Thai Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's red-shirted supporters said on Wednesday they
were ready to defend her government in the streets from royalist-backed
protesters seeking to install unelected leaders.
The
warning by Thailand's mostly working poor "red shirts" highlights the
risks of a crisis fuelled by middle-class anger at the electoral and
legislative power of the Shinawatra family, revered as populist heroes in the
vote-rich north and northeast.
The
turmoil has veered from violent protests in which five people were killed and
more than 300 wounded to occupations of government buildings and, in recent
days, bewildering statements by Suthep Thaugsuban, a firebrand politician who
quit the mainstream opposition to lead the protesters.
He has
told police to arrest Yingluck for treason, ordered civil servants to report to
him, not the government and called for citizen "peacekeeping forces"
to take over from police.
On
Wednesday, he mocked Yingluck for her earlier comment that she could not resign
because she needed to run the country as caretaker until an election slated for
February 2.
"If a
plane crashed with the whole cabinet in it and they all died, Thailand would still go on," Suthep said, describing
himself as an "ambassador of the people" before a crowd of 2,500, one
of the smallest since his campaign started.
He said he
had requested a meeting with the police and military chiefs by Thursday evening,
during which he would ask them to choose a side in the conflict. Their
comments, he said, would help shape his strategy to overthrow Yingluck.
It's
unclear if they will meet. Missed deadlines have become the norm for a
publicity-thirsty protest movement that has openly courted anarchy on Bangkok
streets in hopes of inducing a military coup or judicial intervention to bring
down Yingluck.
Threatened
national strikes have not materialized. Police have ignored calls to withdraw.
Deadlines for toppling the government have passed with Yingluck shaken but
still in power.
Demonstrations
expanded on Monday when 160,000 people rallied in Bangkok, causing Yingluck to
dissolve parliament and call an election for February 2. That vote may be
meaningless if the Democrat Party, which backs the protests, decides to boycott
it.
Suthep, a
silver-haired former deputy prime minister in Democrat-led government that
Yingluck's ruling party beat by a landslide in 2011, has pressed forward with a
plan to install an unelected "people's council" made up of appointed
"good people".
If that
happens, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), as the red
shirts are known, would rally to Yingluck's side, said Jatuporn Promphan, one
of its leaders.
"It
is the UDD's job to bring together en masse the red shirts and those who love
democracy and don't agree with Suthep's methods. There will be many more people
than Suthep managed to gather," he told Reuters in an interview.
POLITICAL
IMPASSE
Suthep,
who a few weeks ago resigned the parliamentary seat he had held for 34 years,
derives support from a small but powerful minority: the royalist elite in
Bangkok and the opposition Democrat Party, the country's oldest, which has
failed to win an election since 1992.
In 2010,
Suthep authorized a security crackdown that left downtown Bangkok burning and
killed scores of red shirts. Their movement says it still supports Thaksin
Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother, who was ousted as prime minister in a 2006
coup.
Akanat
Promphan, Suthep's step-son and anti-government protest spokesman, said if
Yingluck resigned, the Senate would name a "neutral prime minister"
and the "People's Council" would be the legislative body and help set
up a "parallel government".
The
impasse could drag on for weeks. Suthep's group could even seize power if the
politically powerful military or the judiciary get involved, a familiar pattern
in Thailand.
Although
Thaksin or his allies have won every election of the past decade, the
politicized courts have often intervened, annulling an 2006 election won by
Thaksin on a technicality and later dissolving his Thai Rak Thai Party for
electoral fraud.
His
party's next incarnation, the People's Power Party, suffered the same fate.
Nearly 150 executives of both parties were banned for five years.
Suthep
says his People's Council would eradicate the influence of Thaksin, a
billionaire who remains a powerful force in Yingluck's government and sometimes
convenes cabinet meetings by webcam from Dubai, where he lives in self-exile to
avoid jail for abuse of power, a ruling he says was politically motivated.
Late on
Tuesday, Suthep called for protesters to target Yingluck's entire family.
"When
Suthep speaks he should bear in mind that there are millions of Thais who love
Thaksin and love the Shinawatra family," red shirt leader Thida
Thawornseth told Reuters.
"Where
does Suthep come off thinking he can speak on behalf of all Thais?" she
asked. "Suthep has said Yingluck cannot go anywhere in Thailand without
being insulted. What about him? He is the one who should be worried."
Such
comments suggest the protests could lead to a wider conflict if Yingluck's
elected government is forcibly removed.
After
courts brought down two Thaksin-allied prime ministers in late 2008 and the
Democrats came to power through a parliamentary vote, believed to be
orchestrated by the military, the red shirts paralyzed Bangkok in April-May
2010.
The red
shirts cut short a rally at a Bangkok stadium on December 1 after fatal clashes
outside and postponed a December 10 demonstration in Ayutthaya, north of
Bangkok.
Asked what
would bring them out on to the street, Jatuporn said: "When chaos ensues
or when Suthep's side uses violent methods to gain power."
(Additional
reporting by Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat and Pairat Temphairojana; Writing by
Jason Szep; Editing by Martin Petty and Alistair Lyon).
BY AMY SAWITTA LEFEVRE AND AUBREY BELFORD
(reuters.com)