Today's Radio Editorial - Bloody Sonkran

This is our editorial in print for Monday April 1


Following their catastrophic failure to provide even the vestiges of security for the Asean summit leaders the Abhisit government declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, rather than admitting their total incompetent failure by resigning and calling an election.

In a move that could only be described as a retaliatory operation to deflect the criticism and save some face for the botched security at Asean, Abhisit and the government ordered fully armed troops with real bullets into the fray. The troops started firing and at airtime 77 people were injured some seriously. For those that did not previously agree that the Military brokered the deal to put Abhisit into power now have their evidence that the military would make a deal with the devil to cling to power and get their new toys and a bigger budget, a budget that they used to overthrow the government in 2006 and to shoot at protesters today.

Abhisit now has his dream of going down in Thai history as another Burmaesque leader that tried to quell Democracy with the use of bullets and force rather than at the ballot box, this is now Thailand's "Bloody Sonkran".