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Thai PM gets senate grilling, rally blocks office
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-23 15:13 Thailand's upper house grilled Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in a largely symbolic censure debate on Monday as thousands of street protesters blockaded his office for a fourth day, demanding his government quit. Neither the Senate debate nor Tuesday's opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion in the lower house of parliament is likely to cause the five-month-old coalition major problms given its overwhelming majority.
Instead, they appear to be a ploy by Samak to counter the street campaign by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), the motley group of businessmen, academics and royalists whose 2005 campaign against Thaksin Shinawatra led ultimately to his removal in a 2006 coup. "They will use their victory against the no-confidence motion to say a majority of MPs still have confidence in the government, and tell the street protesters to go home," said Ong-Ard Klampaiboon, a spokesman for the opposition Democrats. The Democrats won 164 seats in parliament in December's election, the first since the coup, compared to 316 for Samak's People Power Party and its five coalition partners. On Sunday, in his first public comments since the PAD's largely peaceful march on the seat of government on Friday, Samak left no doubts about his desire to remain in office. "I'll be patient for our country and will see who can be more tolerant," the firebrand 73-year-old said in a weekly television address. Despite his determination, he said he would not send in either the police or army to dismantle the PAD stage, a move that would trigger concern among investors in a country terrified of political violence. PAD leaders say they will only call off the protests after the resignation of the government, which they say is running the country in the interest of Thaksin and his clique. Ong-Ard said Samak would eventually have to call a snap election if farmers struggling with the rising costs of fuel and falling agricultural prices joined the PAD protests. "The bailouts the farmers are getting now are just pain-killers. Ultimately, Samak will have to dissolve parliament and call a snap election," he said. Given that Thailand has had three elections and a referendum since 2005, most politicians are loathe to have another as they cannot afford to finance any campaigns, analysts say. Samak declined to talk to reporters at parliament on Monday, but a spokesman said he would go to work at Government House and hold a weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday despite the PAD protest outside the gates. "He won't move to work elsewhere as Government House is his office. It is a symbol of democracy," Wichianchot Sukchotrat told reporters. |
