Dispute over red-shirt pavilion fire continues

The incident took place in Songkhla’s Chana district at 2am on Tuesday, after the village was officially inaugurated on Monday. 

Songkhla Democrat MP Wiratana Kalayasiri denied that his party had anything to do with the arson attack, saying that the two sides were only fighting on the political front in Parliament. 

“The locals have the right to voice their opposition, but they are not likely to resort to such violent acts, so I think it is the red shirts who set fire to their property to use it against us,” the MP said. 

Wiratana also said that the ruling Pheu Thai Party should be focusing on sorting out other problems, such as the rising cost of living, instead of setting up red-shirt villages, which will only cause disharmony. 

“Does the government just want to show the power of the red shirts by setting up red-shirt villages across the country?” Wiratana asked.

Sirichok Sopha, another Songkhla Democrat MP, accused the red-shirt movement of setting up villages in order to expand in the South and government officials in the area were abusing their power in favour of the reds. He said he had received a letter from a government official saying that the Chana district chief had asked school administrators to send in the names of students who wanted to join a red-shirt training course. 

“The government, especially the Interior Ministry, is supporting this. The Chana district chief, Narongporn na Phattalung, is the son of Swai Na Pattalung, the Songkhla red-shirt leader,” Sirichok added. 

However, core red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan insisted that the Democrat Party was to be blamed for the fire and challenged Democrat MPs to swear that they were not backing an anti-red-shirt movement in the South. “Why are the Democrats so much against anti-drugs and anti-graft villages? Why are they so worried about them? Do the Democrats want the South to listen only to them? People have the right to listen to both sides,” he said. 

Meanwhile, director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) Pol Colonel Tawee Sodsong said that though he did not know all the details about the incident in Chana, the red shirts should understand the local culture before setting up villages. 

In response to Sirichok’s allegations, Narongporn confirmed yesterday that he had not sent any letters asking to recruit students for a training course. He said the last time he was involved in a training course was four months ago, when the Public Health Ministry launched a project with 200 student participants. 

“Everybody knows my ideologies differ from those of my father. We had a quarrel and I asked my father why he had to throw himself in [the political movement],” Narongporn said, adding that he had to be politically neutral because of his position as district chief. He also said that he had just moved to Chana from Rattaphum district four months ago and was acquainted with Democrat MPs Thaworn Senneam and Surin Palare.

Narongporn added that at the opening event of the red-shirt village on Monday, he had spoken to both supporters and protesters and urged them to not instigate any rows. He said both sides agreed to keep the peace. He also said that there were no Democrat MPs present at the event in support of the protesters as claimed by the red shirts. He said it was still unknown as to who had set fire to the pavilion, adding that the local people did not consider it a big deal because it was just an old thatched structure.