Thai PM rejects resignation call

A call for new elections by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand yesterday failed to quell anti-government demonstrations, as tens of thousands of protesters massed outside her office and vowed to expel her powerful family from the country.

Ms Yingluck’s announcement that she would “let the people decide the direction of the country” set in motion the dissolution of Parliament and the official endorsement of elections by the king. A royal decree set the election for February 2nd, more than two years before the government was expected to finish its term.

Yet leaders of antigovernment demonstrations, which have left five people dead and several hundred injured over the past two weeks, vowed to press on with their quixotic campaign to rid the country of the influence of Ms Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire tycoon and former prime minister whose policies have cemented the loyalty of voters in the most populous regions of the country.

A prominent Thai historian warned that continuing the protests despite the announcement of new elections could create “indefinite” conflict. The police said that more than 100,000 protesters filled the streets yesterday. In a rambling speech to supporters, the main leader of the protest, Suthep Thaugsuban, declared a “people’s revolution” and a chance for the country to “start over.” The police, notorious for their corruption, would be replaced with “security volunteers,” he said. A new constitution would be written that would ban populist policies of the type that Thaksin has employed. And a “people’s council” would replace Parliament.

While many areas of this sprawling metropolis remained peaceful and unaffected by the protests, Bangkok’s historic district, where demonstrators have gathered, witnessed budding scenes of anarchy. Fearing confrontation with protesters, police forces withdrew from the area, leaving demonstrators to direct tangled traffic at intersections.

Rubbish built up on sidewalks, motorcycles ignored traffic rules even more than usual, cars triple-parked with impunity and protesters erected barriers to roads they wanted closed off.

Amid this barely controlled chaos, the way forward for Thailand remained unclear. Officials in Yingluck’s party said she would run for Parliament and remain the party’s candidate for prime minister. She said today that she would remain in office as head of a caretaker government until the elections.

The leaders of the opposition Democrat Party, who resigned from Parliament on Sunday in a show of protest, did not indicate whether they would participate in the elections - or boycott them as they did in 2006, a move that heightened the country’s polarisation and was followed by a military coup.

Because of the deep affection that the governing party has in the north and northeast of the country, scholars say, it would be very difficult for the Democrat Party to reverse its two-decade losing streak in national elections. In the last elections, held in July 2011, the governing party received 15.7 million votes, compared with 11.4 million for the Democrats. Suthep, the protest leader, said that low-income Thais, many of whom support Thaksin, “had been completely fooled for 10 years.” Although the opposition has repeatedly said that Thaksin has maintained his power by buying votes, two of Thailand’s leading political researchers wrote in an article last week that the allegation was “dangerous nonsense” because it was policies, not vote buying, that had cemented the loyalty of many voters in the provinces to Thaksin.

Thaksin instituted universal health care and microloans to farmers that were very popular among rural voters.

But the continuing protests yesterday underlined how divided the country remains seven years after the coup that ousted Thaksin. Thaksin, who is in exile, is described by protesters as the governing party’s puppet master.

In a nation with one of the highest penetrations of social media use, it was a day of countless self-portraits with outstretched smartphones. There were photogenic and stylishly dressed young people and haggard-looking protesters speaking southern dialects who traveled great distances.

Some protesters said the political crisis has been divisive within their own families. Ainaththacha Wirujpotisontorn, a young university graduate from Bangkok, said her grandparents from northern Thailand disapproved of her attending the protest. “We don’t talk about politics because it ends up with a fight,” she said. With her was a graphic designer, Suteerapat Luangsinsiri, whose office was closed so that employees could join the protest. “We know that Thailand has a lot of corruption - we tolerated it for many years,” Suteerapat said.

“But it’s gone over the limit.” Many protesters cited the government’s program to pay rice farmers well above market prices as a major failing - and rife with corruption.

Yingluck and her government have gone out of their way to avoid confrontation with the protesters. She has pleaded with them to go home but allowed protesters to take over some government buildings, and she did not crack down when demonstrators temporarily cut off power to the police headquarters and disrupted one of the country’s biggest Internet providers.

The protesters said yesterday that they would spend the night at the gates of the prime minister’s office. Yingluck was not inside.

“The government has yielded on every point,” said Surapong Tovichakchaikul, the foreign minister, who was put in charge of overseeing security during the protests. Surapong attributed the soft approach to the fact that the prime minister is a woman.

“This is why it’s good to have a female prime minister,” Surapong said Monday. “If we had a male as prime minister things may have turned violent already.”

New York Times