- Today Marc 20, the Reds are planning another major protest in the heart of Bangkok. This time around, the protesters will be accompanied by thousands of vehicles to deliberately cause congestions in the city of Bangkok.
- Thousands of people and vehicles of Reds supporters are already in Bangkok. Leaders of the reds boasted that the procession would stretching to long as 80km involving about 20,000 vehicles and will start at 10.00am from Yommarat Bridge through different routes around the capital and return to Phan Fah Bridge at about 6pm. Leaders of the Reds said, they would not resort to violence in their protest and would not tresspass any government buildings.
The planned routes
Here they go again
- Leaders of the reds urge protesters to restraint themselves from using violence against any possible provocations or confrontation from the local residents but instead use the " No mad, no violence, no reaction but smile" approach and apologise politely to angry Bangkokians.
- Previous PM , Thaksin said this procession around the city was to "thank" Bangkok residents for their support and urge them to join the protestors to voice their displeasure for the government.
- Fearing that local residents might either join the protest or confront the protesters for disrupting their daily lives, the Mayor of Bangkok urged Bangkokians to stay indoor as much as possible.
- Protesters decided to cancel to march to two roads as they are too close to Siriraj Hospital where His Majesty King of Thailand is currently being warded. They have also reiterated that they would avoid Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
- Most businesses and shopping malls along the routes of protest remain open but some banks are close. A subway station has been closed and thus preventing the public from entering and leaving the station and it will remain closed until the protest is over at about 6pm.
- Official estimate of today's police released by the police
65,000 protesters, 10000 motorbikes and 7000 cars
- The protest ended without any untoward incident
- A minister from the government is scheduled to meet one of the leaders of the protesters on this coming Monday
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The after effects ( since day 1 )
(a) Producer of Chang beer, Thai Beverage Public Co. Ltd. claims that beer consumption has slowed significantly since the protest started because more people stayed at home instead of heading out to drink during the protest period. The company says that people disregarded promotions that they could get and chose to stay at home for fear of the demonstration getting out of control
(b) The Thai Hotels Association says that hotel rooms reservations in Bangkok has fallen 10-20 per cent since the protest started and hotels in the city received an average of 1000 cancellations per day. This drop in hotel reservations was attributed to the fear of foreign tourists of possible violence during the mass protest. However hotel bookings in other regions have not been affected and are enjoying normal rate in room bookings.
(c) The splashing of human blood by the red protesters a few days ago was widely criticised but a few days later that act has given an unexpected benefit. Thai Red Cross says that donations of blood for medical use has increased significantly in the last few days. The Director of Thai Red Cross Society National Blood Centre says that his centre received many calls from the public expressing their regret over the "wasted blood" and offered to donate theirs to the centre blood bank. He also says that some people who used to donate blood but had not done so for sometime were inspired to donate their blood now. Thais are generous when it comes to blood donation even in normal times. Thailand leads Asia in the amount of blood collected without offering any incentives
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