Thai "yellow shirts" leader jailed for two years

[CrazyExpat]

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai court sentenced the founder of Thailand's "yellow shirts" political movement to two years in prison for defamation on Thursday, before freeing him on bail pending an appeal.

The Criminal Court found media maverick Sondhi Limthongkul guilty of defaming former finance minister Pridiyathorn Devakula by publishing a newspaper commentary critical of his actions while in office.

Pridiyathorn, also a former Bank of Thailand governor, was awarded the cabinet position by the military after the 2006 coup that ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

A senior member of Sondhi's yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose prolonged street protests against Thaksin led to the coup, said Sondhi would fight the charges.

"The court has released him on bail and he has returned home," Suriyasai Katasila told Reuters. "He's preparing to appeal the decision."

Sondhi, 61, has been at the forefront of the anti-Thaksin movement, using his television, radio, print and online media outlets to attack his opponents and drum up support for the royalist PAD.

He is also under investigation for his part in the PAD's week-long occupation of Bangkok's airports last year, which stranded more than 230,000 travelers, disrupted trade flows and caused massive damage to Thailand's vital tourism industry.

Sondhi, a former business associate of Thaksin, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in April, suffering only a head wound when his car was riddled with bullets.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Jerry Norton)

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58939D20090910

[nyoen]

what is yellow shirt ? and why must yellow ? maybe you know ? i'm sorry because i didn't know.

[lvdkeyes]

The yellow shirts are the people who are loyal to the King. They chose yellow because that is the color for the King. Each day of the week has a specific color associated with it. Your color depends on the day of the week when you were born. The King was born on a Monday, so it's yellow. The Queen was born on a Friday so her color is blue. I was born on a Sunday so my color is red. Wear a red shirt on Sundays to show respect for me. LOL Joke!

[Bob]

I'm a Sunday product too, lvdkeyes, so I guess we're "see daeng" kinda guys.

But I think your description of the "yellow shirts" is slightly incomplete/incorrect. Yellow is the Thai color for Monday and, for many years, Thais of all persuasions wore yellow on Monday to honor the King as he was born on a Monday. However, since 2004, a poltical group led originally by wacko Sondhi Limongkul, arose calling itself the "PAD" which stood for "Peoples Alliance for Democracy."

PAD elected to wear yellow and it is that group that is now known as the "yellow shirts." They cloaked themselves in yellow really for two reasons: (1) to assert they are the true lovers of the King and (2) to claim all of their enemies (like the deposed Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra) are against the King.

I'll keep this short and not go into the history of Sondhi Limongkul (but maybe you ought to google him and read about him as he's a real sorry piece of work) but I do wish to make one important comment about the PAD group. One of their basic tenets is that they want 70% of the upper house of the Thai legislature appointed and not elected. Why? Because, frankly, they don't trust the Thai voters to elect a proper leader (after all, about 70% voted for Shinawatra during the last legitimate election). And, in spite of being asked, they've never indicated who would "appoint" those legislators (but everyone has presumed it would be the elite of Thailand closely aligned with the military).

PAD's claim to be "for democracy" yet they don't want 70% of the one house of parliament elected shows their basic dishonesty. As noted in a reference in one Wikopedia article on the PAD: "The Asian Human Rights Commission has noted of the PAD and their agenda that, 'although they may not describe themselves as fascist, have fascist qualities'."

By the way, it was PAD that effectively caused the army coup against Shinawatra, it was PAD who took over Government House, it was PAD who closed the international airport, and it currently is PAD causing the trouble at the Thai/Cambodian border.

[lvdkeyes]

I am not sure where I was incorrect/incomplete in my posting.

[Bob]

No big deal but the poster was asking who the "yellow shirts" were (and I believe, in context, he was asking what they meant by the "yellow shirts" in the newspaper article quoted. They're the PAD. Just like the "red shirts" are supporters of Shinawatra/Samak.

People who wear yellow shirts on a Monday aren't necessarily part of PAD (and, historically, those that did wear yellow on Monday were simply showing respect for the King).

[Thaifan]

I think it is very sad that many people - myself included- have stopped wearing a yellow shirt on Mondays. This doesn't mean we no longer respect the King - indeed I have a lot of respect for him - but because we don't want to be associated with the PAD.

Very sad though his illness is at least I can show my respect for the King now because I can wear a pink shirt to wish he gets well soon and pink shirts luckily have no 'political' connotations.

The main article about the PAD Leader again shows unfair treatment. All the PAD should be in jail because of the severe damage they did Thailand by the Airport occupation. The Courts were right to find him guilty and are following the law which if the PAD had their way would be changed. Unfortunately he is still not in jail - oh what a shame. The previous posting is very accurate and the PAD would destroy Thailands democracy if they had their way and 'appointed' all their supporters to 'govern' Thailand. I am not a red shirt supporter either but somebody needs to protect us from the PAD. If the King was younger and fitter I know he would be pushing for a middle path following Buddhist philosophy to guide us through this dreadful political crisis. I did hope perhaps the Prime Minister would be the one to take this middle road and bring Thailand back together and reach a compromise that could satisfy red and yellow shirt supporters, but unfortunately he has demonstrated that he is too closely allied to the 'yellow shirts' by appointing PAD supporters to key Government positions. (Our Foreign Minister should also be in prison for taking part in the Airport fiasco)!!!