BANGKOK (Reuters) – Protesters trying to topple Thailand‘s government tightened a blockade around ministries on Tuesday and their leader warned the prime minister that she could be targeted next, as some saw more than two months of turmoil inching towards an endgame.
Major intersections in the capital, Bangkok, were blocked for a second day, and a hardline faction of the agitators threatened to storm the stock exchange.
Protest leaders say demonstrators will occupy the city’s main arteries until an unelected “people’s council” replaces Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration, which they accuse of corruption and nepotism.
The unrest is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict pitting the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier ousted by the military in 2006.
Although the capital was calm and the mood among the tens of thousands of protesters remained festive, analysts said the scope for a peaceful resolution of the crisis ahead of elections called for February 2 was narrowing.
“There is no clear way out,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank said in a report. “As anti-government protesters intensify actions, the risk of violence across wide swathes of the country is growing and significant.”
Plans to paralyze the government
Ministries and the central bank have been forced to operate from back-up offices after protesters led by Suthep Thaugsuban stopped civil servants getting to work.
“In the next two or three days we must close every government office,” Suthep told a crowd of supporters. “If we cannot, we will restrict the movements of the prime minister and other ministers. We will start by cutting water and electricity to their homes. I suggest they evacuate their children.”
Groups of demonstrators marched peacefully from their seven big protest camps to ministries, the customs office, the planning agency and other state bodies on Tuesday, aiming to paralyze the workings of government.
A student group allied to Suthep’s People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) threatened to attack the stock exchange, with faction leader Nitithorn Lamlua telling supporters on Monday it represented “a wicked capitalist system that provided the path for Thaksin to become a billionaire.”
A PDRC spokesman said the bourse was not a target.
“We will not lay siege to places that provide services for the general public, including airports, the stock exchange and trains. However, we will block government offices to stop them from functioning,” Akanat Promphan told supporters at a rally.
Jarumporn Chotikasathien, president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said emergency measures had been prepared to secure the premises and trading systems. Trading was normal with the index up nearly 1.0 percent at the close.
Protesters want “people’s council,” not elections
Yingluck invited protest leaders and political parties to a meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss an Election Commission proposal to postpone the election until May.
But that proposal looked doomed, with protest leaders and opposition party members boycotting the meeting scheduled to be held at the air force’s headquarters in the north of the city.
Suthep says he is not interested in any election. He wants a “people’s council” to take power and eradicate the political influence of Thaksin and his family by altering electoral arrangements in ways he has not spelt out.
“A deal to postpone the election could buy time for negotiation but would be only a stopgap without a comprehensive, broadly accepted agreement on the future political order,” the ICG said. “Thailand is deeply polarized and the prospects for such an agreement are dim.”
It is widely thought that, if the agitation grinds on, the judiciary or the military may step in. The military has staged or attempted 18 coups in 81 years of on-off democracy, although it has tried to stay neutral this time and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has publicly refused to take sides.
In 2010, the army put down a pro-Thaksin movement that closed down parts of central Bangkok for weeks. More than 90 people, mostly Thaksin supporters, died during those events.
(Additional reporting by Pairat Temphairojana and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Alan Raybould and John Chalmers; Editing by Nick Macfie and Robert Birsel)
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/thailand/140114/thai-protesters-target-ministries-threaten-stock-
Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters
The opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, sitting, second from left, and fellow party members at a news conference at the Democrat Party headquarters in Bangkok on Sunday.
BANGKOK — The Democrat Party, Thailand’s oldest and the main force behind the country’s political opposition, announced on Sunday that its members would resign from Parliament and join anti-government street demonstrations, deepening the political turmoil that has left five people dead and hundreds injured over the past two weeks.
The Democrats have been deeply frustrated by their inability to win elections against the powerful political machine backed by the billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who now lives in exile. The party’s decision to withdraw from Parliament is the latest sign of the skepticism of Thailand’s democratic process that is spreading among the opposition and many members of the Thai elite.
“We cannot beat them,” said Theptai Seanapong, one of the members of Parliament who resigned on Sunday. “It doesn’t matter if we raise our hands and feet in parliamentary votes, we will never win.”
The mistrust of electoral politics has echoes across the region — in Malaysia, where the governing party has heavily gerrymandered the electoral map, and in Cambodia, where the authoritarian prime minister, Hun Sen, has used the machinery of the state and military to bolster his power. The Cambodian opposition continues to boycott Parliament over allegations of widespread electoral fraud in July elections.
One major difference in Thailand is that there is little dispute that Mr. Thaksin’s party has won the hearts of the majority of voters. By tailoring its policies to voters in the provinces, especially in northern Thailand, scholars say, the governing Pheu Thai party has convincingly won every election since 2001.
The move by the Democrat Party to abandon the House of Representatives leaves more than 340 seats still occupied, above the threshold of 250 members needed to conduct votes. The party said 152 Democrats would resign. There is very little chance that measures backed by the government will be blocked because the governing coalition controls about 300 of the 500 seats in the House.
But the Democrat Party will now inject its resources and prestige into the volatile street protests, which are set to continue after a call for a mass gathering on Monday with the aim of taking over the prime minister’s office.
Thai news media reported on Sunday that protesters were arriving in the capital from the provinces, especially southern Thailand, the stronghold of the Democrat Party.
As Thailand’s peak tourism season gets underway, embassies have advised their citizens to avoid the protest areas, and Bangkok’s main airport has alerted travelers that they should leave for the airport at least four hours before their flights are scheduled to depart.
The Democrat Party has many grievances with Mr. Thaksin’s party, including what it considers the railroading of some spending bills, voting procedures in Parliament that a court has called illegal and the furtive passage of important laws in the early hours of the morning.
But for a party that has long cultivated a genteel and intellectual image and advocated resolving differences inside Parliament, the decision to take to the streets was contentious within its own ranks. A number of key members of the party were not present at the meeting on Sunday.
Yet the party’s move has parallels — and worrying similarities, some observers believe — to a move the party made seven years ago.
Amid a campaign of street protests against Mr. Thaksin, then the prime minister, the Democrat Party boycotted elections in April 2006. Five months later, Mr. Thaksin was deposed in a military coup.
During the current round of demonstrations, protest leaders have courted the military, and many protesters have openly called for another coup. But until now, the army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, has appeared wary of intervening in the crisis.
A Thai newspaper, the Post Today, reported on Sunday that General Prayuth had said a coup would not solve the country’s problems.
“We must be patient and seek a peaceful solution,” the paper quoted him as saying.
The protesters’ hope for royal intervention has also not had results.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has intervened in political standoffs in the past but is now ailing, did not specifically address the protests in a speech given on his 86th birthday on Thursday.
Mr. Thaksin also appears to be going out of his way to patch up any perceived differences with the royal family. After several weeks of public silence, he posted a comment on his Facebook page on Saturday denying claims that he had ever been disloyal to the royal family.
“I would like to insist here that I’ve never even thought to reproach any member of the royal family because I received their royal graces all along,” he said.
Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is Mr. Thaksin’s sister, said on Sunday that she would consider calling elections, a move that other members of her government had rejected in recent days.
Until now, protest leaders have spurned the notion of elections, and many opposition leaders freely admit that they cannot overcome the electoral power of Mr. Thaksin’s party.
Instead, the protest leaders are calling for a system that would replace the country’s electoral democracy with a vaguely defined “people’s council,” a plan that has been widely derided by civic leaders and scholars as idealistic, unworkable and retrograde.
Ms. Yingluck said on Sunday that the country would have to hold a referendum for any such plan to be considered.
Her administration has earned plaudits from foreign government for its handling of the crisis in the face of aggressive moves by the protesters, who have taken over the Finance Ministry, occupied a large government complex on the outskirts of the city and temporarily cut power to a number of state-owned buildings, including the police headquarters.
The police say that the five deaths that occurred were caused by shootings among competing groups of protesters.
At the height of the violent confrontations between protesters and the riot police last week, the European Union said the authorities’ actions had been “restrained and proportionate.”
An Anti-government protester waves Thai National Flag under water cannon fired by police during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. After a weekend of chaos in pockets of Bangkok, protesters vowed to push ahead with plans to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by occupying her office compound along with other key government buildings. Police again used tear gas on thousands of protesters on Monday after repeatedly driving them back with similar attacks throughout Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
An Anti-government protester waves Thai National Flag under water cannon fired by police during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. After a weekend of chaos in pockets of Bangkok, protesters vowed to push ahead with plans to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by occupying her office compound along with other key government buildings. Police again used tear gas on thousands of protesters on Monday after repeatedly driving them back with similar attacks throughout Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
An Anti-government protester falls as he is hit by water cannon by police in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec 2, 2013. After a weekend of chaos in pockets of Bangkok, protesters vowed to push ahead with plans to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by occupying her office compound along with other key government buildings. Police again used tear gas on thousands of protesters on Monday after repeatedly driving them back with similar attacks throughout Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
Anti-government protesters wave Thai national flag during a protest rally in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. After a weekend of chaos in pockets of Bangkok, protesters vowed to push ahead with plans to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by occupying her office compound along with other key government buildings. Police again used tear gas on thousands of protesters on Monday after repeatedly driving them back with similar attacks throughout Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
An anti-government protester waits near the compound of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s office in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec 2, 2013. The leader of Thailand’s anti-government protests said unexpectedly that he had met the prime minister Sunday after daylong clashes between his supporters and police but defiantly told her he would accept nothing less than having her elected government step down to be replaced by an appointed council. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
An anti-government protester walks next to a destroyed police truck near the compound of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s office in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. The leader of Thailand’s anti-government protests said unexpectedly that he had met the prime minister Sunday after daylong clashes between his supporters and police but defiantly told her he would accept nothing less than having her elected government step down to be replaced by an appointed council. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
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BANGKOK (AP) — A firebrand opposition leader vowed Monday to escalate his campaign to topple Thailand’s government, and ordered his followers to storm Bangkok’s police headquarters after they fought all day with riot police protecting heavily barricaded key buildings.
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she is willing to do anything it takes to end the violent protests but made it clear she cannot accept the opposition’s demand to hand power to an unelected council. Yingluck was elected with an overwhelming majority in 2011, and many observers see the protesters’ demand as unreasonable if not outlandish.
“Right now we don’t see any way to resolve the problem under the constitution,” she said in the brief 12-minute news conference televised live.
Yingluck’s comments highlighted the unusual political deadlock Thailand finds itself in with no clear solution in sight. The standoff intensified as protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban gave a defiant speech late Monday to thousands of cheering supporters at a government complex they seized last week when the anti-government demonstrations started.
The protests have renewed fears of prolonged instability in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy and comes just ahead of the peak holiday tourist season.
Even if Yingluck dissolves parliament and calls fresh elections, Suthep said, he will “continue the fight … because they can always come back to suck the blood of people, steal from people, disrespect the constitution and make us their slaves.”
“If people are happy with elections and go home, I will remain here alone,” he said.
Earlier Monday, protesters commandeered garbage trucks and bulldozers, and tried to ram concrete barriers at the Government House and other key offices. Police repelled them by firing tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets, as protesters shot back explosives from homemade rocket launchers.
At least three people were killed and more than 200 injured in the past three days of violence, which capped a week of massive street rallies that drew crowds of more than 100,000 at their peak. A Bangkok hospital confirmed that two of the people they treated Monday had suffered gunshot wounds, but it is not clear who shot them. The police say they have not used live rounds.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is “concerned” about the situation in Thailand and urges all sides to exercise “utmost restraint,” his spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said.
The protesters, who are mostly middle-class Bangkok supporters of the opposition Democrat Party, accuse Yingluck of being a proxy for her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. He was deposed in a 2006 military coup but remains central to Thailand’s political crisis, and is a focal point for the protester’s hatred.
The protesters say their goal is to uproot the political machine of Thaksin, who is accused of widespread corruption and abuse of power.
“Come and join the people to get rid of the Thaksin regime and we can work together to change Thailand into a pure and democratic country,” said Suthep who has projected his fight as a non-violent campaign for democracy.
Still, he called on his supporters to attack and take over the Bangkok Metropolitan Police headquarters on Tuesday, saying the police were a lackey of Thaksin and Yingluck.
“We’re going to gather all our forces and we’re going to take over the Metropolitan Police Bureau and make it the people’s,” he said.
Monday’s violence took place around key institutions — the Government House, the Parliament and Metropolitan Police Bureau in the historic quarter of the capital. The area has some of Bangkok’s main tourist attractions such as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho temple, the Bangkok zoo, and the backpacker area of Khao San Road. Most of Bangkok, a city of 10 million, has been unaffected.
Analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak told The Associated Press that while Suthep’s demands may appear “bold and blatant,” they go down well with the people … who think that the electoral system can never be trusted and therefore they have to set up their own government and rewrite the rules.”
The protesters’ numbers have dwindled from a peak of 100,000-plus a week ago but hardcore groups have remained at the frontline, fighting running battles with the police.
In her news conference, Yingluck stuck a conciliatory tone, repeatedly pleading for negotiations, and implied she was willing to hold fresh elections if that helped.
“I am not against either resignation or dissolution of parliament if this solution will stop the protests,” she said. “The government is not trying to cling to power.”
“If there’s anything I can do to bring peace back to the Thai people I am happy to do it,” Yingluck said. “The government is more than willing to have talks, but I myself cannot see a way out of this problem that is within the law and in the constitution.”
She and Suthep met briefly on Sunday in the presence of top military leaders, even though he had an arrest warrant against him. A second arrest warrant was issued Monday on charges of insurrection. His sustained campaign has raised suggestions that he may have the backing of the military, which has long had a powerful influence over Thai politics. The army has often stepped in during times of crisis, carrying out 18 successful or attempted coups since the 1930s.
But this time, if the army does anything, “it will be with great hesitation” because it would have no support internationally and would find it tough to install a new civilian government acceptable to all, said Thitinan, director of Chulalongkorn’s Institute of Security and International Studies.
“So this is something the army wants to avoid. It has stayed on the sidelines for now. And if it does (act), I think we can look at more turmoil down the road, I am afraid,” he said.
Political instability has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Thaksin, who remains hugely popular among rural voters, in 2006. Two years later, anti-Thaksin protesters occupied Bangkok’s two airports for a week after taking over the prime minister’s office for three months, and in 2010 pro-Thaksin protesters occupied downtown Bangkok for weeks in a standoff that ended with parts of the city in flames and more than 90 dead.
“I believe that no one wants to see a repeat of history, where we saw the people suffer and lose their lives,” Yingluck said.
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Associated Press writers Vijay Joshi, Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck, Papitchaya Boonngok and Raul Gallego Abellan contributed to this report.
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(AP) – Aggressive political protests in the Thai capital turned violent late today with at least one man killed and five wounded by gunshots in street fighting between supporters and opponents of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. It was not immediately known who fired the shots or what side the victims were on. National Police Deputy Spokesman Anucha Romyanan said the dead man was a 21-year-old male with two bullet wounds.
The demonstrators are seeking to topple Yingluck’s government, and the authorities have exercised extreme restraint over the past week as the protesters besieged and occupied parts of various government ministries and offices, aware that using force could tip public opinion and perhaps become an excuse for the military to take power in the name of restoring order. Conventional wisdom in the Thai capital has been that the protesters have been seeking that. The shootings tonight occurred after scattered violence during the day involving government opponents attacking several people they believed were going to a rally at a stadium of “Red Shirt” government supporters.
AP
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