Protestors gathered near Bangkok’s Democracy Monument. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

BANGKOK — Anti-government protesters in Thailand pinned their hopes on winning support from the powerful security forces on Thursday to take forward a campaign to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and install an unelected administration.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a firebrand veteran politician, has asked police and military chiefs to meet him by Thursday evening and choose their side in the latest crisis engulfing Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.

The politically powerful army has staged or attempted 18 coups in the past 80 years—including the ousting of Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, in 2006—but it has said it does not want to get involved this time, although it may mediate.

The latest crisis in an eight-year, on and off, political conflict again centers on Thaksin, with protesters viewing Yingluck as her brother’s puppet. Thaksin lives in self-imposed exile. He was convicted in absentia of graft in 2008 but he dismissed the charges as politically motivated.

Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon, courted rural voters to win back-to-back elections in 2001 and 2005 and gain an unassailable mandate that he used to advance the interests of major companies, including his own.

His opponents are Thailand’s royalist elite and establishment who feel threatened by his rise. Trade unions and academics see him as a corrupt rights abuser, and the urban middle class resent, as they see it, their taxes being used as his political war chest.

Yingluck was forced on Monday to call an early election for Feb. 2, as 160,000 protesters massed around her office. But the protesters have rejected the ballot.

They want an unelected “people’s council†to run the country and say Yingluck and her ministers should step down now. She is caretaker prime minister until the election.

“If a plane crashed with the whole cabinet in it and they all died, Thailand would still go on,†protest leader Suthep told supporters late on Wednesday.

Thaksin’s supporters have said they would weigh in to defend Yingluck if Suthep seemed poised to overthrow her. On Wednesday, pro-Thaksin leader Jatuporn Promphan promised to mobilize crowds that dwarfed the recent anti-government protests.

Thaksin’s “red shirt†supporters brought central Bangkok to a halt for weeks in April and May 2010 in protests aimed at forcing then Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to call early elections.

That protest was put down by the military. More than 90 people, mostly Thaksin supporters, died over the two months.

Abhisit and Suthep, who was a deputy prime minister in Abhisit’s government, have been charged with murder related to those events. Suthep was in charge of a crisis control center that authorized “live fire†zones.

Formal proceedings start on Thursday and both men have been summoned to the criminal court. Suthep has said he won’t go.

Suthep’s campaign to oust Yingluck has been strong on rhetoric but failed to stop the government from functioning.

Missed deadlines for Yingluck to resign have become the norm for a protest movement that has openly courted anarchy on Bangkok streets in the hope of inducing a military coup or judicial intervention that, as in the past, might disband Thaksin-allied parties or ban their leaders from politics.

Suthep’s statements have been bewildering at times. He has told police to arrest Yingluck for treason, ordered civil servants and security forces to report to him and not the government, and has called for citizen “peacekeeping forces†to take over from police.

The post All Eyes on Thai Military as Protest Leader Calls for Meeting to Pick Sides appeared first on The Irrawaddy Magazine.

Source: Irrawaddy.org

How can the military NOT pick Suthep's side? He's not demanding, he's got maturity, considers the greater good before acting and he's proven himself time and time again utterly incorruptible. The Thai Batman, basically.

"To pick sides"

Not the way I read it, Suthep wants to meet with them to explain his side of the situation and get there take on how to move forward from here.

Don't see it as taking sides with either Yingluck or Suthep rather doing whats best for the country in order to move away from the long list of wrongs including corrupt practices, intimidation and suppression of free speech that are dragging the country down,

And that includes the Govt taking orders from a convicted crim on the run.

Offers were made to the Red Shirt movement to link with Suthep which the Red Shirts declined. Suthet declines Yinglucks invitation to a meeting, Suthep invites both the military and police commanders to a meeting the police commander declines. Seems as if the military will attend and listen

Of course how they ( the military) will react is an unknown factor.

Indeed a whirlpool of political intrigue is spinning before our very eyes. As I wrote posted yesterday in my view the game is in injury time and the final whistle has yet to be blown.

The fact is in my view this is not a political battle it is a battle caused by one creature and his family to estabish and consolidate a new political dynasty and also establish their own little thiefdom fiefdom nothing more nothing less

The generals already said they are not in the business of making coups.

Suthep should retire now and let the party start work on the electionn

obviously a joke, the military will pick Yingluck if they are forced to take sides or they will just stay out of it and let the police deal with it which they are capable of doing. Suthep is a crackpot and I think the world would be SHockeD if they backed this lunatic.

How can the military NOT pick Suthep's side? He's not demanding, he's got maturity, considers the greater good before acting and he's proven himself time and time again utterly incorruptible. The Thai Batman, basically.

Edited December 12, 201312 yr by pkspeaker

Well, the military should pay heed, because the good people have spoken:

bangkokpundit ‏@bangkokpundit 2h

PDRC FB page: (translation by BP) "In the past in the US, they didn't allow women & black people the right to vote in elections" (1/3)

bangkokpundit ‏@bangkokpundit 2h

...because these people did not have enough knowledge to vote and their votes were brought for just $5." https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=262505223874025&set=a.259686944155853.1073741827.259686180822596&type=1 … (2/3)

bangkokpundit ‏@bangkokpundit 2h

SS of FB page is http://www.flickr.com/photos/60433209@N00/11336708973/ … [bP: What will be the next example? South Africa] (3/3)

So, that's that, I guess. Educate people know best, after all.

This certainly give more thought to euthanasia as a solution?

This certainly give more thought to euthanasia as a solution?

Don't do that ! Things might get better soon, Chin up, stiff upper lip and all that. You can do it.

obviously a joke, the military will pick Yingluck if they are forced to take sides or they will just stay out of it and let the police deal with it which they are capable of doing. Suthep is a crackpot and I think the world would be SHockeD if they backed this lunatic.

How can the military NOT pick Suthep's side? He's not demanding, he's got maturity, considers the greater good before acting and he's proven himself time and time again utterly incorruptible. The Thai Batman, basically.

Why would the military pick Yingluck - they know she's only a proxy. Suthep's off his head now so they ain't going to pick him.

RTP capable - that's obviously a joke - good one as Clouseau would say

"To pick sides"

Not the way I read it, Suthep wants to meet with them to explain his side of the situation and get there take on how to move forward from here.

Don't see it as taking sides with either Yingluck or Suthep rather doing whats best for the country in order to move away from the long list of wrongs including corrupt practices, intimidation and suppression of free speech that are dragging the country down,

And that includes the Govt taking orders from a convicted crim on the run.

"Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a firebrand veteran politician, has asked police and military chiefs to meet him by Thursday evening and choose their side in the latest crisis engulfing Southeast Asiaâs second-biggest economy."

Did you not read this, or are you making things up as you go along?