Escalating Thailand protests seek to unseat Yingluck Shinawatra; Thai political protests spread outside Bangkok

November 26, 2013 11:11 am

Escalating Thailand protests seek to unseat Yingluck Shinawatra

By Michael Peel in Bangkok

Thai opposition protesters have stepped up their campaign to paralyse and oust the government, defying an arrest warrant issued against the leader of demonstrations that have reignited a bitter power struggle in southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. As Yingluck Shinawatra, prime minister, battled a parliamentary no-confidence motion on Tuesday, anti-government activists built on this week’s occupation of the finance ministry by blockading the interior ministry and forcing the transport, agriculture and tourism departments to close.While police won permission to seize Suthep Thaugsuban, architect of the campaign to occupy official buildings and oust Ms Yingluck, the government’s response remained muted as it sought to quell the latest surge in a political conflict that has flickered and flared on Thailand’s streets for years.

Pitch Pongsawat, assistant professor in government at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said the blockading of official buildings was a “tactical move” by the opposition, aimed – like a similar effort in 2008 – at exploiting its relatively strong support among the capital’s urban middle classes.

“The government needs to be careful, because Bangkok is not its city,” Mr Pitch said.

Thousands of protesters surrounded the interior ministry, triggering the building’s security team to lock themselves and other departmental employees inside. Speaking to reporters outside the opposition encampment in the finance ministry, Akanat Promphan, a demonstration spokesman, said there would be further seizures of government offices on Wednesday as part of a “nationwide movement” to bring down the “regime” of Ms Yingluck and her older brother, the fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Police said a criminal court issued an arrest warrant over the role in the ministry occupations of Mr Suthep, a former deputy prime minister who is already fighting a murder charge laid against him in October over killings of protesters in 2010 when he was in government.

Both the Thai baht and the benchmark SET stock market index rallied after falls on Monday, although many analysts remain worried about the impact of the political conflict on a weakening economy.

As the protesters gathered on the streets opposition MPs took to the floor of parliament to call on Ms Yingluck to stand down. The prime minister – who is unlikely to lose the vote, as her Puea Thai party controls the lower house – called for calm and negotiations with the protest leaders. “If we can talk, I believe the country will return to normal,’’ she said.

The government needs to be careful, because Bangkok is not its city

– Pitch Pongsawat, Chulalongkorn University

The government has this week expanded special security powers allowing it to impose curfews, seal off roads and ban electronic devices in sensitive areas, but police have so far held back from confronting protesters. Memories are raw on all sides of the 2010 Bangkok street battles that left about 90 people dead – many of them Thaksin supporters.

While opposition protests in the capital this week numbered 150,000 or more, the government still enjoys significant support in poorer rural areas of a country of more than 65m people.

Mr Thaksin’s five-year rule ended in a military coup in 2006 and a corruption conviction in 2008, but he still dominates domestic politics from his self-exile in Dubai. His time in power opened fissures in Thai society as complex as the man himself, an authoritarian plutocrat who cast himself as champion of the underdog and poured money into Thailand’s predominantly agricultural north.

Thai political protests spread outside Bangkok

POSTED: 27 Nov 2013 13:35
Thai political protests spread outside the capital Wednesday as opposition demonstrators predicted a victory within days in their bid to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s crisis-hit government.

BANGKOK: Thai political protests spread outside the capital Wednesday as opposition demonstrators predicted a victory within days in their bid to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s crisis-hit government.

Raucous, whistle-blowing crowds have besieged government buildings to challenge Yingluck and her brother, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, in the biggest protests since mass street rallies in 2010 that turned deadly.

The turmoil comes as Yingluck’s embattled government faces a no-confidence motion in parliament introduced by the Democrats, who have not won an elected majority in parliament in about two decades.

While the demos have so far been largely peaceful, the fear is that they could descend into another bout of street violence in a country that has seen several episodes of political unrest since Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup.

The billionaire tycoon-turned-politician is adored by many of the country’s rural and urban working class. But he is reviled by many in the elite and the middle classes, who accuse him of being corrupt and a threat to the monarchy.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban urged protesters to march Wednesday on a large office complex on the northern outskirts of Bangkok that houses a number of government agencies, as the protests spread to several other provinces.

“We are very upbeat and I think we will win in a few days,” the former deputy premier and key opposition figure told reporters as he left his de facto headquarters at the occupied finance ministry.

Suthep on Tuesday called for the creation of an unelected administration to run the country, in the clearest indication yet that the demonstrators are seeking to suspend the democratic system.

“If we demolish the Thaksin regime… we will set up a people’s council which will come from people from every sector,” he said. “Then we will let the people’s council pick good people to be the prime minister and ministers.”

On Tuesday protesters surrounded the interior, agriculture, transport, and sports and tourism ministries, ordering officials inside to leave, a day after occupying the finance and foreign ministries.

A court has issued an arrest warrant for Suthep for his role in the seizures.

Demonstrators have also besieged several government offices in the opposition’s southern stronghold, including on the island of Phuket, a top destination for foreign tourists, where several hundred protesters massed Wednesday outside a provincial hall.

The no-confidence debate is set to continue in the Thai parliament Wednesday and the ruling Puea Thai party, which holds a comfortable majority, is expected to win the censure vote expected later in the week.

The recent protests were sparked by Puea Thai plans to introduce an amnesty that could have allowed the return from self-imposed exile of Thaksin.

The Senate blocked the controversial bill but demonstrators have since broadened their goal and now want to bring down the government.

Yingluck on Monday ordered the expansion across Bangkok of the Internal Security Act, which gives authorities additional powers to block routes, impose a curfew, ban gatherings and carry out searches.

Her Red Shirt supporters, who have held their own rally at a sports stadium in the capital, appeared to be losing patience with the growing protests although they have refrained from taking to the streets in the latest standoff.

“The current situation is near breaking point,” said Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan, calling for more supporters to join their gathering.

But “we will only move out (on to the streets) if there’s a coup,” he added.

Thai Protesters Vow to Rid Country of Thaksin’s Political Allies

The Thai protest leader who led a seizure of the nation’s finance ministry two days ago said his group won’t end street demonstrations until it dismantles the political machinery of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Suthep Thaugsuban, who oversaw a deadly crackdown on Thaksin supporters when he was deputy premier in 2010, called for a nationwide program of civil disobedience to bring down the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister whose Pheu Thai party won a parliamentary majority in elections in 2011.

“If they have no ministries or officials to work for them, this government will crumble,” Suthep told supporters in Bangkok late yesterday. “If nobody comes out to protest, we will become slaves of the Thaksin system forever.”

Yingluck and Pheu Thai party lawmakers will defend themselves in parliament for a second day today against accusations of economic mismanagement, corruption and attempting to pass amnesty legislation that would exonerate Thaksin of crimes he allegedly committed before being ousted in a 2006 coup. A confidence vote is scheduled for tomorrow.

Rallies that began a month ago against the amnesty for most political offenses stretching back to the coup have morphed into a wider push to end the “Thaksin system,” according to Suthep. Parties linked to Thaksin have won the past five elections on support from Thailand’s rural north-eastern provinces that are poorer and more populous than the rest of the country.

‘Nation’s Pillars’

The government “abuses its power by using majority control of parliament to destroy the nation’s pillars,” Suthep said, describing Thaksin’s allies as “commercial politicians” who win power by buying votes. “This government uses its majority to ignore the minority. We have to think about how to prevent corrupt people from getting into parliament.”

Thaksin’s opponents accused him of disrespecting the monarchy and using government agencies to attack his political foes while he was prime minister. He fled abuse of power charges in 2008 after a military-appointed panel accused him of helping his wife buy land from the government, and has guided government policy from abroad since his sister became leader.

Thaksin became a billionaire after winning a mobile-phone concession in 1990 for what became Thailand’s biggest operator. After entering politics, he appealed to voters in the poorer northeast region with cheap health care and small loans, a platform that underpinned his tenure as prime minister from 2001 until his ouster.

After the coup, courts dissolved two parties linked to Thaksin and banned about 200 political allies from holding office for five years, punishments that failed to dent his popular appeal.

Rice Prices

In July 2011, Yingluck’s Pheu Thai won 265 seats in the 500-seat parliament on pledges to raise the minimum wage and buy rice at above-market rates, the fifth straight win for Thaksin-linked parties.

Thailand has spent 688.8 billion baht ($21.5 billion) since Oct. 2011 buying 44 million tons of unmilled rice from farmers, according to government data. The program spurred the buildup of record reserves and dethroned the country as the largest exporter.

The SET Index (SET) of stocks has fallen 3.8 percent in the past five days, the most in Asia after the Philippines, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The baht reached 32.11 per dollar yesterday, the weakest level in 11 weeks.

Army Backing

Suthep resigned from the opposition Democrat party last month to lead the anti-government movement. The party also backed protesters who took over Bangkok’s airports in 2008 to oust Thaksin’s allies. As deputy premier two years later, Suthep oversaw a crackdown on Thaksin supporters that killed more than 90 people and spawned arson attacks on Bangkok malls and office buildings.

Suthep and Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrat party leader who was prime minister at the time, are facing murder-related charges for ordering the army to use live ammunition to disperse armed protesters in 2010.

“We will set up a parliament of the people, whose members will come from representatives of all occupations,” Suthep said, adding that neither he or Abhisit would lead the government.

“The protesters still lack the backing of forces with the willingness and ability to topple the government quickly,” said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “If disorder spreads, we will see how long those forces are willing to stand aside.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok at anguyen@bloomberg.net