City Life Forum
Mon Sep 01, 2008
Yesterday, Sunday 31st August, an emergency and extraordinary joint parliamentary session was held in Bangkok, in order to find solutions to the ongoing political crisis in Thailand. After over eleven hours of debate the Government Coalition stood firm in face of vast criticism from the opposition, the senate as well as the – independent – media and insisted that they will not step down, dissolve the house or bow to the demands from ‘street gang protesters’, as Prime Minister Samak Suntaravej called the hundreds of thousands strong People’s Alliance for Democracy, a group of conservative activist and protesters who have been holding street rallies in Bangkok and some other provinces for one hundred days now (and who have occupied the Parliament House since last Tuesday).
Leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Abhisit Vejjajiva stated that he did not support the unlawful movements of the PAD, he did not support PAD’s demands for a 70% appointed government and 30% elective, he emphasised that the Democrats would not use any power vacuum to assume power and urged the government, in order to ease tensions, to dissolve the house, something which would affect his political party as hard as any other, ‘We Democrats are willing to make a sacrifice, let’s all make this painful sacrifice and get back to the table to discuss things calmly.’ Members of the Government’s coalition, while standing firmly behind Prime Minister Samak, also urged the Government to avoid the use of force at all costs.
However, some members of the People’s Power Party called the Prime Minister to use tear gas to force out the demonstrators and insisted that the elected government was legitimate and the voice of many more millions of silent voters carried more weight than the demands from a group of protesters. They also cited the high cost of holding yet another election (2 billion baht) only seven months after the last one. These issues were attacked throughout the session by the Democrats and other members of the opposition who accepted the Government’s legitimacy in assuming power, but called for the government to ‘look at itself and consider itself’ as to its legitimacy in the country’s management thus far. Key issues of lack of legitimacy being the ‘nominee Prime Minister’, the support for the World Heritage Site bid for Cambodia, the government’s insistence on amending the constitution to benefit the dissolved Thai Rak Thai banned members of parliament, widespread corruption, the appointment of questionable characters to ministerial positions and the use of extreme force this last Friday against the PAD demonstrators. The Government was also heavily criticised for its use of inflammatory remarks during the session as well as numerous ungrounded accusations, the Prime Minister having been accused at one point of ‘bullying a little girl,’ when a member of the government produced a document which was found in his pigeon hole and which accused of a young member of parliament from a southern province of laundering over 250 million baht through a company to support the Democratic party. When she asked for a copy of this alleged document, the Prime Minister refused to show it to her, but finally bowed down and handed it over amidst huge outrage and protest.
Today at 1.30 the session will continue, though with Samak’s combative style, and his lack of any concessions yesterday, little hope is expected for an immediate solution. Members of the senate critisised the Prime Minister and members of the coalition for not apologising for acts of violence against demonstrators, for calling an extraordinary session but yet not taking any of the advice or suggestions on board, for fuelling divisiveness in society by encouraging opposition mobs to support the government – which could lead to violent clashing – and for its incompetence in running the country over the past seven months.
The Prime Minister remained steady in his conviction and insisted that he would remain in power to preserve Thai democracy and that only a democratic method would be used for him to step down.
More demonstrators are joining both sides of the debate with the water authority threatening to cut power to all government offices today, more bureaucrats joining the ‘civil disobedience’, as well as an alarming number of protesters and border police being bussed down from the north eastern region of Thailand into the capital. While Thailand’s coups and civil disobedience have, on the most part, remained peaceful in the last decade, there are very real fears of the situation escalating to bloodshed.
However, tourists to Thailand are now able to travel freely by plane, as all airports which were closed over the weekend have now been opened, and as yet, protest zones have been localised and have no physical threat has been made towards any visitor.
As editor of Citylife magazine, I join the many voiced in Thailand and urge the government to dissolve the parliament and hold another general election as soon as possible in order to ease tensions and avoid bloodshed.
Mon Sep 01, 2008
Yesterday, Sunday 31st August, an emergency and extraordinary joint parliamentary session was held in Bangkok, in order to find solutions to the ongoing political crisis in Thailand. After over eleven hours of debate the Government Coalition stood firm in face of vast criticism from the opposition, the senate as well as the – independent – media and insisted that they will not step down, dissolve the house or bow to the demands from ‘street gang protesters’, as Prime Minister Samak Suntaravej called the hundreds of thousands strong People’s Alliance for Democracy, a group of conservative activist and protesters who have been holding street rallies in Bangkok and some other provinces for one hundred days now (and who have occupied the Parliament House since last Tuesday).
Leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Abhisit Vejjajiva stated that he did not support the unlawful movements of the PAD, he did not support PAD’s demands for a 70% appointed government and 30% elective, he emphasised that the Democrats would not use any power vacuum to assume power and urged the government, in order to ease tensions, to dissolve the house, something which would affect his political party as hard as any other, ‘We Democrats are willing to make a sacrifice, let’s all make this painful sacrifice and get back to the table to discuss things calmly.’ Members of the Government’s coalition, while standing firmly behind Prime Minister Samak, also urged the Government to avoid the use of force at all costs.
However, some members of the People’s Power Party called the Prime Minister to use tear gas to force out the demonstrators and insisted that the elected government was legitimate and the voice of many more millions of silent voters carried more weight than the demands from a group of protesters. They also cited the high cost of holding yet another election (2 billion baht) only seven months after the last one. These issues were attacked throughout the session by the Democrats and other members of the opposition who accepted the Government’s legitimacy in assuming power, but called for the government to ‘look at itself and consider itself’ as to its legitimacy in the country’s management thus far. Key issues of lack of legitimacy being the ‘nominee Prime Minister’, the support for the World Heritage Site bid for Cambodia, the government’s insistence on amending the constitution to benefit the dissolved Thai Rak Thai banned members of parliament, widespread corruption, the appointment of questionable characters to ministerial positions and the use of extreme force this last Friday against the PAD demonstrators. The Government was also heavily criticised for its use of inflammatory remarks during the session as well as numerous ungrounded accusations, the Prime Minister having been accused at one point of ‘bullying a little girl,’ when a member of the government produced a document which was found in his pigeon hole and which accused of a young member of parliament from a southern province of laundering over 250 million baht through a company to support the Democratic party. When she asked for a copy of this alleged document, the Prime Minister refused to show it to her, but finally bowed down and handed it over amidst huge outrage and protest.
Today at 1.30 the session will continue, though with Samak’s combative style, and his lack of any concessions yesterday, little hope is expected for an immediate solution. Members of the senate critisised the Prime Minister and members of the coalition for not apologising for acts of violence against demonstrators, for calling an extraordinary session but yet not taking any of the advice or suggestions on board, for fuelling divisiveness in society by encouraging opposition mobs to support the government – which could lead to violent clashing – and for its incompetence in running the country over the past seven months.
The Prime Minister remained steady in his conviction and insisted that he would remain in power to preserve Thai democracy and that only a democratic method would be used for him to step down.
More demonstrators are joining both sides of the debate with the water authority threatening to cut power to all government offices today, more bureaucrats joining the ‘civil disobedience’, as well as an alarming number of protesters and border police being bussed down from the north eastern region of Thailand into the capital. While Thailand’s coups and civil disobedience have, on the most part, remained peaceful in the last decade, there are very real fears of the situation escalating to bloodshed.
However, tourists to Thailand are now able to travel freely by plane, as all airports which were closed over the weekend have now been opened, and as yet, protest zones have been localised and have no physical threat has been made towards any visitor.
As editor of Citylife magazine, I join the many voiced in Thailand and urge the government to dissolve the parliament and hold another general election as soon as possible in order to ease tensions and avoid bloodshed.
No comments:
Post a Comment