Thai senate votes no to bill that amongst other people will keep Thakskin from returning without facing arrest.
Thai senate votes no to bill that amongst other people will keep Thakskin from returning without facing arrest.
"In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king"
Not sure I agree with MOAS Here is a longer report
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/bangkok-pro ... z2kPPFiOdp
Bangkok: With thousands of anti-government protesters in the streets of Bangkok on Monday, Thailand's opposition announced a campaign of civil disobedience, including a three-day general strike later this week and a call for businesses to delay paying their taxes.
The protests against the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra signalled a return to the fractious and volatile politics that destabilised Thailand several years ago. At least four large demonstrations were held simultaneously across Bangkok on Monday, closing schools and stoking fears of clashes between rival groups.
"I would like to urge all Thais to fight with the people so that a great, absolute and sustainable victory belongs to Thailand," Suthep Thaugsuban, a protest leader and senior member of the opposition Democrat Party, told a crowd of thousands on Monday.
It was not yet clear late on Monday whether his call for a general strike Wednesday through Friday would be widely heeded.
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The protests, some of them led by the country's main opposition Democrat Party, were initially set off by the government's proposed amnesty bill that would have eased the return of Thaksin Shinawatra, the polarising former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup. But the daily demonstrations, which have escalated since they began more than a week ago, have taken a broader anti-government tone.
The lower house of Parliament passed the bill earlier this month, but the Senate decisively rejected it Monday.
"The opposition to the amnesty bill has been deep and wide," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "It has now escalated into an effort to overthrow the government."
The protests have rattled the government of Yingluck, Thaksin's sister. The prime minister has said repeatedly that if the amnesty bill is defeated, it will not be considered in Parliament again, and she has pleaded with protesters to stop their demonstrations.
The bill initially angered many of the governing party's supporters, known as the red shirts, because along with pardoning Thaksin in the corruption cases he faces, it would have offered amnesty to those responsible for the bloody crackdown on his followers in 2010. But the majority of red shirts appeared to have swung back to the government's side, and they staged their own rally with tens of thousands of people Sunday and another in northeastern Thailand on Monday.
Thai politics, which until recently had enjoyed relative calm under Yingluck's more than two years in office, appear to have returned to the polarised and unpredictable deadlock between opponents and supporters of Thaksin.
One of Thaksin's main rivals, Sondhi Limthongkul, described the political conflict Monday as a battle of good and evil. In a measure of the frustration with Thailand's political problems, he repeated a call to return political power to Thailand's king.
"I think Thailand must suspend the role of politicians for at least two to three years," he said. He asserted that Thaksin was exercising power from abroad, including deciding who got major appointments in the government.
Thaksin, the de facto leader of the governing party, Pheu Thai, has been weakened by the amnesty controversy, said Thitinan of the Institute of Security and International Studies. But Pheu Thai retained strong support, especially in northeastern Thailand, where a third of the electorate lives, Thitinan said.
Thaksin is "farther away than ever from coming home," Thitinan said. "But the avenues to his return are not totally closed."
Protests go on-with more force and many more people.
Happen to stay fairly close by that Monument for the democrazy and thus see it about daily- be reassured, that in the Silom tourist ghetto not much of it will be seen nor feared-though even there bankemployees spend their lunchtime going on the street to whistle. Black T-shirts with white cries against whatever you do not want and small bands in colour of Thai flag-5 bt, but 20 bt with whistle on them, are the main signs of the protesters. About daily there are more marches of various groups to the site, whcih also grows further.
As a amusing by-touch: it just happens to border on the Phan Fa/Wat Sraket (=golden mount temple for tourists) where last sun their yearly loy kratong week-fair was opened-around 7.00 in the morning a large rpocession of antique cars, old-style bicycle samlors etc. went there. This fair has a wet T-shirt game: you throw balls at a heap of cans, and if enough, a young girl sitting on a bench will be dumped in a vat of water-she will have tight T-shirt. No boys though.....
There is free food and a much more amical atmosfere at this rallye as the one-same spot- for the reds in 2010. Reds only come when they are paid for by Thaksin cronies.
This is really really good news it means all them people what have been killing each other in the name of politics might face trial and sent to prison.
Knowing Thailand I still wouldn't hold your breath on that 'actually" happening perhaps :-(
I see on the BBC news this morning they are reporting that "the opposition has urged its supporters to observe a three-day national strike, beginning on Wednesday, in what correspondents say has turned into a campaign to bring down the government" - has anyone on the ground any thoughts or evidence of how this will pan out ( or happen at all perhaps ?) - I mean surely they aren't going to intensify all the rowing again coming right at the start of their high season, I'm saying that both from a selfish personal interest perspective of course and also as Thai's are I'm sure no more keen to miss out on the chance to make some much needed money any more than the rest of us would be, politics or not ?
They done care mate they think there country is so f*cking wonderful that of course people will always want to come there even if the Thais are killing each other in the streets.
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