A row between Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra and flooded residents of Pathum Thani heated up yesterday Nov. 29.
The governor refused to negotiate with the residents because they opened the Khlong Phraya Suren sluice gate to 1.5 meters without permission, the Bangkok Post reported. Sukhumbhand said he wouldn’t talk to protestors until they lowered the gate to one meter, as he had ordered, and spoke out against mob rule.
The governor made the statement of refusal after Red Shirt leaders from Pathum Thani demanded to meet him to discuss the sluice gate. The Red Shirt leaders included Kotthammakhun, Sornsak Malai, and Sa-ngiam Samranrat, a staff member of the Flood Relief Operations Center (FROC) and a member of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s Office.
The Red Shirt chiefs led a group of about 200 residents from Pathum Thani’s Lum Luk Ka district raised the get to 1.5 meters on Monday night after it was lowered to one meter on the order of the governor earlier in the day.
The night before that on Sunday, a group of 30 people led by Sa-ngiam had raised the sluice gate to 1.5 meters, supposedly on the order of the Prime Minister and FROC director Pracha Promnok.
