Tens of thousands of Thai protesters massed ahead of a major rally yesterday aimed at ousting the premier, paralyzing central Bangkok a day after the main opposition party declared a boycott of snap polls.
At least 110,000 people had gathered at several sites across Bangkok by late yesterday afternoon, officials said.
Earlier, several thousand people — mainly women — gathered outside Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s suburban house amid tight security, according to a reporter at the scene, although the premier was traveling outside the capital.
Blowing whistles — the symbol of the weeks-long protests — and waving Thai flags, the crowd chanted: “Yingluck get out.”
The embattled prime minister, who was forced to dissolve the house early this month after the Democrat Party resigned en masse from parliament, is in the northeast of the country, the heartland of her ruling party.
Thailand has lurched deeper into crisis despite Yingluck’s scheduling of new elections on Feb. 2.
Demonstrators want to rid Thailand of Yingluck and the influence of her Dubai-based brother Thaksin — an ousted billionaire ex-premier who is despised by a coalition of the southern Thai poor, Bangkok middle classes and elite.
Firebrand protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who has vowed to destroy the “Thaksin regime,” dismisses Yingluck’s call for an election, saying it will install another Thaksin-allied government.
Instead the self-proclaimed People’s Democratic Reform Committee is calling for an unelected “people’s council” to be installed to oversee sweeping, but loosely-defined reforms before new elections in about a year to 18 months.
“People want reform before an election,” he said to rapturous applause at a stage near Bangkok’s largest shopping mall.
“Today we closed Bangkok for half a day. If the government doesn’t resign we will close Bangkok for a whole day... If it still does not resign we will close it for a month,” he said.
Analysts say Suthep’s bid is backed by powerful behind-the-scenes forces in a country which has seen 18 successful or attempted coups since 1932.
His movement was bolstered on Saturday by the Democrats’ announcement of a poll boycott.
The move dismayed the prime minister who said elections must take place to secure Thailand’s fragile democracy.
“If we don’t hold on to the democratic system, what should we hold on to?” she told reporters yesterday.
Opposition protesters began to converge at the protest base at Democracy Monument for the main rally due early yesterday evening.
Suthep led a boisterous march of several thousand people to Bangkok’s main commercial district, as demonstrators blocked traffic at several points — including at a symbolic intersection occupied by rival “Red Shirts” in 2010 pro-Thaksin rallies which ended in bloodshed.
Suthep, then deputy prime minister for the Democrat Party, faces murder charges over the crackdown which left scores dead.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva — who has also been indicted for murder over the crackdown — on Saturday said his party would boycott February polls.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS