Thai protesters take uneasy time out
By Charles McDermid and Jakkapun Kaewsangthong
BANGKOK - Sondhi Limthongkul, the co-leader of Thailand’s People's Alliance for
Democracy (PAD) anti-government protest group, proclaimed Tuesday a "joyous
day" and declared victory after a 193-day campaign to oust the People's Power
Party-(PPP)-led government.
The PAD announced that by 10 am on Wednesday all of its anti-government
protesters would stand down. Bangkok’s two main airports and Government House -
Thailand’s top government office - were returned to the authorities to allow
them to resume operations. By noon, the longest-running political protest in
the
history of Thailand came to an end.
The decision to cease demonstrations followed a ruling on Tuesday by the
Constitution Court to disband the PPP-led government of Prime Minister Somchai
Wongsawat - a watershed verdict meant to end Thailand's months of violence,
embarrassment and economic disaster. Numerous politicians, including Somchai,
were banned from politics for five years.
"The Constitution Court's verdict is clear proof that the previous
administration's power was not obtained through democracy under the
constitution but was accomplished through electoral fraud and that the rally by
the People's Alliance for Democracy was legitimate," read a statement released
by the PAD on Wednesday morning.
The statement - titled a "victory announcement" - claimed that the PAD had
accomplished its two objectives "... to oppose attempts to amend the 2007
constitution and to drive out the proxy-killer government in order to pave the
way for new politics".
The PAD statement was not without caveats. The movement promised to return if
"a proxy government of the [former prime minister] Thaksin [Shinawatra] regime
is set up again or if there is an attempt to amend the constitution or the law
to whitewash the wrongdoings of those in the Thaksin regime, to benefit
politicians, or to lessen the power of the King".
The over six month-long protest movement, which culminated last week in the
occupation of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports, froze an already
lagging Thai economy. Since capturing the airfields last week, hundreds of
thousands of foreign tourists have been stranded and key export industries
crippled. Since September, images of street violence in Thailand have become a
staple on the world stage. At least five people have died and dozens injured in
protest-related violence.
As the protesters returned home on Wednesday, Thailand's central bank cut its
benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 months, by a record 1
percentage point to 2.75%, with the aim of helping the economy survive the
impact of the protests and the global downturn.
Both have helped to undermine Thailand's tourism industry, which contributes
about 12% of the country's gross domestic product, and exports. The country's
Tourism Council predicts that up to 1 million people of the 4 million involved
in tourism-related work could lose their jobs if foreign visitor numbers drop
by half next year, as it now forecasts. Finance Minister Suchart
Thadathamrongvej this week forecast that economic growth could fall to between
zero and 1.3% in 2009.
Yet even as the PAD declared victory, pro-government forces were digging in for
a prolonged fight and Thailand is still a country split in two.
Carnival of celebration
By their reckoning, Wednesday was to be the 193rd day of the PAD's
controversial campaign to oust the Thai government for its alleged links to
former prime minister Thaksin, who was deposed in a 2006 military coup and who
now lives in exile as a fugitive from Thai justice. PAD celebrations began in
earnest on Tuesday night.
"This is one of the most joyous days of our country. It shows that people
politics is successful. It proves that the unity of the people can no longer be
ignored," PAD co-leader Sondhi told Asia Times Online after delivering a
victory speech from the top of a cargo truck at Suvarnabhumi at about 10 pm on
Tuesday.
In the emphatic, wide-ranging address, the 61-year-old media tycoon cried,
punched his fist in the air and at one point dropped to his knees with his head
in his hands. "Today we prove the power of the people can bring down the
tyrants," he said to the crowd. Later, he begged for supporters to come back if
Thaksin re-emerged as a political force. "Today is a defeat for the enemy.
We've sent the PPP government to hell."
After tidying his suede fedora-like cap, Sondhi signed off by blowing kisses in
all directions and descended from the stage. He was mobbed by well-wishers and
celebrities. One of the first was Saranyu Wong-Kra-Jang, a famous movie star,
singer and the long-time host of the long-running Channel 7 television show Thai
Reality. "Today is a happy day to be a Thai," he told Asia Times
Online.
A few steps behind was Therdsak Jiamkijwattana, the leader of the PAD's branch
in the northern city of Chiang Mai. He gained unfortunate publicity last week
when his father was shot in the head by pro-government supporters, according to
Thai and international news reports. His take was astrological.
"This is a good first step," Therdsak said. "It started yesterday [Monday] at
7:30 pm when we saw the 'smiling moon'. According to fortunetellers, this is
the sign of a victory of the King," he said in reference to a rare alignment of
Venus, Jupiter and the moon.
Star power was a big part of the massive PAD protest machine. The Muslim band
Hammer, from south Thailand, and the legendary country band Caravan, have
played at frequent shows with corybantic music and dancing generally extending
into morning.
The PAD has been characterized widely as a mixture of middle- and upper-class
Thais. But as one prominent Bangkok analyst has said, this is a convenient
"line" concocted by Western media, and a reduction. A quick look around the ad
hoc tent city that had sprung up at the US$4-billion international airport
revealed many classes, but mostly poor and lower-middle class.
License plates revealed a large number of supporters from south and east
Thailand. "In fact, we have lots of classes - some are poor," said a
21-year-old PAD supporter on Tuesday night who declined to give his name.
"Actually, a lot are middle class. The upper class is mostly supporters, not
protesters. They donate food and money."
Many PAD protesters were drawn by patriotism and an intriguing sense of
idealism. Deam Khong-Vichai Yadin, 28, from Kanchanaburi province, was
seriously injured by a grenade launched by Bangkok police to disperse a PAD
rally near Government House in Bangkok.
He was hospitalized for 36 days and could only attend the night's celebration
in a wheelchair. Metal pins were extruding from his right shin and his left
thigh was heavily bandaged. He asked if anyone in the crowd around him knew who
Che Guevara was, then said of the former Argentine revolutionary, "He's my
idol."
Devotion to cause and unity led to an army of paramilitary picnickers. The PAD
had little objection to the previously unthinkable occupation of government
property, but had enough discipline to refrain from drinking alcohol, smoking
in the airport or looting its millions of dollars worth of unguarded
merchandise.
On Wednesday, Sasimon Mak-Kaew, 52, will be heading home. She abandoned her
farm in southern Phang Nga province on June 3 and took a 12-hour bus ride to
the capital. She said she is the only PAD supporter in her village and the
others "just watch TV".
"In this world, you have good people and bad people and they all live together
in the same country," she said. "The one thing I am feeling in my heart is 'Do
not ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
country'." After a pause, Sasimon admitted she didn't know who coined the
famous phrase (US president John F Kennedy in 1961), adding: "Khun Sondhi told
me that."
Angry rivals
As the PAD celebrated on Tuesday, thousands of red-shirted United Front for
Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) supporters were rallying outside Bangkok's
city hall. Many were wearing shirts with the image of deposed premier Thaksin -
the PAD's mortal enemy.
Although the crowd had thinned from the 10,000 protesters estimated earlier in
the day, thousands remained and roadblocks sealed the area. If the UDD protest
lacked the organization - including communications, weapons and support
services - of its older PAD counterpart, it made up for it in unmitigated rage.
Just after 1 am on Tuesday, Somchai Phai-Boon, spokesman of the now disbanded
PPP, was still speaking before an angry audience: "The PAD has been raping
Thailand and destroyed democracy."
He charged that the opposition Democrat Party was in league with the PAD, and
that the military was behind the Constitution Court ruling. He said that if the
Democrat leader planned to be the next Thai premier, he should "dream on".
Later, he called on supporters to "burn down the Democrat Party office".
The PAD movement's damage to the Thai economy and its endorsement of a more
limited version of democracy were the demonstration's rallying cries. As one
spectator put it: "There are only three groups in Thailand: those who support
the PAD, those who support Thaksin and those who want the problems to go away
so they can make money."
A 32-year-old woman from Nakorn Ratchasima, who gave her name only as Somkit,
said she had been a Thaksin supporter for nine years. She told Asia Times
Online that she'd come to protest the ruling of the court to sack a
democratically elected government.
"I feel it's unfair for the court to tell us who our leader is. We're going to
stay here," she said, adding: "Even if they have full power, they don't have
the power of the people. We have the right to declare our own leader. We're
waiting for Thaksin to come back."
Pranee Sri-Meung, 51, a Bangkok housekeeper, had a message for the former
premier now in exile and on the run from a corruption conviction: "Please tell
Thaksin that all the people here miss him and we want him to be prime minister
again."
Tanetpon Jirasinmarnut, 27, a supermarket worker, estimated that Thaksin would
be back "next year" and that there is an 80% chance of violence before
political turmoil ends in Thailand. As for facing off with the PAD, Tanetpon
said, "I came to protest that the PAD has hurt the economy of Thailand." He
said he did not fear the PAD: "We have money and power and we have a right to
defeat them."
Even amid the strident rhetoric, not all UDD supporters were gearing for
imminent violence. "There won't be any violence today, but it might happen on
December 8 because we will march on parliament," said Chai-Yo Selakorn, 43, a
security officer from Samut Songkram, a city to the southwest of Bangkok.
On December 8-9, parliament is tentatively scheduled to vote on a new prime
minister. Until then, both protest groups, the caretaker government and the
whole of Thailand will be eyeing events nervously.
As PAD supporter Deam Khong-Vichai Yadin, the injured Che Guevara fan, summed
it up: "Thai politics is like cancer: we can't trust it, we just have to keep
watching."
Charles McDermid is a correspondent for Asia Times Online based in
Thailand. Jakkapun Kaewsangthong is a Bangkok-based freelance
journalist.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about
sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road,
Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
