State of Emergency

Hey friends! I started this blog so you get updates on Bangkok and the Red Shirt hoopla. I will try to link to some more authoritative sources to explain all the background and politics in later posts, but for now you're stuck with my aimless rambling (and occasional ranting) . . .

I woke up for work as usual this morning (at 5 am). While I was drinking my morning Diet Coke, my mum called from Cleveland to ask if I was OK. She actually knew before I did about the State of Emergency in Bangkok. I assured her this had been going on for a month (thinking she just meant the Red Shirt protests).

I checked the Bangkok Post website and found a picture of protestors taking guns from the police and waving them in triumph (yes, that's our prime minister on the left, looking shocked). This under a huge headline: STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED IN BANGKOK. (I can't exactly plead ignorance, can I?)

Apparently while I was in my work bubble yesterday, 80 Red Shirts (who have been protesting since March 12 at government buildings, embassies and most recently malls) stormed Parliament House and chased the MPs, including Prime Minister Abhisit out the back door. The lawmakers escaped by climbing over the compound wall into a nearby building, where they were rescued by a helicopter and flown to a secure Army base. This blatant attempt to overthrow the government prompted the Prime Minister Abhisit to declare a State of Emergency in Bangkok and surrounding provinces.

Effectively, the State of Emergency decree expands the power of the military to:

*Ban gatherings of 5 or more persons (watch out tonight at Happy Hour!)
*Detain suspects for up to a month without due process
*Restrict press freedom (even more than usual)
*Declare curfews in certain areas

And (most worryingly)
*Expands powers of the PM to use soldiers to quell unrest

I hadn't checked my cell phone in about 15 hours, as I'd been busy after work on an assignment for my writing class. Lo and behold: there were 7 messages! Four were from ISB, saying school was canceled for the day. I found this a bit ominous, as we've never had a protest day in the two years I've been here, even when the yellow-shirts (rival shirt group) took over the airport in December 2008.

There was also a text message from my mom (already 12 hours old) asking if everything was all right. Doh! No wonder she's calling me at 5 AM. So I am starting this blog for her, and also for my friend Tric (who is scheduled to arrive from L.A. in, oh, just under 36 hours . . .) and might want to see how things are shaping up . . .

OK, since don't have to work, am going to have a jog around the park while it's still relatively cool.