☭ marselip0910 叶俊华™

上電視主持涉違憲 泰總理恐下台
2008/9/8
泰國憲法法院9日將就泰國總理沙馬克主持電視烹飪節目是否違憲一案作出裁決。如經認定未迴避利益衝突，沙馬克必須率領內閣總辭，幾個月來泰國反政府示威要求總理下台的目標將意外達成，政治僵局也可解套。

沙馬克8日親自就此案出庭，他否認收受一家媒體公司的薪酬後主持這項烹飪節目。他表示：「我是去客串主持節目，但不是對方的員工。我問過法律顧問，這並未違憲。」沙馬克2月6日就任總理後，主持過該節目4次，共收到折合台幣約7萬3500元，製作單位稱為「謝禮」，並非薪資。

官方消息人士指出：「我們認為，（憲法法院的）裁決結果可能不樂觀。」沙馬克8日在泰國東北部的烏隆鎮向大批支持者表示：「我絕不解散國會，絕不辭職，決心奮戰到底。」

泰國憲法去年起明文禁止泰國民選政治人物兼職。部分泰國國會參議員5月25日聯名檢舉沙馬克涉嫌利益衝突，泰國全國反貪委員會隨後起訴沙馬克，將全案移請憲法法院裁決。

泰國反政府組織「人民民主聯盟」（PAD）5月25日號召支持者發起長期示威，上個月26日率眾包圍總理府，癱瘓政府運作，沙馬克則多次矢言絕不下台，並提議以公投決定個人的去留，卻遭到PAD峻拒。沙馬克上個星期宣布曼谷進入緊急狀態。

除前述烹飪節目外，沙馬克另外面臨1項誹謗與至少3項貪瀆指控，有關烹飪節目的指控對他構成最即時的威脅。如果憲法法院裁定沙馬克必須率內閣總辭，泰國朝野對峙的僵局可望間接化解。在泰國，法院審案動輒曠日廢時，憲法法院受理並裁決本案的節奏卻異常快速。泰國媒體猜測，憲法法院很可能裁決沙馬克違憲，促使他下台以解決政治危機。

朱拉隆功大學政治學者潘尼丹表示：「對許多人而言，這是解套方式之一。」部分法學專家則認為，裁決結果可能也無法解決任何問題，因為沙馬克所屬6黨執政聯盟握有泰國國會多數席次，只要6黨團結一致，沙馬克隨時可以輕鬆回鍋。





PAD protest: Student pawns
2008/9/8
FR:Bangkok of the mind






The People's Alliance for Democracy has found itself a new group of political pawns - school and tertiary students.

The anti-government group has spawned an offshoot called PAD Youth. Its supporters among 21 tertiary institutions have called a three-day 'stoppage' from tomorrow, when they will refuse to go to class or sit exams.

The Bangkok Post tacitly if not explicitly approves of the growing PAD student movement. It cites these reasons for the growing number of students joining PAD's cause:

'The number of students turning up at the rally grew following a violent clash between anti- and pro-government demonstrators on Sept 2. It intensified after two Ramkhamhaeng students were shot and injured during their protest march to the prime minister's house on Thursday.'

For some of the newspaper's journalists, the students' involvement in the PAD cause rekindles memories of previous student protests. Here is more sympathetic reporting:

'Some observers, however, voiced caution that the students, dismissed as a dormant social force in times of crisis, could become pawns in the power game.

'Their emergence on the protest scene was viewed as a reawakening of the active political stand by the previous generation of students marked by the October 1976 massacre by government forces of Thammasat University students fighting against a dictator government.'

What the Post means is that the students could end up being used as pawns by the government, presumably to justify a brutal crackdown on the PAD. It supports students taking another 'active political stand' this time around.

The Post doesn't need to make its approval explicit; it is evident in the choice of words. Wiki's description of the Post's slant on politics is apt:

'The Bangkok Post employs several former student activists, the so-called October people, and portrays news from an urban, middle-class point of view, styling itself as a family newspaper.'

PAD is a political movement led by the Bangkok elite. No surprise then if it has many well-heeled supporters at the Post.

Other Thais who remember the events of October 1976, however, are trying to discourage today's students from joining the PAD cause.

At the Pantip webboard, one Thai says students involved in the Oct 14 uprising were trying to remove a dictatorship, not usher one into power.

PAD says Thailand is not ready for democracy, and wants a mix of elected and appointed representatives.

The October 1973 students, says the Pantip poster, were trying to remove the military government led by Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn, who ruled Thailand for 10 years - and was to cause more bloodshed in years to come.
From Wiki:

'A staunch anti-Communist, Thanom oversaw a decade of military rule in Thailand from 1963 to 1973, until public protests which exploded into violence forced him to step down. His return from exile in 1976 sparked protests which led to a massacre of demonstrators, followed by a military coup.'

The massacre of Oct 6, 1976, allowed the military to seize power from an elected government, which had governed for a mere three years after the forced resignation of dictator Thanom.

Far be it for a foreigner to suggest that Thais have short memories. I wasn't here in 1976, but most of the students signing up to the PAD cause weren't even born.

The Pantip poster reminds today's students of what the 1976 students were fighting against:

'We had no constitution; we had no elections; political gatherings were banned; the media was forbidden from criticising the dictatorship government.'

He says PAD Youth are trying to remove a democratically-elected government, in support of a cause (PAD) which advocates a return to a semi-feudal past.

One reader said he shared the Pantip poster's sense of dismay. 'And I was part of the Black May 1992 movement,' he said.

On May 17-20 1992, up to 200,000 people demonstrated in Bangkok against the military government led by Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon. The bloody military crackdown that followed resulted in 52 officially confirmed deaths.

After the King intervened to end the standoff, Suchinda agreed to the student's demand for an elected prime minister - but Thailand continued to live under a military-installed constitution until 1997.

Ironically, one of the Black May protest leaders was Chamlong Srimuang - a co-leader of the PAD protest group who would have Thais forsake their hard-won democratic rights in favour of a semi-autocratic system in which the 'right' people would make decisions for them.

So what of PAD Youth? You can watch a videoclip of the leaders addressing PAD supporters here. They sound like nice kids.

In the picture above, a man holding a flag is circled. The critic who posted that picture says that not all PAD Youth supporters look like genuine students.

PAD Youth coordinator Wassan Wanit says that with politics in crisis, he can't see the point in students studying. 'It is not as if a three-day protest will affect their studies - students routinely skip school to visit department stores anyway.'

At Pantip, some anti-PAD students support the right of PAD Youth to protest, but ask them not to drag the good name of their tertiary institution into politics, as not all students who wear the same uniform will agree with their cause. Thai tertiary students trend to be fiercely proud of their tertiary institutions.

One makes the following appeal, posted underneath a picture of the October 1976 protest gathering (see above, and the gruesome cover from Thai Rath newspaper), when thousands of students massed at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok.

'By all means, protest...just don't drag the name of your tertiary institution into it, for the sake of pumping up your cause.

'Don't turn it into a crisis - or you will see just what the power of students who love democracy can be like.'

อยากไปก็ไป แต่ขอร้อง อย่าอ้างสถาบัน โหนกระแส
อย่าให้ถึงวิกฤต เด๋วน้องๆจะเห็นพลัง นศ ที่รักประชาธิปไตยของจริง

Postscript: PAD Youth's Hi5 is here. A rival Hi5 started by an anti-PAD group is here.

Thai politics primer
2008/9/8
FR:Bangkok of the mind



Political observers ask: What does the People's Alliance for Democracy want?
The protest group has taken over Government House in an illegal occupation, and in support of their demand that the government resign, last week called on their supporters to close airports, ports, and suspend rail and bus services, which caused millions of baht worth of economic damage.

PAD says the prime minister should resign. It also wants constitutional change: a mix of elected and appointed MPs (a 70:30 split. The graphic to my left, which I found at a Thai webboard, says: '70:30 is no democracy.')

Thailand, PAD says, is not ready for democracy, as befuddled voters in the provinces keep electing the wrong parties.

Those are the aims which PAD puts forward for public consumption - its respectable face, if you like. I believe its real goals are more nefarious.

PAD's leaders want bloodshed.
They are goading the military into attacking their protesters at Government House. The more lives lost, the better. PAD's leaders calculate that if the military uses force, the government will be discredited by association.

The coalition parties which make it up will become unelectable, and PAD will have achieved its goals.

The last military coup toppled a government which championed free-enterprise, populist causes which held out hope for the poor.

The coup-leaders created panels to unearth corruption under the government they deposed, led by Thaksin Shinawatra. Under international pressure, they promised democracy would be restored - and were dismayed when, despite their best efforts to discredit the Thaksin regime, Thais voted a Thaksin 'proxy' back into office.

The coalition government is led by Mr Thaksin's old party, Thai Rak Thai, transformed as the People Party party, after the courts declared TRT illegal.

PPP's leader is Samak Sundarevej, whom PAD dismisses as a 'proxy' of the former regime.

PAD wants him to go, but Samak is sitting tight. If he can persuade his coalition partners to stick with him, then he will be able to face down PAD sympathisers in the media, academia, business and elsewhere.

Day after day in the media, this or that interest group comes out to call for the government's resignation. Samak should stay firm, as this conflict is rooted in vested interests, between the urban elite, and rural poor.

Neither Samak nor the army wants to crack down on the PAD. That would discredit the army, and destroy Thailand's fledgling democracy.

It's a high stakes game. Can he tough it out?
Postscript: Readers have left comments on the political crisis, and I would like to encourage more. You can read what they have to say on the bottom of this PAD post, here.