EDITORIAL
UDD out to ruin image
- Published: 11/04/2009 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: News
The red-shirted protesters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) brought shame on themselves and the whole country when hundreds of their supporters stormed through the police cordon and besieged the venue of the Asean summit in Pattaya yesterday.
It escapes logic why the red shirts would want to ruin the country's hard-earned reputation and prestige as chair and host of the regional bloc, with their reckless actions. Do they think they can achieve the kind of democracy they are hollering for by shaming the Abhisit government in the eyes of foreign heads of state and government leaders? Do they think Thailand's duties and obligations in ensuring that the summit proceed smoothly and successfully are not theirs to honour as well?
While the red shirts have the legal right to assemble and air their grievances peacefully under our democratic constitution, that permit expired once they took their liberty so far that it trampled on other people's rights. The closure of major streets in Bangkok on Thursday which caused severe traffic jams and essentially kept city people, including patients and doctors at hospitals, trapped was unacceptable.
The brazen breach of the security cordon to get to the summit venue _ to what purpose only the protesters and their leaders know _ risks reducing the mass protest from an altruistic campaign for democracy (as they claim) into a self-serving endeavour with no regard for the national interest.
For the UDD's protest leader in Pattaya, Arismun Pongreungrong, to assert that the protesters ''are civilised'' and that they were not there to disrupt the summit, is plain poppycock. If the protesters were true to their claim _ that they were doing all this for the sake of Thai democracy _ then what was the point of demanding that a representative from one of the 15 countries participating in the meeting _ excluding Thailand _ come out to receive a letter from them? Is the protest not supposed to be a problem between them and the Abhisit government? Also, if they did not plan to disrupt the meeting, why was there the need to break through the barricade and soldier lines until they were directly outside the convention centre?
If they had wanted to tell the world that they did not consider this government as their representative, a peaceful gathering should have been enough.
The summit, which officially started yesterday, brings together the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. It is by all means an important event and a forum in which problems can be solved, agreements forged and relations strengthened _ all for the benefit of both the Thai people and those in the region.
The focus of this summit will be on how best to tackle the global financial crisis which has affected all the countries in the region. But with the red-clad protesters clamouring just outside the foyer of the meeting hall, and with the government's attention divided between the discussions at hand and the need to ensure that the summit proceeds safely and smoothly, that worthy aim could be diminished.
The UDD and its red-shirted supporters have crossed a few lines in this latest leg of their protest, offences for which they must be held accountable.
But with the sanctity of national interest held therein, the Asean summit venue is the one inviolable line which the red shirts cannot be allowed to cross.
