He was at PAD rallies? New Thai foreign minister linked to airport protesters

Mr Kasit Piromya allegedly appeared at rallies organised by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which began an eight-day blockade of Suvarnabhumi airport last month. -- PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Dec 21, 2008
AFP

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S new foreign minister was immediately under pressure on assuming the role, after lawmakers criticised his ties with protesters who hijacked the capital's airports.

Mr Kasit Piromya, a 64-year-old graduate of Georgetown University, appeared at rallies organised by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which began an eight-day blockade of Suvarnabhumi airport last month.

The airport closure left an estimated 350,000 people stranded, and new premier Abhisit Vejjajiva has since said protesters must be held legally accountable for their actions.

The PAD, whose earlier demonstrations against Thaksin Shinawatra preceded his ouster in a coup in 2006, took to the streets in May, accusing the government of acting as a corrupt proxy for Thaksin.

'I want to tell him (Thaksin) that he will not win this fight. We will not step back,' Mr Kasit said at a protest rally earlier this year near Government House, which the group besieged late August.

Mr Kasit has since defended his role in the protests, saying that he only joined up 'to help society have good governance'.

'Joining the PAD was not a sin because millions of people had also joined it to help uproot corruption,' he said in quotes reported in the Bangkok Post newspaper on Saturday.

The new foreign minister began his career at the ministry in 1968 and has since held ambassadorial roles in Germany, Japan and the United States.

As a staunch nationalist Mr Kasit criticised the previous government's handling of a crisis with Cambodia, triggered with the neighbouring nation's application to grant World Heritage status for an ancient temple on a disputed border.

Thailand says it owns part of the temple's land and the protracted dispute led to a deployment of soldiers from both sides to the area, who clashed on Oct 15 leaving four dead.

But despite Mr Kasit's controversial stance, his experience has made him a key player in Mr Abhisit's cabinet, which has been otherwise criticised for a raft of relatively inexperienced players.

Mr Kasit told AFP before his official appointment that his first task would be hosting a summit of South-east Asian bloc Asean in January or February, but said he also planned to press for Thaksin's extradition.

'I have to talk to the countries which allow Thaksin to use their soil to launch a smear criticism against his homeland,' he said.

Thaksin fled into exile in August as corruption cases piled up against him, and he was sentenced on October 21 to two years in jail for breaching graft laws by helping his wife buy state-owned land.

But questions will be asked about Mr Kasit's suitability for the post given Mr Abhisit's vow to reconcile Thailand's warring factions.

'Kasit was always on the PAD stage and he is now rewarded for his repeated fierce attacks against Thaksin,' said Mr Surapong Tovichakchaikul, a lawmaker with the Thaksin-aligned Puea Thai party.

'There is no doubt this is a conspiracy among Democrats, the military, and PAD to crush Thaksin,' he added.

Mr Abhisit's coalition was created with former allies of Thaksin and small coalition parties who defected from supporting the previous government, which was ousted by a court ruling on Dec 3, finally ending the street protests.

Cambodia to form tourism task force to tackle crisis fallout

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's tourism sector is set to form a task force next week to address the Thai political crisis that has caused foreign arrivals in the Kingdom to plummet, national media reported Wednesday.

The task force will consist of 10 institutions, including airlines, travel agencies, hotels, restaurants and government departments, and will develop a national strategy to attract foreign tourists, Ho Vandy, president of the Cambodian Association of Travel Agents, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

He said the Ministry of Tourism approved the task force on Tuesday and it would convene next week.

Both of Bangkok's major airports have been occupied by anti-government protesters since last week, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded.

The crisis has hit Cambodia's tourism industry hard, as about a third of the Kingdom's visitors arrive via Thailand.

Ho Vandy said the task force hopes to shift Cambodia's tourist arrivals away from Thailand.

"Although most tourists in Cambodia come through Thailand, our tourism sector has survived because we have other gateways such as Malaysia, Singapore, China, South Korea and Vietnam," he added.

Thai Business Leaders Tell Premier to Step Down Amid Protests

By Suttinee Yuvejwattana and Daniel Ten Kate

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s business leaders said Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat should step down to end a siege at the nation’s main international airport, which has paralyzed travel and threatens a million jobs in the tourism industry.

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport remained shut for a sixth day as negotiations failed to clear thousands of protesters who are demanding Somchai’s resignation. Violence escalated in the past 24 hours, as demonstrators attacked police with steel bars near the airport and a blast at a government compound in the capital wounded 34 people.

“We’ve asked the government to resign or dissolve the parliament because we think this is the best way out,” Pramon Sutivong, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said today.

The call from the Chamber of Commerce increases the pressure on Somchai, who has been holed up in the northern city of Chiang Mai because of concern that growing protests in the capital may lead to a coup. A pro-government group plans to hold a rally in Bangkok today, increasing the likelihood of a bloody clash that may force the army to intervene.

“This situation can’t go on for long” Pramon said. “It will soon lead to violence, forcing the military to come out to stage a coup again. We all want to avoid that.”

An emergency order imposed on Bangkok’s airports and Government House has empowered police to clear the areas, though Somchai has said the government won’t use violence against the protesters. About 750 flights a day can’t get in or out of Suvarnabhumi, Asia’s fourth-busiest airport with as many as 100,000 passengers a day, the airport operator’s data shows.

Police Attacked

Negotiations to clear demonstrators failed yesterday, and violence broke out when 500 protesters armed with steel bars stormed a 150-strong police checkpoint. Police officers jumped into vans and sped away after demonstrators attacked the vehicles and threw firecrackers.

Somchai said yesterday he was willing to negotiate with protesters, if they lifted demands for his resignation and the dissolution of the government. Police efforts last month to clear demonstrators killed one person and injured hundreds.

Early today, an explosion wounded 48 people at the compound, said Winner Dachpian, a spokesman for the protesters. Nine people were sent to hospital, with three in critical condition, he said. A bomb was thrown into the site, the TNN television news network reported. Similar blasts have occurred in recent weeks.

Thai Army Chief Anupong Paojinda last week called for early elections to end six months of deadly protests.

Fresh Elections

The People’s Alliance for Democracy, composed mostly of the Bangkok middle class, royalists and civil servants, accuses Somchai of being the proxy of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup by Anupong and other generals. The group has rejected calls for fresh elections and said it wouldn’t leave the airport until the government steps down.

“If you can’t manage the country you have to resign,” Phongsak Assakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said by phone during a 14-hour bus ride to Bangkok from Hat Yai in southern Thailand. “Let the elected parliamentarians form a new government. If that government can’t govern, then let’s go have another election.”

An election may return the ruling party to power. Parties linked to Thaksin have won four elections since 2001 on strong rural support for its platform of cheap health care and village loans. The protesters want a new political system that prevents the return of Thaksin’s allies by diluting rural votes.

“One possible way out is to find a neutral person who’s universally acceptable to be the new prime minister,” said Ajva Taulananda, the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s honorary chairman and vice chairman of Charoen Pokphand Group. “This way, we will see a break from the political squabbling,” he said in a phone interview.

Travelers Stranded

Suvarnabhumi’s closure has stranded thousands of travelers in the Thai capital. Repatriating them, and returning the 50,000 Thais stranded overseas, may cost 1 billion baht ($28 million) and take as long as a month, Deputy Prime Minister Olarn Chaiprawat said, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday.

“People are losing trust in the Thai people,” the Chamber of Commerce’s Phongsak said. “It really damages the tourist industry, not only hotels and airlines, but also restaurants, guided tours, lots of people.”

Thailand is allowing airlines to use a naval base in the east of the country to repatriate stranded travelers.

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. warned of “chaotic” conditions and long lines at the military airfield.

The carrier, Hong Kong’s biggest, is one of about a dozen airlines using U-Tapao Airport, east of Bangkok near Pattaya. Japan Airlines Corp. and Singapore Airlines Ltd. were also using the facility, more than two hours away from Bangkok.

Airport Congestion

“There has been congestion because this airport wasn’t built to serve such a huge number of passengers,” Chaisak Ungsuwan, director general of the Air Transportation Department, said today. The airfield handled more than 100 flights yesterday, he said. Suvarnabhumi handles 600 daily flights.

The international airport in Bangkok will remain closed until Dec. 1, Airports of Thailand Pcl said yesterday.

Finance Minister Suchart Thadathamrongvej said the protests and airport closures may cause damage amounting to about 100 billion baht this quarter.

“The prolonged political gridlock will drag on our economy and create unemployment,” said Pramon, the Chamber of Commerce chairman. “We just hope that we can grow 3 percent next year, even though the hope is quite dim now.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net; Rattaphol Onsanit in Bangkok at ronsanit@bloomberg.net.

Dysfunctional Thailand Allowed Airport Seizures

Saturday, 29 November 2008
By Richard S. Ehrlich
Scoop Independent News (New Zealand)

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Travelers, businessmen and reporters, unable to fly through Bangkok's barricaded airports, were telling the world on Friday about dysfunctional Thailand, including a prediction that Al Qaeda terrorists will be delighted to learn how easy it is to seize two major airports.

Other travelers were desperately plotting escape routes from this Southeast Asian nation, which offers easy overland border crossings into Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia, where international flights are available.

"Al Qaeda must be salivating in delight, knowing that with a little will power, they can take over an airport quite easily and nobody will do anything," the scornful yet well-connected Thailand Jumped the Shark blog said on Friday.

"Shouldn't every major airport, and airline, in the world have a contingency plan for a hostile takeover of an airport?"

The protesters "could take hostages," but Thai security forces failed to prevent the massive glass-encased airport being seized.

Hundreds of shouting, stick-waving, anti-government protesters marched into Bangkok's expensive, sprawling, international airport on Tuesday.

Facing no resistance, the mob took over Bangkok's international airport while it was packed with thousands of international travelers.

Their control over Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and Bangkok's smaller mostly domestic Don Muang airport, "turns Thailand into a banana republic," Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk wrote in Friday's Nation, an English-language newspaper published in Bangkok.

Pravit's column was headlined "Held Hostage" because he was trapped in Seoul, South Korea, unable to fly here because his Cathay Pacific plane cancelled its Hong Kong to Bangkok route.

"I have wasted time and money" because of the airport siege, including "extra hotel bills, meals, work disruption. And I'm not alone."

Other newspapers, blogs and media echoed similar woes, plus harsh analysis of Thailand's paralysis.

Adding to the dangerous stalemate, Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat spent Friday self-exiled 350 miles north of Bangkok, hiding from Thailand's army.

The prime minister feared powerful Army Chief Gen Anupong Paojinda, or other army officers, might somehow neutralize him during a coup.

"Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat will remain in Chiang Mai for the time being, as the army situation is unsettled," government deputy spokeswoman Suparat Nakbunnam told reporters on Friday.

"From now on, the prime minister's schedules will be confidential."

Appearing nervous, the soft-spoken, slender Somchai said in a nationwide televised broadcast on Friday that "security forces will use peaceful means" to clear both airports soon.

Somchai imposed a "state of emergency" on the two airports on Thursday.

He said the police, navy and air force would evict the airport's mobs.

The prime minister did not include the army in his plan to clear the airports, apparently worried they would not follow orders.

The protest "leaders will never negotiate with police," boasted the movement's top leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, during a rally on Friday at Government House, which is the prime minister's office complex that has been occupied by the same protestors since August.


The prime minister on Friday demoted Thailand's national police chief, Gen Phatcharawat Wongsuwan, apparently because police failed to solve the escalating crisis.

The protesters inside Bangkok's international airport have strutted and yelled, but remained mostly peaceful throughout Friday.

They camped in its gorgeous, air-conditioned lounges alongside the few remaining travelers who slept on the floor and in chairs.

Most travelers, and virtually all tourists, shifted to hotels.

Many of the protesters appeared to be middle class men, women and children who wave noisy plastic "hand clappers," giggle, sing, eat, nap, and take souvenir photographs of each other.

On the airport's perimeter, however, tough men brandishing wooden clubs, thick metal pipes, slingshots and other weapons scan the nearby highway to see who is approaching.

They barricaded the international airport's highway entrances with parked vehicles, stacks of boxes and baggage carts, and debris.

They invaded the airport's control tower, and enjoy a wide view of the surrounding urban area.

Since Tuesday, they were able to freely supply the hundreds of protesters inside the international airport with food, water, cooking equipment, medicine and other items, brought in by vehicles which the authorities allowed through.

Belatedly, on Friday night, dozens of police armed with M-16 assault rifles arrived at a main road leading into Suvarnabhumi International Airport, and set up road blocks to prevent more vehicles from entering.

About 200 more police, armed with wooden clubs and riot shields, set up near the international airport's entrance on Friday, parking large trucks nearby.

While the siege has remained peaceful, a handful of people on both sides died during the past few months amid street clashes between protesters and government supporters, and an occasional grenade attack.

The protesters call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), but they oppose democratic elections and want to weaken Thailand's democracy by appointing most politicians.

In a reverse class war, the PAD are a minority of Bangkok's elite, businesses men, middle class, and others struggling against Thailand's majority rural poor and most voters.

Their lopsided urban fight began a few years ago, during former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's elected administration.

They rallied in the streets until the military agreed with their demands and staged a bloodless coup in September 2006, ousting Thaksin.

After a lackluster, 15-month regime, the coup leaders allowed an election, but were stunned when most Thais voted for Thaksin's allies.

After one pro-Thaksin prime minister stepped down, because of a conflict of interest, Somchai became premier last September.

The PAD demand the resignation of Somchai, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

They also demand all of Thaksin's allies be barred from politics, and any votes they received be invalidated.
-------
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism, and his web page is http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent