontation with protesters, police forces withdrew from the area, leaving demonstrators to direct tangled traffic at intersections. Trash built up on sidewalks, motorcycles ignored traffic rules even more than usual, cars triple-parked with impunity and protesters erected barriers to roads they wanted closed off. Amid this barely controlled chaos, the way forward for Thailand remained unclear.
All of this raises a likelihood of serious future conflict between the Thai Capital, which is against the present government, and the greater mass of rural people who have consistently supported the populist politician Thaksin whose sister is the present Prime Minister.
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