Move to mend divisions
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The red-shirt Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) has decided to launch a strategy of "advancing while making a retreat".
After meeting with the premier and key Pheu Thai executives on Thursday, red-shirt co-leader Jatuporn Prompan cancelled a rally yesterday in a move to avoid possible confrontation with anti-government protesters.
Jatuporn and other red-shirt leaders including Pheu Thai MP Weng Tojirakarn reportedly concluded that there was an urgent need to reunite the red-shirt movement after several key members of the movement openly voiced opposition to the government’s blanket amnesty bill.
The DAAD’s first rally to launch the strategy will be held at 4pm tomorrow at Bangkok’s Supachalasai Stadium, followed by campaigns in the provinces, including Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Chiang Mai and Chon Buri. These rallies are aimed at explaining the government’s stance and mending divisions within the red-shirt movement.
In a move to reunite supporters, the red-shirt Asia Update station will also ask three key red-shirt leaders, including Jatuporn, to return after taking them off the air less than a week ago.
At this stage, it is unclear whether the government’s counter measure in alliance with the reds will lead to clashes with Democrat protesters.
Meanwhile, a high-level security source inside the Yingluck Shinawatra administration insisted yesterday that the government had not made a mistake in handling the growing anti-blanket amnesty bill protests, which is now on the verge of snowballing into broader anti-government demonstrations.
The source said the government expected anti-government demonstrators to eventually try and converge on Government House, but it was not an issue of major concern.
The source acknowledged, however, that the large number of protesters was a result of pent up anger against the administration in relation to several issues, including inflation, the rice-pledging scheme and the Bt2-trillion infrastructure project.
The source also criticised Deputy PM Pracha Promnog for spending too much time talking, while the so-called “ice-cream gang” led by the PM’s secretary-general Suranand Vejjajiva continued to alienate itself from many within the ruling-Pheu Thai Party.
In a related development, a Pheu Thai source said many MPs blamed the strategic committee as wanting to help former PM Thaksin Shinawatra far too much and hence causing problems for red-shirt supporters, especially those who are still in jail.
