From under the sheltering wings

THE SCENE of incendiary speeches and boiling tempers for the past two months, the Democracy Monument has also raised a community in and around its gracefully upturned wings. It’s become a place where the protesters eat and sleep together on makeshift mats, make new friends and contemplate a hopefully less fractious future. 

To many of them, the storied landmark on Rajdamnoen Avenue has become a second home. Tomorrow, though, it’s time to leave the nest. 

Suthep Thaugsuban, heading the People’s Democratic Reform Committee in its fight against the Shinawatra regime, decreed that the stage should be dismantled ahead of tomorrow’s “Bangkok Shutdown”. And some of the protesters are genuinely mournful about leaving the monument behind, such are the fond memories they’ve amassed in its shadow.

The mood in the last few days has been one of soaking up the atmosphere for the last time. Those who’ve been encamped there for so many weeks admit they’ll be at a loss tomorrow when the rally splits up among various other sites. The Democracy Monument became a central symbol of their movement, appearing on countless posters and T-shirts, and even the reform committee’s newspaper is called Rajdamnoen Today.

“The site feels warm, like a second home,” says Chaweewan Srisupan, 70, a Chumphon fruit farmer who’s been there for the past 12 days. “On Monday when I leave for another stage, it will feel like I’m moving to a third home!” Chaweewan insists she’s not going back south until the battle is won.

“My best memory of this place will be of all the like-minded people I met here – I have really broadened my horizons while exchanging ideas with them,” says Nakorn Sangasong, 49, who raises cattle in Prachuab Khiri Khan. His whole family has accompanied him to Bangkok.

Kannikar Satthatat, 60, one of the volunteer cooks in the kitchen keeping the masses fed, feels the same way. The kitchen will be moving tomorrow too, of course, but she expects to see few of the familiar faces she’s been serving for weeks.

Sentiment extends to local businesspeople as well. Apsorn Kamnerdmanee, 58, who owns Krua Apsorn, one of the restaurants the protesters patronised, doesn’t think she’ll suffer financially when the crowd moves on, but says “the evenings will be lonelier without all the colours and the lively atmosphere”.

Many protesters, aware there might not be another chance to buy the accessories associated with the Democracy Monument, are scooping up mementoes – the Rajdamnoen T-shirts and the like. Some of these are limited edition collector’s items , like the iconic lightning bolt-shaped whistles distributed by the anti-government Bluesky TV channel. People waited hours to buy them in a queue stretching a hundred metres. 

And vendors are also offering commemorative coins that look like amulets, along with framed photos of the mammoth protest, with those showing Suthep and the monument itself selling best.

A stall selling the official “Shutdown Bangkok” T-shirt designed by Sakchai Guy, editor of Lips magazine, opens daily at 5pm, but there’s been a long queue since 4 and some of the buyers get there as early as 2.

A range of emotions ripples through the crowd ahead of tomorrow’s move. Saying goodbye to Rajdamnoen is tinged with sadness as well as determination to see the job through. There is apprehension about where they’ll be tomorrow, who they’ll encounter and what happens next. 

But, for most at least, there are the memories they’ll be smiling about for years to come.