Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said “the door was neither open nor closed” when asked whether a coup would happen, a marked shift from the strong denials the armed forces routinely make.
“Anything can happen,” Prayuth told a news conference in Bangkok. “It depends on the situation [...] we are trying to do the right thing, in a peaceful way and we urge negotiations.”
The general’s comments represent a major setback at a critical time for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is under attack from opponents determined to overthrow her and weaken the influence of her self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
She has called an election for Feb. 2, which her Pheu Thai Party is almost certain to win, but anti-government protesters have vowed to stop the poll. The Election Commission (EC) also asked for a postponement after violent clashes on Thursday.
The political deadlock and violence have become all too familiar in Thailand, where the military have staged or attempted to stage 18 coups in 81 years of democracy.
Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy is divided broadly between those who love Thaksin, such as the rural poor in the populous north and northeast, and those who loathe him, a group that includes Bangkok’s conservative elite and middle class.
The events of the past two days suggest powerful forces could again be at work to undermine Thaksin’s populist political machine, which has won every election since 2001.
Yingluck has been in her northern strongholds this past week rallying support ahead of a ballot she is determined will go ahead, aware her caretaker government could be exposed to an escalation of street protests, legal challenges and the possibility of a military overthrow.
Rumors of a coup have swirled in recent weeks. Three sources with ties to the military have told Reuters recently that two of Prayuth’s still-influential predecessors had expressed their support for the anti-government protest movement.
The protesters want the suspension of what they say is a fragile democracy subverted by Thaksin to enhance the business empires of his family and friends, using cheap health care, micro-loans and state subsidies to buy off the poor.
They draw strength from the south, as well as Bangkok’s establishment of old-money families, the royalist bureaucracy and generals who despise Thaksin’s rise.
Fifty-three parties have signed up to run in the polls. The EC said on Friday it would seek talks with the government and demonstrators to break the deadlock.
“We expect to have a solution before the New Year comes,” commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn told reporters.
The government was initially counting on the army for its cooperation, even though it overthrew Thaksin in 2006.
Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul asked the military on Friday to provide security for election candidates and voters but there has been no public response.
Instead of an election, the protesters want an appointed “people’s council” to replace Yingluck and introduce political reforms before any future vote.
Their wider aim is to neutralize the power of the Shinawatra family. Muddying the waters further, the main opposition Democratic Party says it will boycott the vote.
The crisis is starting to drag on the economy. The Thai baht plumbed close to four-year lows this week and Thai stocks fell 2 percent after Thursday’s violence. The Finance Ministry cut its growth forecast for 2013 on Thursday, due in part to the political unrest, and 2014 forecasts are also in jeopardy.
The first two years of Yingluck’s government had been relatively smooth until a blunder by Pheu Thai in November, when it tried to push through an unpopular amnesty bill that would have exonerated Thaksin from a 2008 graft conviction he says was politically motivated.
by Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat, Reuters, Bangkok
----Related updated news------------
Anti-government protester killed in fresh Thai violence; candidates blocked in 4 provinces
BANGKOK – Gunmen killed an anti-government activist and wounded two others in the Thai capital on Saturday while protesters elsewhere blocked candidates from registering in upcoming elections, deepening a political crisis that threatens to derail democracy in this Southeast Asian nation.
The registration was suspended in four of the country's 77 constituencies. All are in the south, a sign of the limited national appeal the protest movement seeking to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra enjoys outside of Bangkok.
The events followed comments Friday by the powerful army chief in which he declined to rule out the possibility of a coup in the country, which is a major U.S. ally, Southeast Asia's second largest economy and a popular tourist destination.
The long-running dispute between Thailand's bitterly divided political factions flared anew in November after Yingluck's elected government tried to introduce an amnesty for her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, to enable him to return to Thailand and escape a jail term for corruption.
Yingluck called early elections as a way of diffusing the crisis, but the protesters are demanding she resign and hand over power to an unelected council to carry out reforms. They are trying to disrupt the polls, which most people believe will give her a strong mandate thanks to strong support in the north and northeast of the country.
On Thursday, protesters tried to overrun a Bangkok sports stadium where election candidates were gathering to draw lots for their positions on ballots. Masked protesters fired rocks from slingshots as they tried to break into the building to halt the process, while police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Two people, including a police officer, were shot dead.
The overnight attack took place close to a protest camp in the city center, according to a government-run Erawan medical center. It said a 31-year man was killed by gunfire and two others wounded in the attack on Saturday at around 3:30 a.m. Local media said unidentified gunmen opened fire on guards close to a protest camp before escaping into the night.
Hundreds of candidates Saturday were registering for the polls.
But in four southern provinces, the process was stopped because protesters blocked the venues and local election officials wanted to avoid violence, said Puchong Nutrawong, secretary general of the election commission. Registration continued in a fifth province — Surat Thani — despite protests there, he said.
"Our policy is to avoid any confrontation," Puchong said.
Thailand's army has so far stayed out of the crisis, but it has staged 11 successful coups in the country's history — the last against then Prime Minister Thaksin in 2006 — so its intentions are being watched carefully.
Asked whether a military takeover was possible, army chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said simply, "That door is neither open nor closed ... it will be determined by the situation." While ambiguous, his words were taken by some as warning that it might one day intervene.
Thailand's political turmoil has its roots in the 2006 coup and the divisive rule of Thaksin, a former police officer who was accused of massive corruption during his six-years in power. In broad terms, the conflict pits the Thai elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksin's power base in the countryside, which benefited from his populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.
The protesters accuse Yingluck of being a proxy for Thaksin, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction but still wields influence in the country. An ill-advised bid by Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party to push an amnesty law through Parliament that would have allowed Thaksin's return from exile sparked the latest wave of protests.
AP
No comments:
Post a Comment