Chiang Mai Army Hunts Down ‘Red Buffalo’ Shirts
CHIANG MAI — Military officers in Chiang Mai are scouring every market in the city to search for ‘red buffalo’ t-shirts they say are causing a conflict in society.
The controversial t-shirts depict a red buffalo stamping on a cockroach in a symbolic representation of Thailand’s rival political factions
The controversial t-shirts depict a red buffalo stamping on a cockroach in a symbolic representation of Thailand’s rival political factions. Critics of the Redshirt movement commonly refer to its supporters as “buffalos,” a Thai idiom for “stupid people,” because many of the group’s members hail from Thailand’s rural North and Northeast. The opposing Yellowshirt faction is mostly composed of Bangkok-based middle and upper class elites.
The cockroach depicted on the t-shirt refers to Redshirts’ nickname for the Democrat Party, which is allied to the Yellowshirt movement. Redshirts commonly refer to the establishment-backed party as “the cockroach party” because it has been around for so long and “refuses to die.” The Democrat Party is the oldest political party in Thailand, although it has not won a national election for more than two decades.
Today, soldiers were dispatched to all of Chiang Mai city’s markets, including Ton Lam Yai market and Warorot market, to search clothes shops for the “offensive” t-shirts that have become popular among Redshirt activists in Chiang Mai province.
A leader of the local Redshirt group “Love Chiang Mai 51″ said some Redshirts were told that the shirts violate the atmosphere of reconciliation imposed by the military junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). The activist advised all Redshirt supporters to refrain from wearing the shirts for their own safety. Read More …..
Five soldiers in Chiang Mai province forced a squid vendor to remove his red t-shirt screened with a face of the red shirt leader Chatuporn Prompan.