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2 Lights, camera,
protest By Shawn W Crispin
BANGKOK - Tucked into the decrepit upper
floor of a low-grade shopping mall, a group of
former politicians cum television journalists plot
their next big anti-government street protest.
Established by a small group of loyalists
to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
People's Television (PTV) has recently emerged as
the most immediate political threat to Thailand's
military-led Council for National Security (CNS),
which seized power in a bloodless putsch last
September 19 and since has
maintained restrictions on
political association.
The CNS blocked
PTV's maiden and subsequent attempted broadcasts
last month, and the station's members have in
response held three progressively larger street
protests in Bangkok. Now, they intend to hold
their largest rally yet on Friday - reportedly by
shuttling thousands of Thaksin's peeved grassroots
supporters from the rural countryside to the
capital - to protest perceived anti-democratic
measures included in the country's new draft
constitution.
Increasingly, it seems the two
sides are on a collision course. CNS leader
General Sonthi Boonyaratklin last month lobbied to
declare a state of emergency, which would have
empowered soldiers to crack down on a planned
PTV-led rally for reasons of national security.
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, who was
appointed by Sonthi, declined the request - though
it remains unclear whether the decision was
influenced by King Bhumibol
Adulyadej’s privy council, of which
Surayud is a former member.
"You're a military dictatorship, you were
created to maintain order, but you don't have the
clout to declare a state of emergency," said
Jakrapob Penkair, a former government spokesman
and one of PTV's four co-founders. "Clearly
someone has taken your powers back."
PTV
staff members contend that they are the vanguard
of a new pro-democracy movement, similar, they
say, to the one that finally drove military coup
makers from power after a bloody confrontation in
1992. Jakrapob is plain about his group's aim of
driving the CNS from power to pave the way for
Thaksin's return to Thailand to "reclaim his
masses" and finish his truncated term in office as
a "democratic hero".
For the CNS, that
clearly represents a political worst-case
scenario. This month the CNS unveiled a new draft
charter and Surayud scheduled new democratic polls
for mid-December, soon after His Majesty King
Bhumibol Adulyadej's annual birthday celebrations.
So far, PTV's rallies have paled in comparison
with the size and fervor of the more than 11
months of anti-government rallies dating back to
October 2005 that contributed to Thaksin's
downfall.
It's still unclear how many of
Thaksin's former Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party
associates share PTV's vision of returning him to
power through, if necessary, confrontational
means. Another former government spokesman during
Thaksin's tenure, Surapong Suebwonglee, last week
stated his disagreement with PTV's confrontational
tactics. And few former prominent TRT members,
including present party leader Chaturon Chaisaeng,
have moved publicly to support the upstart
station's style of rally politics.
To be
sure, certain former members of Thaksin's inner
circle are reluctant to speak their minds in the
current restricted political environment. Former
party leaders are at risk of being banned from
politics for five years if the TRT party is next
month dissolved by the Constitutional Tribunal,
which is now weighing electoral fraud charges
related to botched 2005 polls against both TRT and
the main opposition Democrat party.
Some
political analysts suspect Thaksin is tacitly
supporting PTV and its threats of a popular
uprising to put pressure on both the CNS and
Surayud to take a moderate tack in pursuing the
various corruption and fraud charges lodged or
filed against him, his family members and
political associates.
However, with
Thaksin no longer providing day-to-day finance,
the party is already dissolving organically.
Several former powerful faction leaders are
breaking away, including one particular politician
who has reportedly formed a political alliance
with certain CNS members, allegedly to perpetuate
their political influence even after the scheduled
transition back toward democracy in December.
Moral support That
fragmentation would appear to indicate that PTV is
in reality operating from a position of political
weakness - if not desperation. Despite its
pro-Thaksin bent, Jakrapob maintains that PTV is a
genuine news station and not a front for a
political movement. Long-term, he says, PTV
aspires to become the "Fox News" of Thailand, by
openly supporting a reconstituted TRT's populist
policies.
Jakrapob will not divulge how
the startup station financed its initial 30
million baht (US$921,600) investment, nor where it
generates the cash flow to pay the station's more
than 100 news-related
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