| Submit your comments on this article |
| Southeast Asia |
| Thai protests stop address by new PM |
| 2008-12-30 |
| Red-shirted demonstrators prevented Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thailand’s new prime minister, from presenting his agenda to parliament on Monday, dealing a further blow to hopes for an end to the country’s political deadlock The protests were a mirror image of the prolonged demonstrations that paralysed the last administration and the country’s trade and tourism links to the world. Mr Abhisit, who plans to try to give his policy address on Tuesday, was handed power in a parliamentary vote earlier this month after his Democrat party persuaded some members of the former ruling coalition to change sides. Many of the MPs who switched said they did so because the protesters had left the government unable to function. With the economy nearing contraction and the country’s tourist trade struggling to recover from the effects of a week-long shutdown of Bangkok’s two airports and the global financial crisis, Mr Abhisit planned in his address to outline Bt300bn ($8.4bn, €6.6bn, £5.8bn) in stimulus spending. His opponents, who are generally loyal to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, have called the vote a “silent coup” and believe the new government lacks legitimacy. “The best thing would be for the Democrats to form a government just long enough to call for new elections,” said Jakrapob Penkair, who was leading the protests outside parliament on Monday. Mr Abhisit has the support of the army, but their reluctance to act against the yellow-shirted demonstrators of the People’s Alliance for Democracy which targeted the last government has set a difficult precedent. Some 3,000 police were at the scene of Monday’s protests, but officers kept their distance. Mr Abhisit said he would do anything he could to avoid having to use force. Mr Jakrapob warned that the protests would be stepped up if the current government remained in office. “The problems will be enhanced a lot, not just in Bangkok, but throughout the country,” he said. “Mr Abhisit will be reminded everywhere he goes that his government is not legitimate.” The group that led protests against the last government, displaced by a court ruling over electoral misconduct, claimed they were challenging the corruption and politicisation of the country’s institutions. Mr Thaksin’s supporters, including those outside parliament on Monday, say they are defending democracy. They say that the country’s elites in the barracks, boardrooms and palaces of Bangkok are trying to roll back the new-found power of the country’s rural poor, who voted Mr Thaksin or his heirs into office in the past three parliamentary elections. |
| Posted by:lotp |