Thailand seizes bowls in Thaksin strike
Print Edition
THAI authorities have confiscated some 8,000 red bowls bearing a message from an ousted ex-premier, police said yesterday, in the government’s latest attempt to block the resurgence of the political party it toppled.
The raids followed the arrest last week of a woman seen posing with one of the bowls in photos on social media. She has been charged with sedition.
The plastic scoops, used for pouring water in Buddhist ceremonies during Thailand’s upcoming new year, bear a note signed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose political bloc has spent the past decade vying for power with a military-backed elite.
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives in exile, while the government run by his sister Yingluck was toppled in 2014 by the present government.
The bowls — cast in the Shinawatras’ signature red color — were first distributed at a temple fair last week in the northern province of Chiang Mai.
The message printed on the side reads: “The situation may be hot, but brothers and sisters may gain coolness from the water inside this bucket.”
On Saturday police and soldiers raided homes and offices of three former MPs from the Shinawatras’ Puea Thai Party in the northern province of Nan to seize the bowls.
In a social media post yesterday Thaksin urged the junta to focus on more important matters. “I’ve done it (given out bowls) several times in the past and it never posed a problem to national security,” he wrote, suggesting the government spend its time “tackling” other issues such as an ongoing drought and a simmering Muslim insurgency in the south.
The woman arrested last week could be jailed for up to seven years if convicted of sedition.
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