Life's no stroll in the mall for Baitoey

Not so the celebrated, sexy luk thung singer Suteewan “Baitoey R Siam” Thaveesin, who has been summoned into the fray thanks to her association with the man on the run, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Late last week a photo of the former premier made the rounds on the social networks. He was walking hand in hand with a woman in what looked like a shopping mall. A consensus emerged that the woman he was escorting was Baitoey. It seemed a piddling little scandal to most people compared to the ongoing uproar in the streets, but there was enough commotion online that the singer first denied it on Instagram and then called a press conference.
“It’s not me,” she blubbered to reporters on Friday. “I never wear trousers and long-sleeve shirts! Please stop dragging me to politics. This hurts me and my family badly.”
But too many foes of Thaksin were already convinced that it was indeed Baitoey in the photo, and the gossip went round and round. To her rescue rode pro-government social networkers, who studied the evidence and declared the mystery woman to in fact be Thaksin’s eldest daughter, Pinthongta, known as Aim. And they had a picture of Aim in black trousers and a white shirt to prove it. But look at the woman’s figure, the way she holds her shoulders, the cynics replied. It looks nothing like Aim!
In the absence of more convincing proof, and in the presence of Baitoey’s weepy denial, Soopsip is going to call this one for the singer. Lets just shove this silliness aside and get those Insta-detectives working on the bigger issues, like what the government really plans to do with this amnesty bill.

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Protest at protest
The Democrat Party is Thailand’s oldest political institution, but it’s a rookie when it comes staging protest rallies. It makes the yellow shirts and red shirts look like professional event organisers. The very first night the Dems got people onto the street, at Samsen railway station, there were complaints about the choice of songs being played at high volume.
On Facebook, Ongarj Yai wanted to know why the Carabao tune “Bang Rajan” was blasting away. “It doesn’t make sense because the Bang Rajan warriors all died! Why didn’t they choose ‘Taksin Maharaj’ [also by Carabao] – it’s about victory!” Taksin Saesonti responded with a possible explanation: “Maybe they wanted to say they’ll fight until they die, just like Suthep [Thuagsuban] vowed.”
And on Twitter there was more griping about the meaning of the lyrics to “Bang Rajan”. So, sure enough, because the Democrats have heard of this social-networking thing, the next day at Samsen, they were playing “Taksin Maharaj”.
As the rallying continued, the music improved dramatically, with particular tunes even chosen to introduce particular speakers. And the songs have got livelier. Now, apart from the grand marches with auspicious meanings, you can hear tracks by Bodyslam, Sek Loso and Thongchai “Bird” McIntyre.
The public has spoken and the people are pleased. Now if they can just be sure that GMM Grammy doesn’t bang them up for copyright violations or royalty fees, they can concentrate on Thaksin!