Monday, June 7, 2010

Twitter -mocracy @thaicrisis

                                                                
                                                          Copyright  noname_8

Twitter offers a space where people may resist oppression on a daily basis as I  will demonstrate using my handle @elmotheclown while following the  recent crack down of protesters in Bangkok. And though  this micro-blogging tool may not overturn traditional structures of power  and control, it certainly puts pressure on the powers that  be.


This has been the case in Thailand, where the current Democrat government  has used  censorship of oppositional websites , radios and periodic banning of Twitter and  Face Book, as was witnessed with the April 10 crack down where 25 people died and over a thousand people were injured against classes with the Army in Bangkok’s old district, according to The Brisbane Times.
 
The Committe to Protect Journalists, cites the  Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) upped Censorship against the Reds, one day after martial law was declared:

 
"One day after the April 8 declaration of martial law, MICT held a press conference at which it announced 9,000 to 10,000 new site blocks since the Red Shirt protests began, with an intention to block 700 more."






For the past two months I have been following on Twitter the ongoing battles between the Abhisit led  Democratic government, and the United Front Against Dictatorship (UDD),  known as the Red Shirts, who  have been camped out in a swank downtown district of Bangkok for the past nine weeks asking  immediate dissolution of the government  and new elections. They say the  Democrat led government  is  unconstitutional.



I flew into Bangkok on the 14th of  May , a Friday  evening from Penang, Malaysia. I think it was the most congested day that Bangkok had experienced in many decades. I really had reservations of flying in, as I knew the political situation could deteriorate at any moment. The  previous day the Red militant leader Khattiya Sawasdipol, known as the Red Commander, or Se Daeng, had been  targeted by a sniper  while giving an interview to Thomas Fuller of the New York Times. He would die a few days later in hospital with renal failure.



 At Penang airport , I was  searching for updates on Thailand in Google news on my Black Berry, but the fury of what was unfolding was hidden from mainstream news, as I would later discover when I got back onto Twitter later that evening.  With the assassination attempt ofSe Daeng, we all knew that this would be the beginning of the escalation of the riots and  a showdown between the Red protestors and the Army. 


A few days before the attempt on Se Daeng’s life, it looked like the leaders of the Red Shirts  were going to accept Abhiset’s 5 point Road Map, which had been given the positive thumbs up by all the Thai papers, as a local expat @bangkokpundit, and ire of the PAD supporters posted on his blog.  And understandably, there was optimism that the inevitable show down would be put off. That was every sane person’s  wish, and even Thaksin, the former Prime Minister who was unseated in a coup in 06, had  sent a Tweet from his account, @thaksinlive welcoming the Road Map, which attracted the ire of the pro-government supporters (the Yellows, or PAD --People’s Alliance for Democracy)  who smelt out the comment as an insincere remark.

In his last interview, Se Daeng was reported to have said that  that it was better to fight on, if his boss Thaksin was ever to return home victorious, which would set the scene for the next tumultuous week.









What am I getting myself into?  I thought, as I was boarding my Air Asia flight to Bangkok from Penang where I had been for the last month.  I had followed the April 10 clashes, where 25 people were killed and over a thousand  injured. And a week later  there was more skirmishes on Silom where a lady was killed from a grenade attack, after a clash between the Red Shirts and their arch enemies.




This  wasn’t the Amazing Thailand that the Tourism Authority of Thailand had promoted. The world was witnessing the dark side of the Thai psyche, and Bangkok seemed a destination many travellers preferred not to visit, as was confirmed by a friend of mine in Australia  who cancelled his flight. 

At  Suvarnabhumi Airport, on the brief bus ride from the plane to the terminal, a German tourist with his Thai girlfriend voiced his concern. “I hope it is ok around Nana Plaza?” he asked me, where  he had booked his hotel room.  I said that I had read on Twitter  that the military were patrolling around that red light district  after skirmishes on Plonchit road. He was in for one hell of a night, I thought, according to the munitions that would be fired in the next 48 hours.

 I went directly to the Tourist Police. They were all glued to the TV. The airport was busy as usual and you wouldn’t know that there was going to be  an intense showdown in a 2 square  mile strip of down town Bangkok, unless you were watching the news of course. And remember the siege of the two Bangkok airports by the Yellow demonstrators (click on the link for a flashback)? Well that spectre wasn’t lost upon me as the Red Shirts currently  tried to over throw the government using similar tactics of their nemesis, in this dangerous colour coding game.

I was told not to travel to certain areas of Bangkok, and the situation was nearly under control. The  way the polite Tourist police said it was not reassuring. I went outside for a cigarette, and thought of how to get  taxi fare with the meter on. I wasn’t in the mood for paying an outright extortion fare.  Some airport staff were also smoking. One of them  had a mini TV on his phone, and his friends were huddled around it listening to the news on Se Daeng. Obvious they were Red sympathisers.  I asked them what was his chances of survival, they said in Thai, "50 -50".

I hailed a taxi, “You pay 100 baht special riot fee ” said the cabby, before he would start the meter. Not bad! Usually if you get a taxi outside the official stand, they just give you a very large round figure. Apparently the traffic was pretty bad as the military were manning roads leading into the demonstration area, he explained.  That was my first real report of what was happening in Bangkok!

In my hotel, I got my Internet connection sorted, and started following the unfolding crack down. I was about 5 kilometres from the main stage. But the BTS was shut down indefinitely. I thought about going to the demonstration zone, but I read on Twitter that anyone caught within the demonstration site would be arrested and given two years jail. Sure, I admit it, I was a coward. 

But that didn’t stop some foreign Tweet-freaks  like  @RichardBarrow who was still reporting from the Rachapong Stage and offering sympathetic reports of the protestors ( he did the  Bangkok Dangerous Map which was a hit in Bangkok expat circles who wanted up to date accounts of "hot" areas) , outside the World Trade Center Shopping mall, which  would be burnt down to the ground, after the military crackdown, by arsonists.

Monday the 17th.

As one of the foremost commentators on the Thai crisis, The Nation editor, Tulsathit Taptim, who was tweeting under @tulsathit said, “One day in Twitter Land is a long time".   Totally agreed. But that didn't stop me getting Twitter updates on my phone as I  took the evening bus upcountry. That evening the government announced a curfew  after the military had successfully broke up the demonstration. Well one claim to fame I regret, was not being in Bangkok for  a curfew. But being only an hour out of the city, I still had the luxury of hitting a 7 11 late at night, in contrast to the Twitter accounts of shops running out of stock in the Curfew zone, as Bangkokians  prepared for the biggest Tweet-Up at home.




                                      ( Men in Black , photo courtesy Udom108 )

Wednesday 19th of May

When the Red Leaders handed themselves in, the Red supporters booed them off stage, and the Ronins and Men in Black (MiB) without their masters to now guide them, went on a looting and burning rampage! That is the official version, but there has been lots of comments on Twitter that the burning of the World Trade Centre and other locations was actually a set up by certain underground pro-government groups who wanted to discredit the Red Movement. Here is a link to a Facebook account, which goes into the theories of who burnt down the buildings and why. And here  is a taste of it's salacious content:

Remember who was feuding with Central and BEC before all of this? Who was the biggest enemy .... of the Central Group and Ch. 3 in the past 3 years? The direct beneficiary of the fire is not reds or Thaksin...






 



                                              Henri Dunant barricades  Copyright  noname_8


                                                

The city was blazing, Michelin Tyre Day, some commented, and calls for help were made over the Twitter wire, as people found themselves trapped in burning buildings:

“People can't get out, b/c soldiers won't allow anyone to walk thru,”
was a popular RT, sent via ThaiVisa, a expat online news forum that was pretty prominent in covering the Thai Crisis, and RT other's Tweets.


This was a sensational ending to a two month demonstration. We saw children, women and the elderly of the Red Shirt protestors huddled in Wat Pathum Temple, a supposed refuge from the  “Fire Zone” where  military stated clearly anyone seen there would be shot with live bullets.

At the Wat Pathum temple (this is a recent analysis of what actually happened at the temple, were the soldiers firing at the temple from the BTS station?) , another saga was unfolding in Twitter Land.  Foreign journalists were reporting sniper fire on innocent demonstrators who were fleeing the army and seeking safety in the temple. Seven  people were killed by sniper fire, including a medic Kamolket Akahad.

One Canadian journalist Mark MacKinnon (@markkinnon)  from the Globe and Mail, who was with  a British journalist at the temple,  who had been shot in the hip, sent out an urgent  Tweet at 8.49 on the 19th of May:

Please RT. People around me are dying because they can’t get to the hospital across the road because of #bang




This remarkable call was accompanied with a TwitPic of  terrified people, hiding behind trucks, “after bullet whizzes  through the temple compound.”

                                           (copyright @markkinnon Twitpic)

In a retrospective piece Twitter's role in Bangkok conflict unprecentened , he  wrote of that life saving Tweet while under siege in the temple sanctuary:



Within minutes, my pleas had indeed been retweeted hundreds, maybe thousands of times, in English, Thai and other languages. They were posted on the websites of Britain’s The Guardian newspaper and other international media. People I knew only through Twitter started calling me to check on our situation. More helpfully, others started calling embassies, hospitals and the Thai government.


Eighty minutes later, I was carrying stretchers out to a row of waiting ambulances. “Twitter may just have done this,” was my next update.


One video “Farang Threatens To Burn Down Central World After Looting It“ taken by a Canadian tourist who posted it on Youtube, became the most sensational viral video of the #Thai crisis, which ensured a witch hunt to find the  Red Brit, Jeoff Savage, who was filmed carrying a bamboo stick, and ranting “"We're gonna smash the fucking Central [World] Plaza … we're gonna loot everything, gold.”



 Connor on stage (Copyright  noname_8)

Connor in custody
                                          



 And then there was Connor Purcell( above in picture), a former Australian soldier and English teacher in Thailand, who was also seen on the Red Stage,  lambasting the Democratic government asking for democratic elections immediately. These two videos were circulated on Youtube and short linked and circulated on Twitter. And once The Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situation (CRES) had the situation under control, the two foreigners were quickly arrested.



Both are now in remand prison, with possible two years detention for inciting violence;  and possibly the death sentence for Savage who was seen also at the Channel 3 building when it was burnt by Red Shirt protestors.

@Freakingcat, one of the Bangkok expats, and quite active  Twitterer, started a witch hunt to find Jeoff Savage. I protested against that, saying it was the role of the Thai authorities. I was duly attacked by another expat who said that I supported the death of innocent lives.

Here is a recent post by @freakingcat in regards to Jeoff Savage:


Well Jeff Savage...you probably gonna miss more than one World Cup! And no TV in your cellal-l Bangkokians really feel sorry for you! HAHA!!

And my respone to his post was somthing like this: If you ever fuck up I will visit you at the Remand Prison!

Twitter not only kept people informed during the nine week crisis, wrote Mark Mackinnon, but also “ amplified the hate on both sides of the country’s divide.”

The big issue following the fall out, when one third of Thailand was under state of emergency and Bangkok was still under Curfew , were the Men in Black (MiB).  And a  popular RT of an article by Kenneth Todd Ruiz and Olivier Sarbil titled "Unmasked: Thailand's men in black" which came out on the 29th of May on Asia Online created it's fair share of controversy. Many covering the unfolding crisis asked why wasn't the article published earlier. And there other accusations by supporters of Reds that the article was a pro PAD piece, because it ran in Asia Online, who some suspected was one of the prominant  Yellow leader's, Sondhi Limthongkul,  publication. I also accused the writers of cooking up quotes, it seemed unreal that the MiB would use code names like "Happy Birthday", before they detonated bombs around the city. So I contacted @oliviersarbil directly. He confirmed that it was nonsence that the piece was pro-government, and he said that the condition of publishing the breaking story was when the demonstrations were over, other wise they would be killled.


There had been a few foreign journalists shot at, including Nelson Rand, Chandler Vandergrift,  Andrew Buncombe. And Italian photographer, Fabio Polenghi,  and Japanese cameraman,Hiroyuki Miramoto, were killed covering the riots. Also Thai journalist, Chaiwat Pumpuan was shot at and injured. The big question raging on Twitter, who were the snipers that shot at them?  MiB or government sponsored snipers?



Last footage taken by Japanese Cameraman before he was killed



 Photographer Chaiwat Pumpuang was shot on his leg on May 19


(Shooting of Italian Journalist, Thai Footage)




(Canadian Nelson Rand calling out for help after being shot at by Snipers)

Circulating on Twitter was a link to  Sniperman’s account on Facebook, which added fuel to the rumour mill. “Sniperman” was apparently a vigil anti group who wanted to rid Thailand of the red scum which was burning down their country, and according to the chief PAD guard,  they had killed six people so far.

And he was a larger than life character.  @pookem was a  former Captain in the Thai army, who  trained under Sah Dang in Class 37, and now has over 11 000 followers on Twitter who are members of his Anonymous Warrior Fan Club.


 Pookem was the head instructor of the PAD guards, and he told me that he and Se Dang were once good friends, but parted their separate ways after a differing of ideology.

To break the ice, I  found that he has a ping pong list, and I am a big fan of table tennis. 

So I dropped the rogue soldier a tweet. @pookem hi again, do you like to play ping pong? if so i hope w can play some time soon, but i am not very good!    

He got back to me with this:
@Elmotheclown I love to play pingpong. Hope we play it together soon.

The next tweet was:
@elmotheclown Are you a ping pong player in Olympics

I had told him I played ping pong in China, so I clarified my point with another tweet.:
@pookem  I stopped off at a Stadium in Kunming China, and asked a Chinese player with a lame leg if I could play, he thrashed me


Captain Capt Songklod Chuenchupo said in the Bangkok Post in 2008:   ''The UDD supporters are Thais like us, but they are just misled. For this reason, please only beat them until they are unable to walk, not beat them to death,''

He told me that he had clashed with his former teacher, Se Daeng, back in 08. He did confess that his Anonymous Warriors were acting as informers for  CRES. He cited one example, when he saw sniper fire from a building around Ding Dang, “I cced it to @pm_abhisit , and the next day the military were all over the place."

During the riots,  Capt Pookem blended in with the Reds. He said their failure was bad intelligence, and not utilising the Twitter like his group did.

Then he  commented on my timeline, with a dash of bravado:

I reported the MiB covering themself in some high buildings to CRES.
And I'd done like these for the demonstrators locations ,also.
The Red mob security system were so poor.
Nobody catch me. Even I walked around all mob area.

(Pookem uses auto google translate on his english account @pookemlive --notice the similarity to @thaksinlive :), which accounts for the choppy English! And if you follow Captain Pookem, you will see his unfollow @thaksinlive game, his way of countering the former Prime Minister's online presence)

 I was  friends both  with the Yellows and the Reds and received my fair share of scorn from both camps, because of my perceived politics. But that didn't stop us from Twittering  fervently  at two hashes :  #redshirt and #thaicrisis. And at the end of the Curfew, there were Tweet-ups all over the place:

SAT: OK People! Q Bar re-opening with a big one tonight CURFREE!. @DJOcto spinning the Bangkok Tweet-up.

Game set and match. It was business as usual in Bangkok.And things quietened down on Twitter. It seems once curfew was over, the hatred from both sides turned momentarily into joy. I was still at my Tweet Deck monitoring the mood that night. It was like everyone had amnesia -- nothing like an alcohol induced stupor  to momentarily white wash the death toll of two months, which left 88 dead and thousands injured.

Nicolas Farrelly, editor of New Mandala, in a recent discussion panel from ANU commenting on a forum, Thailand on the Verge, says   "there is a hunger in Thailand for uncensored analysis, better information,  critical innuendo, radical perspectives and challenging arguments.”

And Twitter was the social networking site where heated political debates were fought in cyberspace. The debate will no doubt  continue to rage on, as Thailand deals with growing pains of becoming a democracy.

Thanks for the ride --- the spectrum of views and ideas from both the Red and Yellow camps  shows that nothing is ever black and white, or colour coded. As to the Twitter Whale, yes, you confirmed that something big and exciting, and down right despicable was going on here in the Land of Smiles.



Note: special thanks --pictures provided kindly by  noname_8

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