PAD declares victory as protesters breach cordons / Army chief urges Samak to dissolve parliament / All army units ordered to remain on standby
Saturday June 21, 2008
Bangkok POST REPORTERS
Army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda has advised Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to think seriously about dissolving the House to end the turmoil on the streets of the capital.
Gen Anupong, who joined top-level security officials at the Army Club to monitor the People's Alliance for Democracy's protest march yesterday afternoon, told Mr Samak he should explore the House dissolution option, a source said. This was because the PAD demonstrators had declared victory by laying siege to Government House.
Clearing the decks would allow the people to "make a new decision" at a fresh general election.
In the meantime, Mr Samak would head a caretaker government and remain in power long enough to supervise a major military reshuffle in August.
The source added Mr Samak would help ward off any influence from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the military shake-up.
"Part of the reason Gen Anupong doesn't want Mr Samak to resign is because he fears that his replacement will not be as compromising with the military. The new prime minister would only be a yes-man to Mr Thaksin," the source said.
A House dissolution, however, is technically impossible at present because the no-confidence motion filed by the opposition Democrats has been put on parliament's agenda.
Under the 2007 charter, the prime minister is not allowed to dissolve the House during a no-confidence session.
Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, said the opposition may "remove the lock" by withdrawing the censure motion if the government sought its cooperation.
The source said Gen Anupong ordered all army units to remain on standby and stay neutral as senators echoed calls for the military to stay in their barracks.
The number of PAD supporters, meanwhile, reached tens of thousands. The protesters started mobilising at about 10am yesterday.
Bands of protesters, mostly in yellow shirts, started their march and pushed their way past police barricades on Ratchadamnoen avenue and surrounded Government House at 3.30pm.
Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD leader, then declared the victory in front of Government House.
"The PAD movement today is an historic event and a great credit to the country. In the face of such a phenomenon, the government will have to get out within a few days," he said.
It is unclear how long the PAD plans to lay siege to Government House, although there is speculation the protest could last many days.
Mr Samak yesterday declined to comment on the PAD rally, saying he would only talk about preparations for the Asean Summit to be held in Thailand in December. He presided over a meeting at the Foreign Ministry on the summit.
"Let's ask the ones who are responsible for the PAD rally," he said.
A source close to Mr Samak said the prime minister will likely convert the Defence Ministry into a temporary office and the cabinet has scheduled its weekly meeting on Tuesday at the Foreign Ministry.
Mr Samak was reportedly angry at the police's failure to hold back the protesters.
Police chief Pol Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwan said police on the front line, including border patrol officers, were told to avoid clashes with the protesters at all costs.
"I'm pleased no one was hurt," the police chief said.
It was reported Mr Samak told the security meeting yesterday one measure to get back at the protesters was to deny them mobile toilets.
During the march, police equipped with shields and protesters pushed and shoved each other briefly. Four police officers, two of them women, sustained some injuries and were treated at the Police Hospital.
The protesters managed to break through the police barriers and later regrouped outside Government House before the PAD leaders took to the make-shift stage to declare victory over the government.
PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul said the PAD would petition the Administrative Court to order the government not to proceed with the joint communique it signed with Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple issue.
The PAD would also file criminal action against the cabinet for endorsing the joint communique.
Saturday June 21, 2008
Bangkok POST REPORTERS
Army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda has advised Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to think seriously about dissolving the House to end the turmoil on the streets of the capital.
Gen Anupong, who joined top-level security officials at the Army Club to monitor the People's Alliance for Democracy's protest march yesterday afternoon, told Mr Samak he should explore the House dissolution option, a source said. This was because the PAD demonstrators had declared victory by laying siege to Government House.
Clearing the decks would allow the people to "make a new decision" at a fresh general election.
In the meantime, Mr Samak would head a caretaker government and remain in power long enough to supervise a major military reshuffle in August.
The source added Mr Samak would help ward off any influence from former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in the military shake-up.
"Part of the reason Gen Anupong doesn't want Mr Samak to resign is because he fears that his replacement will not be as compromising with the military. The new prime minister would only be a yes-man to Mr Thaksin," the source said.
A House dissolution, however, is technically impossible at present because the no-confidence motion filed by the opposition Democrats has been put on parliament's agenda.
Under the 2007 charter, the prime minister is not allowed to dissolve the House during a no-confidence session.
Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, said the opposition may "remove the lock" by withdrawing the censure motion if the government sought its cooperation.
The source said Gen Anupong ordered all army units to remain on standby and stay neutral as senators echoed calls for the military to stay in their barracks.
The number of PAD supporters, meanwhile, reached tens of thousands. The protesters started mobilising at about 10am yesterday.
Bands of protesters, mostly in yellow shirts, started their march and pushed their way past police barricades on Ratchadamnoen avenue and surrounded Government House at 3.30pm.
Maj-Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD leader, then declared the victory in front of Government House.
"The PAD movement today is an historic event and a great credit to the country. In the face of such a phenomenon, the government will have to get out within a few days," he said.
It is unclear how long the PAD plans to lay siege to Government House, although there is speculation the protest could last many days.
Mr Samak yesterday declined to comment on the PAD rally, saying he would only talk about preparations for the Asean Summit to be held in Thailand in December. He presided over a meeting at the Foreign Ministry on the summit.
"Let's ask the ones who are responsible for the PAD rally," he said.
A source close to Mr Samak said the prime minister will likely convert the Defence Ministry into a temporary office and the cabinet has scheduled its weekly meeting on Tuesday at the Foreign Ministry.
Mr Samak was reportedly angry at the police's failure to hold back the protesters.
Police chief Pol Gen Patcharawat Wongsuwan said police on the front line, including border patrol officers, were told to avoid clashes with the protesters at all costs.
"I'm pleased no one was hurt," the police chief said.
It was reported Mr Samak told the security meeting yesterday one measure to get back at the protesters was to deny them mobile toilets.
During the march, police equipped with shields and protesters pushed and shoved each other briefly. Four police officers, two of them women, sustained some injuries and were treated at the Police Hospital.
The protesters managed to break through the police barriers and later regrouped outside Government House before the PAD leaders took to the make-shift stage to declare victory over the government.
PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul said the PAD would petition the Administrative Court to order the government not to proceed with the joint communique it signed with Cambodia over the Preah Vihear temple issue.
The PAD would also file criminal action against the cabinet for endorsing the joint communique.
13 comments:
Tis is a good democracy way to kick the Hun Sen's corrupt gvt out to save Cambodia from the Vietnamisation.
The author 0f Norna chea Kheatakors ?
Cambodian army leaders should learn from their peers in Thailand who are more matured than them. They must allow people to excercise their right against their stupid government so that a good government can be set up. In a democratic country people has their right to remove their leader by two ways;
-By election
-By putting pressure through masse demonstration.
If the army is good, they will call their Prime Minister to step down before public and private interests are in chaos. Without deploying arm force to put pressure to the government, we cannot call that act as coup d'etat. Areak Prey
Shut up fuck first commentor! You went to far beyong the fuck.
Ah Siamesethai GV.T's doesn't wanted to go anywhere they know how to play this game with Ah cronny HUN SEN'sGVT, just harrassing, bullying all of Khmer nation, then waiting for the right moment to invad our Country; for the tim been they're seting up a different guanster echelon including the black clade along the border. They are awareof their renagation to the treaty with french GV.T, though they feel such a shemeful to bring this issue(Khmer encauched Siaese land) to face the world Course of justice, furthermore they don't have much tangible evidance to reconvince the Course. Therefore they are chosing this acts as an old path waiting for a right moment to make their move militarily. They feel one of the appropriat option to do so, they have the stock piles of Military hardware not to let it gets rusted without fighting to re-occupied Cambodian land. This way is wrong idea Ah Siam if you need Khmer nation as your neighbour friend you should change your bad idiology. That mean you worke so hard for non sence and with no credible evidance to prove.
May god bless Khmer all!
Down to Ah Siamthai(I BAR lev KOR GOR Duoy NAR KAH!)
Hun Sen's residence will be next.
Let's use 'people power' to topple the current regime.
Let's do it as a team, and for the country, our children, and grand children.
Let's do it together, once for ALL!
it looks to me like the thai gov't is a coward and always give way to the pad's demand or something. plus, it is obvious too that the thai military is always on the side of the pad thugs all the time. so they kept on switching their gov't back and forth back and forth non-stop. how can anyone do their jobs or get their jobs done like this. this is their way of saying whatever agreement the gov't signed is they deemed disagreeable because it's not at their approval. so in a way the pad thugs are the authority in itself, to hell with the thai central gov't. so, the saying thailand is ran by the thugs is so true after all as they really do not have an effective permanent gov't, just a bunch of loud-mouthed thugs who called themselves the people's alliance for democracy (pad for short). so, cambodia and the world really can see the whole picture, here. i mean one has got to analyze the situation to see this. so there!
and of course, the pad is tied to the thai monarchy. so there is the culprit! everyone else is just their "little people". clever, indeed! but not in a good way, meaning only good for them, not not good for anyone else outside of thailand. no wonder, they never get anything done. to make it worse, their military always back them up. so there is a real meaning to the so-called "military gov't", and they called themeselves democracy. very clever, indeed! i wonder how long that'll last? nothing last forever, you know!
anyway, who cares about the thai internal affairs, but just to understand their psych or mentality is good enough.
this is why unesco and the world court thinking differently from the thai because, of course, it's not always about them, especially in the case of cambodia's preah vihear. so i hope unesco will stick with the international laws and go ahead with the registration of preah vihear as a world heritage site as a way to show thailand that unesco does not think like them because unesco is a fair and reasonable body of international committee that consist of law and archaeological experts that use factual evidence and lawful treaty and lawful order from the world court ruling of 1962 to make their decision without the illegal and unlawful demand of the thai that in violation of cambodian sovereignty and rights to do what cambodia want and need with our preah vihear temple. god bless cambodia.
of course, thailand is run by the military, and it still called itself "democracy"! clever, tactic, huh!
maybe cambodia ought to learn from thailand like having the military protect the "democracy" and military make sure the gov't is fair and just and is doing the right thing like in thailand. wake up cambodia, learn from thailand, especially in the military style ruling, thai style? or maybe khmer prefers khmer style! but i'm wondering how long is that style of gov't is going to last in thailand as history indicated that nothing can last forever!
I am total agreed with you 2:30 AM
you have the point.
May god bless khmer all
Hey stop changing the subject. The temple belong to Khmer-Thai, and you can't go by Kangaroo court, period.
International court is not kangaroo court.
The Temple built by Khmer Empire King Suryavaraman or Yasovaraman (AD 893. When T'ai took Preah Viheah, T'ai stoled 3 Shiva lingrams, and still until today T'ai never gave back to Cambodia.
T'ai claimed that Thailand is a rightfull owner of Preah Viheah and Angkor Wat, because T'ai Kings are Khmer Morn. King Phumibol has Khmer Morn blood in him.
But our Khmer King are Khmer from trasak P'aem.
No, it was the Khmer-Thai who asked the Thai to take Preah-Vihear for them. Keep in mind that the Thai are really Chinese clan; they don't worship Preah Vihear, and they have no use for it, only Khmer-Thai does.
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