Protesters Want to Bring Down Thailand’s PM

As anti-government protesters demand that Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra be brought down  in a violence pocked standoff which is getting out of control, Thailand’s anti-corruption agency is going to bring charges of negligence against the Prime Minister. In Thailand’s capital bursts of gunfire and grenade blasts have become routine at night in the conflict which has taken a heavy toll on tourism. Due to the terrible security, guitarist Eric Clapton has pulled out of Bangkok concert on Sunday.

Around 200 Yingluck supporters who have acted very unruly in the recent days have surrounded the gates of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, demanding that all of the members quit and set the scene for a possible confrontation. However the Prime Minister who was in the northern city of Chiang Mai, her family’s home town was not expected to be attending the hearing.

The anti-corruption charges are related to a disastrous rice subsidy scheme which paid farmers above the market price but has proved ruinous to the budget adding to the government’s woes as unpaid rural workers demand their money. The protesters whose disruption of a general election this month had left Thailand in a bad condition as they wanted to bring down Yingluck and get rid of the influence of her brother Thaksin Shinawatra who was viewed by many as the real power in the country.

They want to be able to set up a “people’s council” of unspecified good and worthy people to spearhead political reform before the new elections are held and have blocked the key intersections in Bangkok for many weeks in order to press their case on. Since the crisis began in November, there are been protestors that have been hit with small bomb blasts and gunfire in which 21 people have been killed and more than 700 have been left wounded.

According to the national chief Paradorn Pattanatabutr, “as of now, there is no clear sign that (civil war) will happen.” He added that “there are those who think differently and respect the law who can no longer tolerate this. The government must do everything it can to avoid confrontation and to prevent each side setting up stages or rallies near each other. If they can do that, there should be no incidents.”

Denisha Sahadevan