A crowd attacked the motorcade of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva last month outside a ministry building in Bangkok. (Reuters)May 6, 2009
By THOMAS FULLER and SETH MYDANS
New York Times
BANGKOK — Rarely has a leader in Thailand lost face in such a spectacular way. When protesters broke through a weak security cordon last month, storming into the venue of a regional summit meeting, visiting dignitaries, including the prime ministers of China and Japan, hastily fled the country.
Uncertain of the loyalty of his armed forces, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, young and untested, called together his military commanders and challenged them to stand by him.
“I said, ‘Do you want to perform your duties of making sure there is law and order?”’ Mr. Abhisit said in an interview Monday, his first detailed public account of the turmoil that almost brought down his government.
“Do you want the country to fall into chaos? Do you want us to be a failed state? If not, action has to be taken.”’
The crisis did not stop there. One day later, on April 12, just after he had declared a state of emergency, security officers stood back as an angry mob attacked his car, forcing his driver to ram his way through a chained gate to escape.
The goal of protesters, Mr. Abhisit said, was to create a situation in which the government was “no longer in control.”
In the following days, Mr. Abhisit oversaw the quelling of riots across Bangkok by thousands of troops. Despite rumors of a coup, the military and the police stood firm while minimizing casualties. But Mr. Abhisit had been politically wounded, and the challenges he faces are starker than ever.
Just five months in office, Mr. Abhisit, 44, is trying to stabilize a country that has sometimes seemed to be spinning out of control, with prolonged street protests, the takeover of Bangkok’s airports and continuing challenges to the legitimacy of its rulers.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006, appears to be continuing to try to undermine the current government, and both sides of a sharp divide are threatening more protests in the streets.
In the interview, Mr. Abhisit took a technocrat’s approach to the country’s broad divisions, outlining plans for an economic stimulus package, for a possible referendum on constitutional change and for an election, perhaps next year, that would give his government, which has not yet been subject to a popular vote, democratic legitimacy.
But he said a certain degree of common ground would be needed in order for any elections to be seen as legitimate and to avoid political violence.
“Just imagine if you had elections, maybe one party gets involved in vote buying, gets disbanded, and then we have street protests about this,” he said, describing a now-familiar scenario. “We’re not moving anywhere, so I think we should have rules that are acceptable to all before we have elections.”
Other preconditions to an election, he said, were the implementation of a government stimulus package; the holding of two more scheduled East Asian summit meetings this year; and a move away from the kind of violence that has shadowed recent Thai politics.
The two regional meetings, to be held next month and in October, raise again what has become a telling question of Mr. Abhisit’s administration — his control of the country’s security organs and of the stability of his nation.
Thailand’s third prime minister in a year, Mr. Abhisit finds himself at the center of a clash of political ambitions, social divisions and forces of history that are changing the face of Thailand.
A country that was seen in recent decades as a freewheeling but stable democracy with healthy economic growth has become one of the most volatile and politically unstable in the region. Its economy, struggling in the worldwide economic downturn, has been wounded further by a collapse in confidence that has driven away investors and tourists.
Asked whether the challenges facing his government compare to those facing President Barack Obama — healing political divisions, nursing a wounded economy back to life and restoring Thailand’s image in the world — Mr. Abhisit said that although his country did not face a banking crisis, the political situation was more grave.
“The divisions here are certainly a lot deeper and have a more complicated background to it,” he said.
“It’s going to be more difficult and take more time.”
Thailand’s sense of nationhood has been shaken by political and geographical rivalries as well as by the fading health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, who has been the country’s unifying force and moral core.
Thailand’s divisions involve a challenge by new wealth and a newly empowered poor majority to a power elite that coalesces around the monarchy and includes the military establishment.
Though he appeared to secure the backing of the armed forces last month, many analysts see the flow of control going the opposite direction, with Mr. Abhisit beholden to the military for its political support when he took office through a parliamentary vote last December.
“I’m not sure he knows or accepts that he came to power through the support of one side of the conflict,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a specialist in Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I’m not sure he has enough guts and that he has gathered enough political clout to break away from the people who brought him to power.”
The political crisis comes as Thailand, dependent on tourism and the export of cars and electronics, is losing jobs and heading for an economic contraction of as much as 4 percent this year, according to official estimates.
In order to finance a stimulus program of infrastructure building, the government plans to rescind a law that bans it from borrowing more than 20 percent of its spending. The announcement will be made Wednesday, and the lifting of the deficit-spending cap will be temporary, lasting two or three years, Mr. Abhisit said.
At a minimum, Mr. Abhisit said, he will not call for fresh elections until after a new budget is passed in October.
The continuing threat of violence was demonstrated on April 17, when gunmen shot and nearly killed Sondhi Limthongkul, a leader of the royalist “yellow shirt” movement, which opposes the protesters who challenged the government last month.
“The assassination attempt has sent signals to others, even Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva,” Mr. Sondhi said Sunday at a news conference. “The message was that if Mr. Sondhi could be killed, so could Mr. Abhisit.”
In the interview Mr. Abhisit acknowledged the threat, saying his security detail had been strengthened since the assault on him in his car.
He offered a vivid, firsthand account from the point of view of a prime minister trapped inside an armored limousine, looking out through the windows at an angry mob.
“They were after me,” he said.
On April 11, soon after apologizing to Asian leaders who had been evacuated from the summit meeting in the beach resort of Pattaya, Mr. Abhisit flew by helicopter to a military compound in Bangkok where he said he received assurances of the support of the armed forces in a country with a long history of coups.
But the next day, with the number of anti-government demonstrators swelling, he found himself blocked in his Mercedes sedan for about 20 minutes as he attempted to leave the Interior Ministry, where he had declared a state of emergency.
“They were throwing everything they had — they had flower pots, they had steel rods, they had knives,” he said. “One of the protesters almost got to me before I was inside the car.”
“Security officers in the ministry compound were completely powerless, for whatever reason,” he said.
“Maybe they were just thinking, ‘Well, what can we do, what can we do?’ and they were just trying to stand around the car as much as they could.”
Somebody fired a shot into the air, he said, and his driver threw the car into reverse and rammed through a gate to escape.
Mr. Abhisit spent the next two days in a war room inside a military compound, directing the military and the police in effort to contain the spreading protests and rioting. He slept at a military base.
Protesters finally surrendered to security forces on Tuesday, April 14, but not before two people were killed and more than 100 injured.
Some analysts believe that Mr. Abhisit’s recovery from his humiliation at the Asian summit meeting and his demonstration of control during the riots that followed have strengthened his leadership of his party.
“Mr. Abhisit now has a better bargaining position against his opponents,” said Gothom Arya, director of research at Mahidol University and a former election commissioner.
“He has more support. He came back from the brink.”
Uncertain of the loyalty of his armed forces, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, young and untested, called together his military commanders and challenged them to stand by him.
“I said, ‘Do you want to perform your duties of making sure there is law and order?”’ Mr. Abhisit said in an interview Monday, his first detailed public account of the turmoil that almost brought down his government.
“Do you want the country to fall into chaos? Do you want us to be a failed state? If not, action has to be taken.”’
The crisis did not stop there. One day later, on April 12, just after he had declared a state of emergency, security officers stood back as an angry mob attacked his car, forcing his driver to ram his way through a chained gate to escape.
The goal of protesters, Mr. Abhisit said, was to create a situation in which the government was “no longer in control.”
In the following days, Mr. Abhisit oversaw the quelling of riots across Bangkok by thousands of troops. Despite rumors of a coup, the military and the police stood firm while minimizing casualties. But Mr. Abhisit had been politically wounded, and the challenges he faces are starker than ever.
Just five months in office, Mr. Abhisit, 44, is trying to stabilize a country that has sometimes seemed to be spinning out of control, with prolonged street protests, the takeover of Bangkok’s airports and continuing challenges to the legitimacy of its rulers.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a coup in 2006, appears to be continuing to try to undermine the current government, and both sides of a sharp divide are threatening more protests in the streets.
In the interview, Mr. Abhisit took a technocrat’s approach to the country’s broad divisions, outlining plans for an economic stimulus package, for a possible referendum on constitutional change and for an election, perhaps next year, that would give his government, which has not yet been subject to a popular vote, democratic legitimacy.
But he said a certain degree of common ground would be needed in order for any elections to be seen as legitimate and to avoid political violence.
“Just imagine if you had elections, maybe one party gets involved in vote buying, gets disbanded, and then we have street protests about this,” he said, describing a now-familiar scenario. “We’re not moving anywhere, so I think we should have rules that are acceptable to all before we have elections.”
Other preconditions to an election, he said, were the implementation of a government stimulus package; the holding of two more scheduled East Asian summit meetings this year; and a move away from the kind of violence that has shadowed recent Thai politics.
The two regional meetings, to be held next month and in October, raise again what has become a telling question of Mr. Abhisit’s administration — his control of the country’s security organs and of the stability of his nation.
Thailand’s third prime minister in a year, Mr. Abhisit finds himself at the center of a clash of political ambitions, social divisions and forces of history that are changing the face of Thailand.
A country that was seen in recent decades as a freewheeling but stable democracy with healthy economic growth has become one of the most volatile and politically unstable in the region. Its economy, struggling in the worldwide economic downturn, has been wounded further by a collapse in confidence that has driven away investors and tourists.
Asked whether the challenges facing his government compare to those facing President Barack Obama — healing political divisions, nursing a wounded economy back to life and restoring Thailand’s image in the world — Mr. Abhisit said that although his country did not face a banking crisis, the political situation was more grave.
“The divisions here are certainly a lot deeper and have a more complicated background to it,” he said.
“It’s going to be more difficult and take more time.”
Thailand’s sense of nationhood has been shaken by political and geographical rivalries as well as by the fading health of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, who has been the country’s unifying force and moral core.
Thailand’s divisions involve a challenge by new wealth and a newly empowered poor majority to a power elite that coalesces around the monarchy and includes the military establishment.
Though he appeared to secure the backing of the armed forces last month, many analysts see the flow of control going the opposite direction, with Mr. Abhisit beholden to the military for its political support when he took office through a parliamentary vote last December.
“I’m not sure he knows or accepts that he came to power through the support of one side of the conflict,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a specialist in Southeast Asian studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I’m not sure he has enough guts and that he has gathered enough political clout to break away from the people who brought him to power.”
The political crisis comes as Thailand, dependent on tourism and the export of cars and electronics, is losing jobs and heading for an economic contraction of as much as 4 percent this year, according to official estimates.
In order to finance a stimulus program of infrastructure building, the government plans to rescind a law that bans it from borrowing more than 20 percent of its spending. The announcement will be made Wednesday, and the lifting of the deficit-spending cap will be temporary, lasting two or three years, Mr. Abhisit said.
At a minimum, Mr. Abhisit said, he will not call for fresh elections until after a new budget is passed in October.
The continuing threat of violence was demonstrated on April 17, when gunmen shot and nearly killed Sondhi Limthongkul, a leader of the royalist “yellow shirt” movement, which opposes the protesters who challenged the government last month.
“The assassination attempt has sent signals to others, even Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva,” Mr. Sondhi said Sunday at a news conference. “The message was that if Mr. Sondhi could be killed, so could Mr. Abhisit.”
In the interview Mr. Abhisit acknowledged the threat, saying his security detail had been strengthened since the assault on him in his car.
He offered a vivid, firsthand account from the point of view of a prime minister trapped inside an armored limousine, looking out through the windows at an angry mob.
“They were after me,” he said.
On April 11, soon after apologizing to Asian leaders who had been evacuated from the summit meeting in the beach resort of Pattaya, Mr. Abhisit flew by helicopter to a military compound in Bangkok where he said he received assurances of the support of the armed forces in a country with a long history of coups.
But the next day, with the number of anti-government demonstrators swelling, he found himself blocked in his Mercedes sedan for about 20 minutes as he attempted to leave the Interior Ministry, where he had declared a state of emergency.
“They were throwing everything they had — they had flower pots, they had steel rods, they had knives,” he said. “One of the protesters almost got to me before I was inside the car.”
“Security officers in the ministry compound were completely powerless, for whatever reason,” he said.
“Maybe they were just thinking, ‘Well, what can we do, what can we do?’ and they were just trying to stand around the car as much as they could.”
Somebody fired a shot into the air, he said, and his driver threw the car into reverse and rammed through a gate to escape.
Mr. Abhisit spent the next two days in a war room inside a military compound, directing the military and the police in effort to contain the spreading protests and rioting. He slept at a military base.
Protesters finally surrendered to security forces on Tuesday, April 14, but not before two people were killed and more than 100 injured.
Some analysts believe that Mr. Abhisit’s recovery from his humiliation at the Asian summit meeting and his demonstration of control during the riots that followed have strengthened his leadership of his party.
“Mr. Abhisit now has a better bargaining position against his opponents,” said Gothom Arya, director of research at Mahidol University and a former election commissioner.
“He has more support. He came back from the brink.”
1 comment:
The US worked so hard to oust a pro-China Thaksin, don't expect he would return. But who knows?
The elite Thais saw how Khmers peasants killed the rich and intellectuals, they will fight their best to keep the red shirts away from taking power.
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