Protests Urge Resignation of Leaders in Thailand
Supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, gathered during a protest on Sunday in Bangkok.
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: March 14, 2010
BANGKOK — Tens of thousands of protesters poured into Bangkok on Sunday demanding that the government step down in what was one of the largest demonstrations in Thailand’s recent tumultuous history.
Convoys of farmers in pickup trucks and busloads of families wearing the protesters’ trademark red shirts blanketed a district of ministries and government offices.
“We are here to announce class warfare, in peace and for democracy,” Nattawut Saikua, a protest leader, told a roaring crowd not deterred by the scorching sun and 90-degree temperatures.
Organizers estimated the crowd at 250,000 people and said more were on the way by road and riverboat. The police estimated the number of protesters at 120,000 but said that was likely to increase. The protest leaders have vowed to continue their demonstration well into the week if their demands are not met.
In four years of political turmoil here, the divisions in Thai society have been complex and manifold. But on Sunday, protesters and their leaders portrayed the demonstration as a struggle of the poor and disaffected against a government supported and controlled by the elite.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former economics professor educated at Oxford, was described in speeches by protest leaders as the son of “privilege” who had evaded military service and now presided over a veiled dictatorship.
“They have never felt pain,” Mr. Nattawut said of the governing class. “We don’t have their connections, but we’re ready to die.”
Mr. Abhisit came to power in December 2008 with military backing after a court forced the dissolution of the previous government by disbanding a political party loyal to Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister ousted in the military coup four years ago.
Mr. Abhisit’s government, which has two years left in office before it must call elections, has poured money into rural development projects, but Mr. Abhisit remains unpopular among voters in the rice-growing area of northeastern Thailand, a stronghold for Mr. Thaksin.
In his weekly television address on Sunday, Mr. Abhisit rejected the protesters’ demands to step down, calling them “unpractical.”
“I cannot accept any demand that is considered a threat,” he said. “I came to power in a constitutional way.” He added, “I have the right to complete my term.”
The depth of the distrust of the elite and the sense of victimization was on display among protesters at the rally on Sunday. Vendors sold hats that read: “Whatever you do is right. Whatever I do is wrong.”
“We’ve come to ask for justice and democracy,” said Sompaan Nhongbor, 63, a rice farmer from the northeast who drove to the protest in a pickup truck jammed with 12 people and a large bag of sticky rice to sustain themselves.
“We’re not doing this for Thaksin,” Mr. Sompaan said. “If Thaksin were a bad person, we would be chasing him out, too.”
The protesters, or redshirts, as they are called here, say they had more opportunities during the five years when Mr. Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon, was prime minister. They credit him with creating a heavily subsidized health care system and with cracking down on illegal drugs.
Voters from the northeast still speak bitterly about the 2006 military coup that ousted Mr. Thaksin, a move they say was carried out by the Bangkok establishment.
A Thai court decided in February that the government could seize $1.4 billion of Mr. Thaksin’s assets because he had used his position in government to advance his business interests.
Many here say they perceive the decision as continued persecution of Mr. Thaksin by a shadowy elite.
Mr. Thaksin addressed the rally by video on Sunday night from an undisclosed location outside Thailand, The Associated Press reported. “The people who caused the problems in the country these days are the ruling elites,” he told the crowd.
Near Parliament, there were hundreds of trucks, bearing license plates from across the rural heartland, serving as makeshift kitchens.
Many Bangkok residents say they fear the demonstrations will turn violent; some wealthier families left, while others stayed indoors. But most parts of Bangkok, a vast metropolis of about eight million people, were calm and unaffected by the protest.
