By MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR / IPS WRITER
BANGKOK — Stories of Thai men getting into fatal fights during a night of drinking are common in the local press. But the killing of Somchai, a 37-year-old man, reveals something more ominous.
The murder justified the fears of some Thai analysts that the country is being torn apart by Thais attacking each other in political rage stemming from the clashes between a right-wing, anti-government protest movement and pro-government sympathizers.
On November 27, Somchai and two male friends had been drinking on the side of a road in a residential part of Samut Prakan, an industrial town south of Bangkok.
It was a little after 10 pm. Their conversation centered around the siege of Bangkok's international airport earlier in the week by the right-wing protesters, throttling the country's important tourism and economic lifelines. The three men were angered by this siege, which is still continuing.
It was then that Boonrak, a 70-year-old man from that neighborhood, appeared, according to an account in the Thai-language Daily News paper. He had overheard what Somchai and his friends were saying and did not agree.
Boonrak, according to the paper, was returning home after having spent the entire day at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, supporting the rightwing protesters. Boonrak tried to convince Somchai and his friends that they were wrong, but he was ignored by the three men.
Boonrak went home, returned with a gun and shot the three men, the paper said. Somchai, who was shot in the temple, died en route to the hospital. His two friends were shot in the back but survived.
Such murders arising from the political rage spreading through this country are becoming more frequent. Victims have come from both sides of the political divide, exposing fault lines where the anger between the pro- and anti- government is so bitter that efforts to strike a compromise by some neutral academics have made little headway.
The day before Somchai was killed, a staunch supporter of the anti-government movement was killed in a knife attack by pro-government sympathizers in the northern city of Chiang Mai. "(They) physically attacked him 15 times before killing (him),'' said Terdsak Jiamkitwattana, about his father, Settha, in a petition presented to the Senate human rights committee, according to the local media.
A pre-dawn bomb attack on Sunday at an anti-government protest site—the prime minister's office—resulted in 48 people injured. A similar attack, when an improvised explosive devise had been fired on to the same site, occurred earlier. And a satellite television station, the mouthpiece of the anti-government protesters, had a grenade lobbed into its premises.
Fears of more Thai-upon-Thai violence increased this week after reports emerged of the police apprehending vehicles driven by anti-government supporters that had weapons and implements meant for an assault.
One vehicle caught by the police on Friday had an Uzi submachine gun, homemade guns, ammunition, sling shots, bullet-proof vests and metal rods, a police source told IPS. The vehicle had the universally recognized Red Cross signs on its exterior to give the impression it was being used for medical emergencies.
The Uzi guns may have come from the armory of the police special branch unit in the prime minister's office, the police source added. The premier's office—or Government House, as it is known here—has been occupied by the anti-government protesters since late August. The 10 Uzi guns that were in the special branch's armory in Government House are reportedly missing, the police source revealed.
A few days before the car with the weapons was impounded, there was a clash between pro- and anti-government supporters on a wide street in northern Bangkok. Armed guards of the anti-government group were filmed on camera shooting at pro-government supporters with live rounds of bullets. Behind the men firing with revolvers was another anti-government supporter holding up a picture of the country's monarch.
The anti-government Peoples Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is backed by urban middle-class Thais, royalists and the entrenched elite. Its political agenda, which has a passionate following, goes against what its name implies. The PAD wants to slash the power of the vote and is calling for a military coup, the country's 19th.
Its successful siege of the Suvarnabhumi airport on November 25, which is still going on, was the latest in similar assaults that have been possible due to the impunity it enjoys to break the laws of the country. The PAD wants to bring down the coalition government elected last December with this stranglehold.
But this has worsened the anger in many pro-government strongholds, most of which are in the poorer north-eastern belts, such as Khon Kaen, where the forced closure of the airport has taken anti-PAD anger to new levels. “It is clear that there is growing impatience among many people against the PAD and its antics,'' says David Streckfuss, a US academic specializing in Thai political culture, currently based in Khon Kaen.
"People who were normally not interested in politics, like the woman who sells grilled chicken, the tailor, the owner of a shrimp restaurant are getting more politically involved,'' he told IPS. "More and more, they are getting angry at the PAD.''
In fact, the Thai-against-Thai clashes over the differing political ideologies that the country is witnessing has ‘'shattered the myth of unity that has been papered over the many social and political cleavages in Thailand,'' said Streckfuss. "It was a myth propagated by the elites, whose idea of Thai unity was one of submission—the poor to the rich.''
Chaturon Chaiseng, a former cabinet minister and sympathizer of the government, warns of more clashes ahead as the prevailing political climate worsens. "The country will come close and closer to seeing more violence,'' he told a few journalists on Friday. "You will see things worse than this.''
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