Thai protesters plan more action to oust PM
Print Edition
Thousands of anti-government protesters marched through the Thai capital yesterday, a prelude to a broader action this week when they say they will shut down Bangkok in their bid to scuttle a February election and topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The protesters, who accuse Yingluck of being the puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, want an appointed “people’s council” to oversee a vague reform platform, which includes electoral reform, decentralizing power, and a volunteer police force, over a 12-month period before any future election.
The crisis, an outbreak of turmoil stretching back eight years, began in November and has become a drag on the Thai economy. The baht slid on Friday to its lowest against the dollar since February 2010 and the SETI stock index has lost 15 percent since early November.
Yingluck, her brother and their support base among the rural poor in the populous north and northeast are pitted against protesters who draw support from Bangkok’s conservative, royalist elite and middle classes and the south.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a fiery former deputy premier from the main opposition Democrat Party, said marches would be held tomorrow and on Thursday, leading up the January 13 “shutdown.”
That event is shaping up as the biggest confrontation since the latest round of largely peaceful demonstrations began. The protests at times have brought as many as 200,000 people on to the streets, but have also sparked sporadic clashes with police in which three people were killed and scores wounded.
“We will keep walking, we won’t stop,” Suthep said on the march. “We will walk until we win and we won’t give up.”
Yesterday’s march began at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, where some supporters had gathered overnight. Suthep said the protesters would set up stages at five rallying points through the city leading up to January 13.
Suthep was feted by whistle-blowing supporters, many of whom handed him cash as he shook hands.
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