Thai Protesters Turn Focus to Stock Exchange

Thai Protesters Turn Focus to Stock Exchange

Antigovernment Activists Seek to Escalate Efforts After Clogging Central Bangkok

JAMES HOOKWAY

Updated Jan. 13, 2014 9:28 a.m. ET

BANGKOK—After turning central Bangkok into a flag-waving sea of protest Monday, antigovernment activists now say they are preparing to take their campaign to the next level by seizing Thailand’s stock exchange.The protesters’ drive to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra

from office and eliminate the influence of her brother, billionaire former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, has been marked by a series of escalating protests, each more ambitious than the last.

Monday’s rally was touted as a bid to shut down Bangkok for a week or more and reboot Thailand’s democracy, this time without the Shinawatra clan in command.

Tens of thousands of people blocked intersections around the inner core of the capital in their latest effort to press Ms. Yingluck to resign, placing further strain on the outlook for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.

But with Ms. Yingluck claiming widespread support elsewhere in Thailand and planning new elections Feb. 2, protest leaders already are selecting higher-profile targets to attempt to force her out, including the headquarters of the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Perched in a bunker built from rubber tires and fortified with sharpened bamboo stakes near the government’s main headquarters, Nitithorn Lamlua on Monday laid out some of the options the protesters could take if Ms. Yingluck refuses to quit.

While much of Thailand’s attention is focused on Suthep Thaugsuban, the backroom operatorformer deputy premier who reinvented himself as a rabble-rousing figure at the head of the protest movement, it is Mr. Nitithorn who determines much of the group’s strategy.

Members of Mr. Nitithorn’s faction, composed of trade unionists and militant student groups, last month broke into the army’s headquarters in Bangkok, urging the military not to use arms against demonstrators. Mr. Nitithorn also led another rally at the U.S. Embassy, warning America not to interfere in Thailand’s affairs after its ambassador supported holding elections. On Dec. 26, Mr. Nitithorn’s supporters led the blockade of election registration centers in Bangkok, triggering a fracas that left a policeman and a protester dead.

Related Video

Thai protesters blocked many roads in Bangkok, in their latest bid to force the prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office. The WSJ’s Michael Arnold speaks with Jade Donavanik, dean of Siam University graduate school of Law about the tensions.

“We have to escalate things from time to time,” said Mr. Nitithorn, 49 years old. “If Ms. Yingluck doesn’t resign by Jan. 15, we have to look at what more we can do.” And that, he said, could mean besieging the stock exchange, which rival pro-Shinawatra protesters tried to burn down in 2010. Other protest leaders suggested shutting down air-traffic-control systems at the city’s airports.

Stock Exchange of Thailand President Charamporn Jotikasthira told reporters that the exchange has several backup systems to enable it to continue trading.

The benchmark SET Index, meanwhile, rose more than 2% to close at 1283.56 as investors took heart that Monday’s protests weren’t violent.

The protesters’ willingness to ramp up their campaign to overthrow the government, however, underscores the depth of feeling on both sides of the political divide in Thailand, an important U.S. ally in the region.

Eight people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and police or rival pro-government factions since the protests began in November. Drive-by shootings near protest camps are becoming a near-nightly occurrence.

Ms. Yingluck has said new elections scheduled in three weeks are the best way to avoid a worsening spiral of violence and denies protesters’ claims that she is acting as a puppet for her brother, Mr. Thaksin, who was overthrown in a military coup in 2006. Strong support for her government’s populist subsidies and infrastructure programs in the vote-rich north and northeast of Thailand indicate that she is likely to win the ballot, if it goes ahead.

Protest leaders argue that Ms. Yingluck’s spending plans, like those pursued by Mr. Thaksin before the army removed him, are a form of bribery and are weakening Thailand’s economy. They want to stop the election and install an unelected council to remold Thailand’s political systems.

“We need to be patient. But if we gather in a nonviolent manner, people will come out again and again,” Mr. Nitithorn said.

Speaking to huge crowds later, Mr. Suthep said they would continue for “as long as it takes.”

Thailand’s army has said it is unwilling remove Ms. Yingluck as it removed Mr. Thaksin.

Some analysts suggest this is a reason for optimism.

Thailand’s stability could improve if it somehow finds a way through the current mayhem without its army intervening as it has often done before. That is something that is becoming increasingly important as the stabilizing influence of Thailand’s ailing, 86-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej begins to wane.

“If this conflict can be resolved peacefully, no matter how long it takes, then that could be a breakthrough,” says historian Thanet Apornsuwan.