Thailand’s main opposition party called for an emergency parliament session yesterday to prove its majority and form the next government — a surprising reversal of fortune that some suggested was engineered by the politically potent military.
Democrat Party Secretary-General Suthep Thuagsuban filed a formal request for convening parliament to demonstrate it has the support of enough legislators to form the next government and end months of political paralysis.
This Southeast Asian nation has been gripped by political chaos for three months, with protesters seizing the prime minister’s office and overrunning the capital’s two airports for about a week in a bid to topple the government, accusing it of being a proxy of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
House Speaker Chai Chidchob must seek the constitutional monarch’s approval to convene an emergency session of the house, but that’s considered a formality.
“The Democrat Party is ready to govern. We will do our best to gear the country out of a crisis,” said Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, 44, an Oxford-educated economist. “We will boost the confidence of foreign investors and tourists.”
Ahisit denied the army was involved in his party’s sudden boost.
“Everything is done and must be done through the parliamentary process,” he said.
The country’s second-largest party until a week ago, the Democrat Party’s newfound strength comes from defections by one-time allies of Thaksin after the collapse of the ruling coalition last week.
The government lost power after the Constitutional Court disbanded Thaksin’s People’s Power Party and two other partners in the ruling coalition after finding them guilty of electoral fraud.
The People’s Power Party was reborn as the Pheu Thai Party, but it watched helplessly as many of its coalition partners joined a Democrat Party-led coalition in a shocking turn of events that some described as a political coup.
The Democrat Party now claims the support of 260 lawmakers, including 166 of its members and the rest from defectors, in the 480-member House of Representatives. Because of vacancies the house currently has 438 members.
Local media speculated that the defections were encouraged by the military, which has traditionally played a key role in politics.
“People in uniforms were pressuring political factions to join the Democrat-led government,” said Jatuporn Phromphan, a Thaksin ally and a lawmaker.
“It has been their plan all along. They usurped power through the court ruling last week and now they are lobbying lawmakers to join the Democrats. It is undemocratic,” he said in a telephone interview.
There are fears that Thaksin supporters would take to the streets, triggering another round of social unrest.
Thai army spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkumnerd denied the allegations, saying that the army was not involved in politics.
However, the military’s hand in Thai politics is undeniable. It has mounted 18 successful coups in the past, the latest in 2006 when it booted out Thaksin amid allegations of corruption.
Thaksin fled the country in July and was sentenced to two years in jail in October for violating a conflict of interest law. He now lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates.
The weeklong airport siege that ended last Wednesday left more than 300,000 foreign travelers stranded and dealt a crippling blow to the economy and the crucial tourism industry.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not