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Thai crisis shifts to king as airport gets going
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-04 16:59 More Trouble in Store Despite the return of relative normality, analysts said more trouble was in store after the hiatus of the king's birthday.
The caretaker government has called a special session for Monday to select a replacement for Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, sacked by the courts this week. But the session cannot go ahead until it is approved by the king, and there has been no word yet from the palace. Somchai's People Power Party (PPP), which the PAD accuse of being a front for the now exiled Thaksin, was dissolved in the same ruling but most of its rank-and-file members simply switched to another "shell" party. It and the other five parties in the ruling coalition have more than enough numbers in parliament to form the next administration, an eventuality that is bound to cause the PAD to resume its street protests. "I am sad that we are going," said Ranatip, 48, an unemployed office assistant told Reuters as she packed up her belongings at the PAD airport sit-in. "But I am ready to fight for my king and my country. I will come back as soon as I am needed." With so many of the country's key institutions compromised, analysts say the fundamental stand-off will persist between Bangkok's royalist and military elite, and the forces of the rural and urban poor broadly aligned with Thaksin. "Thailand remains locked in this structurally flawed system for the foreseeable future," said IHS Global Insight analyst Kristina Azmi. "The risk of civil unrest is growing and with it the accompanying risk of military intervention." |
