Never mind what you read in the news about Thaksin’s red shirt rallies. If you live in Bangkok, simply trust your gut.
Thaksin’s red shirt protesters seem to have earned the reputation of making trouble. So it is no surprise that the Thai government plans to keep them surrounded with anti riot personnel, and that simply sits well with everyone except for those looking to make trouble.
When you go to the Zoo and look at dangerous wild animals, you are comforted that they are in a cage or there is a barrier between you and them that they can not cross. However walk into a containment with a tiger, and you are very likely to be seen moments later with the tigers mouth around your neck.
So for the most part everyone is very happy and particularly the tourist sector that this new portable red shirt cage is in place. Talking to hotel managers, a major concern of guests is the political unrest. That is simply because they do not live in town and have anxiety of where it is safe and where the trouble is and accidently walk into it. Many 4 and 5 star hotel guests are business men that simply must be in Bangkok because their job requires it. Because of that the feedback is in realtime. So in general placing a cage around the red shirts is helping Thailand’s economy.
However from the red shirts prospective, the cage is not a good thing as it simply tends to declaw them. Rallies are more or less a ruse allowing them to gather to make trouble. So their strategy must be rethought on how to proceed with their goal of overthrowing the government by any means with force and violence being the first choice.
The remaining options are to become decentralize and have riot gangs meet, do damage and disburse before the police arrive in force. Targets would likely be members of the government and other people they deem as in the way of Thaksin. Such attacks have already been seen outside of Bangkok, and now are likely to be seen inside Bangkok as well. This guerilla tactic is one of the few choices they have left.
The other choice more resembles what is going on in southern Thailand with bombs and other indiscriminate violence. The attacks would be designed to damage nearly every person who makes a living in Thailand being Thai or other, all while looking to force the governments hand into a lose, lose situation.
