Junta threat fails to water down Thais’ festival zeal
Print Edition
THAIS and tourists took to the streets yesterday to drench each other in a mass water fight marking the country’s new year, as authorities attempted to crack down on alcohol, topless dancers and other “indecencies.”
The three-day Songkran festival is traditionally celebrated across the country by paying respects to elders and visiting temples to sprinkle water over Buddha figures.
But the holiday, which takes place at the peak of Thailand’s sweltering dry season, is also known as one of the world’s biggest water fights.
Every year massive crowds of revellers descend on the streets to battle each other with brightly colored plastic water guns and douse passersby.
This time revellers also faced threats from police to arrest scantily clad women and ban alcohol from the raucous street bashes, in a bid to return the festival to its traditional roots.
The clean-up crusade was ordered by junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, whose military government has launched a streak of public morality campaigns since seizing power in 2014.
After surveying Bangkok’s downtown Silom district yesterday afternoon, the city’s police chief Sanit Mahathavorn reported the scene of some 30,000 partygoers to be “orderly.”
“We tend to compromise on the little things,” he said, adding that 430 officers had been deployed to monitor the area.
Bikini-clad women
Police detain several bikini-clad women taking part in the water warfare.
The police chief stressed that any “lewd acts,” including the topless dancing that has been a feature of previous Songkran parties, would be punished severely. “We will indict every case because it is destroying our country’s image,” he said.
Authorities have also urged the public to spray water more sparingly this year, as the country is currently in the grip of the worst drought in decades.
But efforts to block the deluge in Bangkok appeared largely fruitless, with water-soaked street parties in full swing across the capital by midday.
Hoses and buckets were also out in neighboring Myanmar, one of several other Buddhist countries in the region to celebrate the festival.
The Thai government has also ramped up a campaign this year to crack down on drunk driving, which soars during the Songkran week and sees hundreds killed every year.
It is one of two periods dubbed the “Seven Deadly Days” by the government and press — the other being Western New Year.
Officials said 116 people have been killed and nearly 1,000 injured over the past two days on Thai roads, which are among the world’s most dangerous.
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