People Power Gets Stronger

[Flashermac]

Pheu Thai files complaint with DSI against Suthep

 

 

The Pheu Thai Party Wednesday filed a complaint with Department of Special Investigation, alleging that protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban had violated Article 112 of the Constitution.

 

The complaint was filed by Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit and former MP Pichit Chuenban with DSI director Tarit Pengdit.

 

The complaint alleged that Suthep, secretary general of the People's Democratic Reform

Committee, violated the King's power by instigating the people to protest to push for the change of the ruling system.

 

The complaint said the attempt to form a people's council was unconstitutional and the plan to appoint a prime minister also violated Article 112 of the charter and violated the King's power.

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Pheu-Thai-files-complaint-with-DSI-against-Suthep-30221826.html

 

 

The Big Boss must have made some phone calls.

[cavanami]

December 2013...stage a protest...win a prize...WTF...

[Flashermac]

Thai democracy enters dangerous new crossroads

 

 

Protesters waging a surreal political fight to oust the prime minister are trying to establish what amounts to a parallel government - one complete with "security volunteers'' to replace the police, a foreign policy of their own and a central committee that has already begun issuing audacious orders.

 

Among the most brazen: a demand Tuesday that caretaker premier Yingluck Shinawatra be prosecuted for "insurrection," and another calling on the public to "closely monitor’’ her family’s movements.

 

Leading academics have slammed the scheme as undemocratic and unconstitutional. Critics have called its leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, delusional. But the ex-lawmaker’s bid to seize power is backed by many in Bangkok and could become reality if the military or the judiciary intervenes, as they have in the past.

 

Analysts say this Southeast Asian nation is at a dangerous new crossroads that could drag on, and end with more bloodshed.

 

"This is a combustible situation. We cannot have two governments in Bangkok running Thailand,’’ said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of Chulalongkorn’s Institute of Security and International Studies. "Something will have to give."

 

Yingluck is desperate to end weeks of political unrest that has killed five people and injured nearly 300 more. On Monday, she dissolved the lower house of Parliament and called for elections, now set for Feb. 2. But neither move defused the crisis, and a 150,000-strong crowd pressed on with a massive march against her in Bangkok.

 

Yingluck said Tuesday she would not resign despite a nighttime deadline issued by Suthep. But there was no hiding the nation’s precarious state. Asked how she was holding up, tears welled in Yingluck’s eyes.

 

"I have retreated as far as I can,’’ she said, just before turning and walking quickly away. The protesters accuse Yingluck’s government of abuse of power and say her party has used its electoral majority to impose its will on the minority.

 

They say Yingluck is merely a proxy for her billionaire brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction but still wields immense influence from abroad.

 

Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 army coup that laid bare a deeper societal conflict. On one side are Thailand’s largely urban upper and middle classes, who along with staunch royalists want to end the Shinawatra family’s grip on power. On the other side are the rural poor, who back the Shinawatras because they benefited from policies that have brought them everything from electricity to free health care.

 

The coup triggered years of political upheaval and dramatic changes in government have underscored the power of Bangkok’s elite.

 

Controversial judicial rulings removed two pro-Thaksin prime ministers in 2008, one of whom never set foot in his Government House office: He worked for 10 weeks out of the VIP lounge of the capital’s old airport until protesters evicted him from there, too.

 

The same year, army-backed parliamentary maneuvering allowed the opposition Democrat Party - a minority that has not won an election for more than two decades - to take power for several years.

 

Yingluck led the ruling Pheu Thai Party to victory in 2011 elections. But anger against her government swelled after the lower house passed an amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return without going to jail or corruption. The measure was rejected in the upper house, and Yingluck has said it will not be revived.

 

Protesters say Pheu Thai lost its right to rule because of its support of the amnesty bill and other legislation they oppose. Yingluck and other members of her party say the constitution does not allow her to resign before elections are held - a ballot both sides know Pheu Thai would win.

 

Suthep, the protest leader, said late Tuesday that as of now, "there is no government." He said his People’s Democratic Reform Committee would nominate a new prime minister to fill the vacuum, although it has no legal authority to do so.

 

The bespectacled 64-year-old career politician also ordered the head of police to order all his forces to return their posts within 12 hours and said soldiers should take responsibility for protecting government offices.

 

Government spokesman Teerat Ratanasevi dismissed the threats, telling The Associated Press on Wednesday: "We confirm that we are still the government. We are still running the country and things are normal."

 

Suthep had laid out other details of his plan Monday. Citing a clause in the constitution stating that "the highest power is the sovereign power of the people,’’ he claimed his movement was assuming some government functions and called on civil servants to report to it.

 

He said a new constitution would be written that would ban populist policies, bar corruption convictions from being pardoned and ensure that "a single party cannot control things.’’ He also said the movement will "fully respect our sovereign obligations and maintain good relations with all states and international organisations.’’

 

The reality, for now, is that no parallel government exists, and that protesters hold less ground than they did at the weekend. Ahead of Monday’s march, they withdrew from the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex they had occupied for a week.

 

Still, Thitinan said, the momentum is on the side of Suthep, whose uprising has already triggered the legislature’s dissolution and reduced Yingluck’s power.

 

The government is "at a disadvantage because they’re not backed by the establishment and powerful people in Bangkok,’’ Thitinan said. The army has vowed neutrality, but when push comes to shove, they will side with the protesters, he said.

 

Thitinan said Suthep is "a front man for larger forces behind him, for the powers that be’’ among the elite. He said they want to "seize the reins of government because they want to preside over the transition ... we’re talking about the monarchy, the succession, the constitution, the entire future of Thailand.’’

 

Thaksin, the ousted premier, was accused of disrespecting the king, in part by trying to curry favor with Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the heir to the throne.

 

Thitinan added, however, that if Yingluck is deposed, her supporters "will come back to the streets’’ just as they did in 2010, when pro-Thaksin "red shirt’’ protesters erected bamboo barricades around a vast swath of the capital’s glitziest shopping district and occupied it for two months.

 

A brutal army crackdown eventually dispersed the crowds, but not before more than 90 people were killed and the city’s skyline was engulfed in flames set by the red shirts. Suthep, who was deputy premier at the time, ordered the crackdown and is facing murder charges for his role in it. He also faces an arrest warrant - for insurrection.

 

The army and the courts have had opportunities to dislodge Yingluck’s government but have not taken them.

 

The conflict is likely to "go on and on until all sides sit down and negotiate a compromise,’’ said Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee, a political science professor in Bangkok. "That’s going to take a long, long time,’’ she said. "There is no easy way out.’’

 

 

http://www.nationmul...s-30221819.html

[cavanami]

Drunk with pseudo-power...

[limbo]

So how would you describe the numerous "red villages" were dissent is not tolerated? What do you think of Thaksin as PM sending millions of baht in advertising to newspapers and magazines that supported him, and trying to drive advertisers away from those that did not? Thaksin as PM openly saying he saw no need to do anything for provinces that didn't vote for him? True democracy?

 

I'd say democracy is defined rather differently in Thailand than the west. The newspapers say 48 million Thais are entitled to vote. Last election 15 million chose Pheu Thai; 17 million did not. That means 16 million didn't even bother to vote!

 

Don't just point your finger at Suthep as undemocratic. It is endemic.

 

Many Thais have agreed with me that Thailand doesn't move forward, it goes in circles. It is as if every so many years somebody pushes the reset button.

 

Mac, if you are addressing me, I fully agree. I wrote earlier that Thaksin and his Shinawatra clan have used up their political welcome in Thailand and I rather see them go as well. I'm just not convinced at all that Suthep and whomever he represents will be the best choice for Thailand. It's a step back and not forward.

[Flashermac]

by Marcel Duchamp ...

[Flashermac]

Mac, if you are addressing me, I fully agree. I wrote earlier that Thaksin and his Shinawatra clan have used up their political welcome in Thailand and I rather see them go as well. I'm just not convinced at all that Suthep and whomever he represents will be the best choice for Thailand. It's a step back and not forward.

 

 

Fine. Glad you clarified that. I think Suthep's idea is nutty and I can't see it happening. I wonder if he really does himself. What I expect to see in a new election is Pheu Thai coming out on top again, but with a reduced number of seats. But hopefully this will have taught them that they cannot simply ram through whatever they want.

 

I see people supporting Suthep since he seems the only option they have at the moment. His real support comes from his native South, though at the moment he has Bangkok and even many in the North and Northeast rallying to him. They are using him to try to get rid of this family that has so entrenched itself into political power.

[Coss]

In my little old country, NZ, there are enough checks and balances and, ahem, 'honour' in the government that no-one dares use it for their own gain.

 

My take on Thailand is, that whilst being democratically voted in, the incumbents (either side) are not expected to do other, than take a place at the trough and feed until sated.

[Flashermac]

PDRC's supporters are mainly people in BKK and South: Survey

 

 

Over half of Thais, mainly upper middle-income people from Bangkok and the South, showed support for the People's Democratic Reform Committee, according to a survey by Envirocell Thailand.

 

In the survey conducted during December 1-4 that covered 1,000 respondents in all parts of the country accordingly to demography, 63 per cent supported the PDRC’s movements. On the opposite, 37 per cent oppose the movement, mostly people in the North and the Northeast who earn low income.

 

In the same survey by Envirocell, 42 per cent believed that elections would not restore the situation. Of this group, 22 per cent mostly from Bangkok and the South suggest the royal appointment of an interim prime minister until reforms are complete. 10 per cent propose the establishment of a temporary government.

 

Forty one per cent support national elections, particularly people from the Northeast. Of this group, 15 per cent suggest the two leading parties - Pheu Thai and Democrat - be barred from the race.

 

Only 18 per cent of the respondents, representing mainly people from the North, wished the Yingluck government complete the term.

 

Envirosell Thailand is a unit of a US-based behavioural research company.

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/PDRCs-supporters-are-mainly-people-in-BKK-and-Sout-30221854.html

 

 

p.s. A red shirt taxi driver last month told me he didn't understand why people in the South were "so stupid". He asked, "Why don't they love Thaksin?" Well, for one thing, what has Thaksin ever done to make them love him?

[WorldFun]

lets all (thai360 members, foreigners) stage a protest at immigration HQ @ chang wattana to get lifetime visa/permit to stay/priviligies/residence since dec13 seems the time where everything is possible as long one protests