During his visit to Silom Road yesterday, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij was greeted with boisterous complaints from street vendors who said they were suffering severely from the red-shirt protests.
The politicians first gathered at the Sala Daeng BTS station, just about 200 metres from the red-shirt barricade, before commencing on a highly guarded walk down Silom Road toward the Bangkok Bank headquarters.
Along the way, passers-by started clapping to show their support for Korn, while some called out saying the government "should not yield to the red shirts' demands".
One vendor yelled that he was "going broke and if the government does not help, I'm going to starve to death".
A middle-aged female vendor also shouted out: "When will the government take action? The country is in chaos."
When Korn replied, saying "please be patient", she snapped back: "I can't tolerate it anymore."
A foreigner told Korn: "There is no government in the world that allows a mob to storm into a hospital", but got no response.