2 replies to this topic

[B.I.G.]

"Police are being blamed for being too lenient while trying to control mobs on Friday and letting their confrontation end in violence, which marred the peaceful rally by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).

Thammasat University vice-rector Prinya Thewanaruemitkul said yesterday he doubted the police actions were politically motivated but the officers ''looked reluctant'' to deal with the group supporting the People Power party (PPP)-led government. The PPP is alleged to have a strong connection with ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and is being investigated to see if it is his proxy.

The anti-PAD group gathered at Sanam Luang and tried to break through police barricades and enter the university where a political forum was being held by the PAD. The pro-PPP group used everything they could find to provoke PAD supporters, throwing rocks and bottles at them and even unzipping their flies and exposing themselves.

Supporters and opponents hurled objects at one another during the rally. Seri Uma, a cameraman from Channel 7, was hit by a glass bottle as he was photographing the PAD forum. Mr Seri, who suffered a wound over his left eyebrow, suspects the bottle was thrown by the anti-PAD group. He has vowed to take legal action against them.

The Thai Journalists Association and Thai Broadcast Journalists Association yesterday denounced the actions and called on police to get tough with the instigators. ''It was quite clear there was wrongdoing in front of the officers, but they took no action against the instigators,'' the associations said in a statement....

The PAD decided to postpone their next rally, which was aimed at protesting against the PPP's moves to amend the constitution this week, after the confrontation between the two sides turned violent. "

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/27Apr2008_news10.php

[J.Bell]

It's obvious that this whole political thing is descending very quickly into the shouting matches and street parades that preceded the coup of 2006. You don't suppose we are headed that way again - do you ?

[Hedda]

You don't suppose we are headed that way again - do you ?

Not exactly, if you listen to the Thai "experts" in the papers and blogs. A lot of them think that the next coup may, in fact, be arranged by Khun Thaksin himself, who they opine has the money to buy the kind of coup he needs to end his protracted legal problems and resume power.

The theory is that Thaksin is not prepared to risk the uncertainties of his current legal and political status and will use street violence in Bangkok as a pretext to finance a "democratic coup" by a group of generals who proclaim their intention to return Thailand to the "full democracy" it enjoyed under the "peoples" Constitution of 1997. That's the charter that the coup of 2006 abrogated in favor of the "Interim Constitution" under which Thailand functioned from September, 2006 to January, 2008. It was under that "Interim Constitution" that all of the junta's actions against TRT and Thaksin took place.

The sponsors of this "democratic coup," will declare that it is their intention to "wash the slate clean" of the illegal 2006 coup by reinstating the 1997 Constitution and returning Thailand to the "democratic status quo" before the 2006 coup. That will effectively restore TRT ands its banned executives to good standing and lift the seizure of Thaksin assets done by the junta's AEC.

In order to calm the predictable international outrage over yet another coup, the coup leaders will announce that parliament, as comprised on the day prior to the coup of September, 2006, will be immediately reconvened for the purpose of setting the date for new elections and electing a caretaker cabinet to run the country in the interim. For all intents and purposes, Thailand's democracy, as it existed prior to the 2006 coup, will be fully restored and functioning within hours of the "democratic coup."