Thai PM Shinawatra refuses to resign
11 Dec 2013 6:23 AM IST
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Tuesday she would not resign ahead of national elections set for 2 February, her voice filling with emotion as she discussed her family’s role in Thai politics.
Yingluck spoke one day after she announced elections - and one day after the main opposition leader ended a massive protest rally of 150,000 people by insisting his movement had now assumed broad political power.
The streets of Bangkok were quiet on Tuesday, a national holiday, after weeks of sometimes violent political turmoil as protesters demand Yingluck give up power to an unelected ‘people’s council.’
The protesters accuse Yingluck of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction but still wields immense influence in the country.
She became choked up when reporters asked, as they often do, about her family’s position in Thailand’s political scene.
‘I’m not without emotion,’ she said, her voice quavering. ‘I’m also Thai. Do you not want me to set foot on Thai soil anymore?
‘I have retreated as far as I can. So I ask to be treated fairly,’ she said, turning and walking quickly away from the podium.
Her brother Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire, was toppled by a 2006 military coup that laid bare a deeper conflict between Thailand’s elite and largely urban middle class on one side, and Thaksin’s power base in the countryside on the other.
That base benefited from his populist policies designed to win over the rural poor. Ever since, the two sides have been dueling for power, sometimes violently.
Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and at least 289 injured.
The latest round of protests started last month when Yingluck’s party tried to pass a bill that would have granted amnesty to Thaksin and others.
Yingluck insisted Tuesday that she would remain the interim head of government until 2 February.
Yingluck spoke one day after she announced elections - and one day after the main opposition leader ended a massive protest rally of 150,000 people by insisting his movement had now assumed broad political power.
The streets of Bangkok were quiet on Tuesday, a national holiday, after weeks of sometimes violent political turmoil as protesters demand Yingluck give up power to an unelected ‘people’s council.’
The protesters accuse Yingluck of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail time for a corruption conviction but still wields immense influence in the country.
She became choked up when reporters asked, as they often do, about her family’s position in Thailand’s political scene.
‘I’m not without emotion,’ she said, her voice quavering. ‘I’m also Thai. Do you not want me to set foot on Thai soil anymore?
‘I have retreated as far as I can. So I ask to be treated fairly,’ she said, turning and walking quickly away from the podium.
Her brother Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire, was toppled by a 2006 military coup that laid bare a deeper conflict between Thailand’s elite and largely urban middle class on one side, and Thaksin’s power base in the countryside on the other.
That base benefited from his populist policies designed to win over the rural poor. Ever since, the two sides have been dueling for power, sometimes violently.
Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and at least 289 injured.
The latest round of protests started last month when Yingluck’s party tried to pass a bill that would have granted amnesty to Thaksin and others.
Yingluck insisted Tuesday that she would remain the interim head of government until 2 February.
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