Following one of the largest mass rallies in recent years, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday the political situation was "heating up" but dismissed most of the protests against him as pre-election campaigning.
More than 42,000 people flocked to a downtown park on Friday night to hear Thaksin's most vocal critic -- media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul -- reel off more examples of alleged corruption in the Thaksin government. Some estimates of the attendance were higher.
"The political atmosphere is heating up these day. There are several groups of people staging protests, rallies and making noise. It is a normal phenomena of every election," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address.
He said the leaders were merely promoting themselves ahead of next April's election of 200 senators.
Besides Sondhi's followers, recent anti-Thaksin protesters have included farmers, teachers and employees of the state-run Electric Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). Academics continue to criticize the government for massive corruption, suppression of the media and politicization of major institutions.
Also confronted by economic problems, Thaksin said the public should be encouraged by a probable increase of GDP this year of 4.5 percent. He predicted GDP growth would rise to 5.3 percent next year as the government campaigns for more tourists and increased exports.
On Friday, Sondhi accused the Thai leader of urging the purchase of unsuitable jet fighters from Russia to reap a kickback of 3.5 billion baht (US$85 million).
In a new allegation of corruption, Sondhi said that instead of purchasing superior planes from the US or Sweden, Thaksin used his power to urge the air force commander to buy Russian planes that didn't fit Thailand's defense needs. The commander, Kongsak Watana, has recently been appointed the interior minister.
During a meeting last year, the foreign ministers of Thailand and Russia discussed the possibility of bartering Thai chickens for 12 Russian SU-30 jet fighters. A deal has yet to be concluded.
The rally, billed as a major showdown with Thaksin, failed to draw the half million people that Sondhi had hoped for in his continuing campaign to expose the wrongdoings of the government and oust the prime minister.
Many people carried signs reading, "Thaksin, get out" and "Thaksin's time is up." The audience applauded every time Sondhi mentioned Thaksin in connection with corruption or cronyism.
The crowd included protesting teachers and EGAT employees who chanted, "Give back the shares, give back EGAT." The employees are protesting privatization of the company, while the teachers, now under the Education Ministry, are against being placed under local administration control.
Over the past two months Sondhi, once a close associate of the prime minister, has generated the biggest political crisis facing the once highly popular Thaksin in his nearly five years in power.
Tensions, however, cooled over the past week after Thailand's revered king admonished Thaksin over his inability to accept criticism and tendency to strike out at opponents with lawsuits. Two days after King Bhumibol Adulyadej's advice, contained in a birthday speech, Thaksin dropped half a dozen lawsuits against Sondhi.
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