Remember the Yellow Shirts?

Dear Readers,

I just came across an article about the PAD – People’s Alliance for Democracy in Thailand, aka yellow shirt jerks who hijacked Thailand’s airports.

All this current mess with the red shirts, some might forget what the yellow shirts did, and what their campaign is striving for.

The article below (from the Washington Post) summarises the PAD quite well.

Thailand’s People Alliance for Democracy Ousts Another Government

Your resident insomniac,
Stacy

And so mob rule triumphs once again in Thailand…

Dear Readers,

I was shopping with Dianna and Jeab at ZARA last week. Dianna was looking for a coat to wear in the UK, and the only available coats at ZARA were wind-breaker material- trench-ish coats available in bright yellow, orange, and hideous lime green. 

I absolutely loved the bright yellow coat, especially worn withdark blue jeans, it looks fabulous. Reminds me of cute paddington bear raincoats. There I was, in ZARA, pleading for Dianna to consider the bright yellow coat, when Jeab hushes me and says, “Stacy, you can’t ask her to buy a bright yellow jacket, esp. with the political situation! “

WHAT!?!? So now Bright Vibrant Yellow and Beautiful Bright Chinese Red is hijacked from our fashion wardrobes in Thailand!!?!??!

Those PAD bitches!!!!! UDD protesters!!!

Before, I refrained from posting about the PAD hijack of the Suvarnabhumi airport which cost me an arm and two legs – in terms of personal expenses for being stranded in HK, and the indirect effect on my business. 

What is with mob rule in Thailand?  What has Thailand succumb to?

 The former PM – Somsak (PPP ) was elected by popular vote in an GENERAL ELECTION December 2007. In early September 2008, he was removed from office on the account of conflict of interest. The caretaker prime minister during that transition time was Somchai Wongsawat, and the PPP party nominated him to be head representative of their party, and through national assembly vote, he beat Abhbisit 298-163, thus becoming Thailand’s official PM in late September 2008.

His tenure didn’t last long, and he actually goes down in history as the first PM who never stepped in the Government House. (read this article)

In December 2008, PAD hijacks Bangkok airports, and knowingly bludgeons the Thai economy. The Constitutional Court dissolves the PPP  and bans its executives from politics for 5 years. PM Somchai is removed from office. The un-banned political parties form a majority coalition, nominates Abhisit as their leader, and wins the national assembly vote. 

So what we have is a precedent set:

–> screw general elections –> mob rule –> protest force resignation of PM or force Constitutional Court to make a ruling that will remove the PM –> ban current governing executives from politics for 5 years –> nominate favourable party –> wait for 3-4 months–> opposing side starts the cycle all over again.  (Well done! AMAZZZING THAILAND!)

PM Abhisit is not a democrat. He is a technocrat. He believes that the most skilled not-most popular person should lead the nation. In a general election, his Democrat party,  will never win because the majority of Thai people still favour  TRT/PPP/Puea Thai (it’s the same party, under different names since all were previously dissolved and execs banned from politics). Whether the rural folk of Thailand prefer the TRT/PPP/Puea Thai because they are paid to, or because they are not educated enough to see that the Democrat party would do a better job, doesn’t matter.  If the Democrat party wants to take office, it should do so by aggressive campaigning and by educating the masses as to why they are the better party to elect. But instead, PM Abhisit was a silent partner in the PAD fiasco, and suddenly appears when all dust has settled. <<—my conspiracy theory opinion.

And now here we are, the UDD (the group that supports the Thaksin) is starting the process all over again. Staging protests, road blocks and now they smashed into the 14th ASEAN Summit – effectively cancelling it and embarrassing Thailand and PM Abhisit in the process.

Honestly, I can’t help siding with the UDD (gasps of shock anywhere?).  Technocrats are dangerous. Yes, PM Abhisit has a solid academic background. Fabulous, he went to Eton and studied at Oxford. Bravo well done. But his political experience?  His life experiences? His connection to the MAJORITY of Thai people?

How dangerous is it to assume that the rural folk don’t know what’s best for them?

So, instead of educating the majority of Thais on what is the better choice, the elitists pull strings and manage to ‘elect’ (through national assembly – senate + house of representative votes) one of their own to rule the nation? How ideal is it for the elitists to cripple our economy and nominate the best most knowledgeable leader to lead us out of this economy crisis?

Very ideal indeed.

On Wednesday morning, in the car, as we were approaching the tollway-booths, I noticed a 2-km long – bus/car/truck UDD entourage. UDD protesters being brought into Bangkok by the masses. Sitting in their non-airconditioned buses, cheering, playing loud thai country music, dangling their arms from the window shouting and laughing! Very kampung style.  I wish I had my camera.

Thai PM Motorcade Attacked

Did you see how the UDD protesters, opened the driver-side door of the PM’s Toyota Fortuner?
What is the PM doing in a Toyota Prado??? And why don’t they have the doors locked? And how can a helmet smash into the rear window glass?

In the Bangkok Post, I saw photos of the protesters  pushing through the human barricades, and this one woman was losing her balance – and in the photo she is smiling. Smiling like this is all a game. Smiling like, I am really giving them 300 baht worth of work! I have such good work ethic! hee hee!

At the ASEAN Summit, there were 8,000 police officers to manage the safety of the delegates and the whole entire area. At 1 pm today, a few hundred protesters stormed in, broke through the glass doors, and took over the ASEAN Summit media centre at the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel  in Pattaya. 

A soldier was quoted in today’s Bangkok Post (April 11th 2009) saying ” We can only do our best to delay the march. But once they break the barriers, we can’t do much to stop them, after all, it’s their taxes that pay our salaries too.”

If that soldier’s sentiment was representative of Thailand’s security forces, then the ASEAN Summit was doomed for cancellation from the beginning. The summit was cancelled, and all the ASEAN leaders flown out to safety. PM Abhisit declared a state of emergency in Pattaya.

And so mob rule triumphs once again in Thailand.

Thai politics is truly a random. Somewhat predictable but at the same time very illogical. Thai politics is tiring, and for us folk being affected by all this political instability, it is downright annoying.

And despite of all this annoyance/frustration, I am still here. Why oh why… 
Perplexed and yet slightly amused,
Stacy

Santika’s Inferno – More Insight

Dear Readers,

I found this 2 accounts of what happened at Santika that night: Lights were shut off and everyone was scrambling in pitch darkness with suffocating smoke. No emergency lights.

A post by a Singaporean: detailed account plus actual photos of sparklers given in the club (A Must Read)

Another user Vince gives his account

I appreciate them sharing what really happened,

In shock,
Stacy

Bangkok’s 2009 Early Tragedy – Santika’s Inferno

Dear Readers,

I am pissed.

I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.

Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.

Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went,  and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.

But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?

That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.

Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.

Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.

So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.

I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.

The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.

1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.

It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.

Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.

After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.

Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).

So this was his story:

“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”

He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.

And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.

I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least).  In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.

This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.

1,000 baht, can you believe that?

Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.

You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.

To see his facebook dedication page, please click here

May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy

News articles:

Police: Many Victims were Foreigners

Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers

Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)