Lively times in Bangkok
Posted: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 12:57 PM
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Bangkok, Thailand
By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent
These are strange times in Bangkok. The city’s still reeling from a series of New Year’s Eve bombs, Thailand’s military-appointed government is rapidly losing credibility -- and Eric Clapton has come to town.
The veteran blues star gave a cool and clinical performance Monday evening at a packed City stadium, which was surrounded by some of the tightest security I’ve seem during my time in the city.
Foreigners, who probably made up half the audience, seemed to take it in stride. Although in reality, the bombs have sent a chill through an expatriate community that had regarded the Thai capital as one of the safest cities in Asia, and had been rather blasé about the coup.
A sea of yellow for the king
Most of the Thais in the audience seemed to be wearing yellow, a sign of loyalty to the king (the Thai king, that is, not Clapton). In Thai tradition every day has a color, and Monday, the day King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born, is yellow.
But it also has a very political hue, since yellow was the color adopted by opponents of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in a September coup by soldiers wearing yellow ribbons around their rifles. Some of the leading coup plotters were close to the palace, which was quick to endorse the military takeover.
The king is revered here; criticism of him can land you in jail. Unlike in Britain, where the monarchy have become the best rated soap opera, Thai’s tend to look to the king in times of turbulence -- of which there have been many, the kingdom having clocked up 17 coups since 1932.
Growing uncertainty
The fact that Bangkok is a sea of yellow most Mondays is, though, more a sign of growing uncertainty, than continued support for a military-appointed government that’s struggling to build a corruption case against the administration they overthrew because of alleged massive graft.
They’ve alienated foreign investors with botched economic reforms, and investigations into the New Year’s Eve bombings seem to be going nowhere. Those bombs, nine in total, killed three people and injured scores. They were blamed on officials of the old regime, though it is more likely to have been the result of struggles for power within the army and police.
Deposed Prime Minister Thaksin has denied any involvement, though his words are banned from Thai television.
At a diplomatic party I attended over the weekend, just about everybody had a different theory, though most agreed it was unlikely that the bombings were related to an Islamic insurgency raging in Thailand’s deep south.
Military rule in Thailand has so far been pretty benign. Tourists will hardly notice the difference. The leaders of last September’s bloodless coup have enjoyed a bit of a honeymoon period, but that’s rapidly running out. The military-appointed prime minister has warned of more bombs, and former Prime Minister Thaksin, who was elected with a huge majority, retains enormous support among the rural poor.
Possible unrest ahead, but meantime, tune-in
We could be in for a lively year here. A number of top-notch international musicians have cancelled Thai concerts in recent weeks, blaming political unrest.
Not Clapton, though, and on Monday there seemed only one thing to do -- sit back, tune out of the rough and tumble of Bangkok, and tune into the music of one of the world’s greatest guitarists.
