Roundup: The anti-climax of the anti-government protest

After a few hours of confrontation and teargas, the police on Tuesday suddenly decided to call off their defences and let the protesters pass through the Metropolitan Police Headquarters. The situation was suddenly and unexpectedly amicable. 
 
The anti-government protesters hugged crowd control police. Some even kissed their cheeks. Some police also received whistles, symbols of the protest, from the protesters. “We are Thais. We are sons of the same royal father,” a protester said to the police. 
 
After the ‘truce’, protesters and police joined hands in removing the concrete barriers and the razor wire barricades. The protesters walked through the street until they reached Government House and wandered around on the lawn of the compound. At the time, some of the protest leaders declared victory. 
 
The core protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, former number two in the pro-establishment opposition Democrat Party, said on stage at about 2 pm that since the Thaksin regime has not yet been eradicated, this is just part of the victory. He urged the protesters to keep fighting. 
 
The demonstrators aimed to overthrow the elected government, led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but it is also an open secret that Thaksin is the de facto leader of the party. The demonstrators’ ultimate goal is to completely eradicate the so-called “Thaksin regime”, roughly meaning a political system and country manipulated and administered by Thaksin and for Thaksin.
 
The strategy of the protesters was to cripple the government by obstructing the work of civil servants through the seizure of state agency compounds, and controlling the media.  They had seized several compounds, including the Government Complex, Finance Ministry, and Foreign Ministry. They also on Sunday trespassed into the public TV station and free TV stations to force them to relay the signal from the anti-government Blue Sky channel. On Saturday, protestors trespassed into the data centres of state-owned telecommunication infrastructure compounds and manage to cut the power, resulting in the disconnection of thousands of websites. 
 
Later in the afternoon, Surapong Tovichakchaikul, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, in his capacity as the director of Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), gave a televised address saying that as the government wished to see minimum confrontation, it had decided to “open the way” for the protesters. 
 
“In order to show our sincerity, the government decided to open the way and open opportunities for the protesters to help reduce hostility [between the government and the protesters.],” he said. “The government will not let any state agency use violence in handling the problem. On the other hand, the government aims at using soft and gentle means in handling the problem.”
 
Surapong added that the government is very sorry about the deaths and will investigate the cases. 
 
Five people were killed during clashes between pro and anti-government protesters near Ramkhamhaeng University compound in Bangkok's Hua Mark district earlier this week. 
 
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra later in the evening said the situation, though not yet back to normal, is getting better. Moreover, the government will heed opinions from all sides in order to find a solution for the country and also for political reform under a Constitutional Monarchy. 
 
In the evening, when Suthep was expected to deliver the important speech of the day, he revealed more details about the People’s Council. The protest leader interpreted Section 7 of the 2007 Constitution to empower the establishment of an appointed People’s Council.
 
Section 7 states: Whenever no provision of this Constitution is applicable to any case, it shall be decided in accordance with the Constitutional practice in the democratic regime of government with the King as Head of the State.
 
The council and provisional premier, Suthep said, would be appointed from people from different professions. The council will reform several laws, such as the election and anti-corruption laws. “The council will be composed of good people who are not politicians,” he added. 
 
“In the name of the great mass of people, I’d like to urge all civil servants and people to decide whether they’ll side with the Thaksin regime or the not,” he said. “We’ll change Thailand for the better. We’ll have clean moral politicians like other civilized countries.” 
 

 

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