Wanchai Paipanna, founder of the pro-government group ‘Udon Lovers’ in front of about 30 000 members of his group.

Nicholas Farrelly - 14 Sep, 2008

Asia, Thailand, Udon Thani, Politics, Wanchai Paipanna, founder of the pro-government group ‘Udon Lovers’ in front of about 30 000 members of his group. He claims that his group has 200 000 members altogether. The Udon Lovers came into the media when about one and a half months before they staged a brutal attack on PAD anti government protesters in Udon Thani. Udon Lovers aim is to protect the province from anti government protest group PAD. Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravejя┐╜s government held a cabinet meeting in the provincial town of Udon Thani. On the eve before the scheduled meeting he was greeted by about 30 000 of his supporters, most of the я┐╜Udon Loversя┐╜ a pro government group based in Udon Thani. 8/9/2008, я┐╜ 2008, Nick Nostitz/Agentur Focus

About the Author
Nicholas Farrelly
Dr Nicholas Farrelly is the co-founder of New Mandala. A graduate of the Australian National University and the University of Oxford, over the past 20 years he has undertaken research in Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and India. Nicholas is Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania and formerly the Associate Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, where he also led the ANU Myanmar Research Centre from 2015 to 2017.
New Mandala is supported by the Australian National University (ANU), a world-leading centre of research and teaching on Southeast Asia that has hosted the site since its founding in 2006. New Mandala's editors make editorial decisions independently of the ANU, and the views expressed at New Mandala are solely those of contributors and do not represent the institutional position(s) of the ANU or any of its constituent parts.
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