Protesters Block Heart of Bangkok’s Shopping Zone - NYTimes.com

Image by Honou via Flickr

By THOMAS FULLER

BANGKOK — Antigovernment protesters who have camped out on the streets of Bangkok for the past three weeks raised the stakes in their mass demonstrations on Saturday, converging on the heart of Bangkok’s shopping district and vowing to remain until new elections are called.

Tens of thousands of protesters, including many families with small children, took over a main intersection, blocking roads leading to upscale shopping malls and five-star hotels and demanding that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand take action soon.

“We will remain here until the government declares that Parliament is dissolved,” said Veera Musikapong, one of the leaders of the protesters, who are known as the Red Shirts.

The government, which until Saturday had tried to take a conciliatory tone, ordered the demonstrators out of the area.

The Thai Foreign Ministry said the government would follow a “multistep approach, from light to heavier measures,” in what appeared to be a turning point in its handling of the crisis, the latest chapter of four years of political turmoil.

On Tuesday the Thai cabinet extended the use of a law that allows the military to clear out protesters and make arrests. Mr. Abhisit said Saturday that protesters had exceeded the limits of their constitutional right to demonstrate and that the government would negotiate or use legal means to oust them.

Mr. Abhisit has offered to call new elections within nine months — about a year before his term ends — but protest leaders, who claim the government is illegitimate, rejected the concession. The Red Shirts, who have wide support in the populous north and northeast, would probably win elections if they were held now, analysts believe.

Protesters, many of whom support Thaksin Shinawatra, who was removed as prime minister in a 2006 military coup, say they are angry at what they perceive as the undue influence of the country’s bureaucracy, military and elite.

Mr. Thaksin, who is overseas and wanted by the Thai authorities for a corruption conviction, addressed the crowd by video link on Saturday. He urged the crowd to fight for equality.

The Red Shirt demonstrations had until Saturday mostly affected a neighborhood of government ministries and offices. By blockading the main commercial district, however, protest leaders have considerably ratcheted up the pressure on Mr. Abhisit’s government.

Despite the threats to remove them, protesters appeared to be in a jovial mood late Saturday. As they listened to speeches, many camped out on the sidewalk in front of display windows advertising luxury brands like Dior, Ferragamo and Tag Heuer.

Tourists who pushed through the throngs of red-shirted protesters said they were polite and helpful.

“I don’t feel threatened,” said Elizabeth York, a visitor from London whose 1-year-old was in a stroller. “They make way for the babies,” she said.

Others were less forgiving of the demonstrators. An 18-year-old Thai, the scion of a wealthy family, drove his Porsche into protesters’ motorcycles and was besieged by the crowd before the riot police intervened, The Associated Press reported.

A woman who said she had to walk several miles to work because of the demonstration gave this assessment of the protesters: “They are very poor and very stupid.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Thai protesters defy arrest threats, stay in capital (ctv.ca)
• Thailand: Protesters Stand Firm In Bangkok (news.sky.com)
• Bangkok protesters refuse to disperse (cnn.com)
• Thailand protesters remain defiant (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Thai protesters pledge to leave commercial area (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Anti-government protesters occupy Thai capital (ctv.ca)
• Protesters rally to oust Thailand's government (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Callers ring for service in Thailand

Published: 26/08/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

In terms of mobile phones at least, Thailand is one of the world's most communicative nations. There are more phones than people, according to the United Nations, and marketing figures show that more than 90% of all Thais above school age carry mobile phones.

But there is big trouble among this handset group. Even though there is competition, subscribers are routinely abused by the big companies who control the mobile phone business. There are signs the subscribers are getting angry enough to do something about it.

A recent meeting in Bangkok brought representatives of phone-using groups from across the region into one room to talk about mobile phone networks. The consumers were not at all happy. Complaints ranged from poor quality of calls to lack of help when subscribers switch systems, particularly in keeping their old numbers. So-called "mobile spam" in the form of unwanted text messages infuriates most phone owners. But the biggest complaint of mobile phone users in Thailand and around the region centres on the extra charges - unadvertised and unexplained to users, and available only in the small print on contracts, if at all.

Some consumers believe the phone companies have deliberately misled their customers in order to boost the bottom line. And in Thailand, the bottom line of mobile companies is very impressive indeed. Last week, the No.1 network Advanced Info Services reported its second-quarter story of woe. Founded by fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra and now controlled by Singaporean interests, AIS claims to have 27.9 million subscribers, most of whom pay in advance for their phone services. The company complained that its net profit between April and June dropped to "only" 4.2 billion baht, on revenue of 25.2 billion.

It's tough to feel sorry for companies making that sort of profit in the midst of a recession. The other two top phone companies, DTAC and True Move, report similar profits, in line with their customer base.

The UN's International Telecommunications Union recently reported that Thailand has 118 phones per 100 people of phone-using age. With that number of customers contributing that sort of income to the top phone companies, along with the government duopoly which also makes substantial profits from the business, consumers should get more for their baht.

The three major mobile companies recently made what can only be called a sham attempt to address the problem of text-spam. In fact, they well know who is sending unwanted messages to complaining customers. An AIS official admitted his company profits by selling blocks of SMS calls to commercial firms.

Consumers are beginning to appeal to the government and to the National Telecommunications Commission for action. The phone firms, getting a few baht here and a couple more there from almost every advance-pay customer, are making huge profits on questionable business deals. And they still won't even allow subscribers to take their numbers with them when they change providers, claiming it is far too difficult.

The government can, and will do only so much. Consumers owe it to themselves to organise against any perceived mistreatment by the phone firms. Questionable deals should be heavily publicised - members of the media are phone users, too. In extreme cases, boycotts can work far better than slow government officials. Telephone users, meaning pretty well all citizens, deserve a better deal. They should send a strong message to the phone companies that they are not going to take shoddy service any longer.

Govt set to enact security law in Thailand

PM cautions red shirts to control protest rally

Writer: PRADIT RUANGDIT and AEKARACH SATTABURUTH

Published: 26/08/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

The government will enforce the Internal Security Act in Dusit district from Saturday to Tuesday as part of strict security measures to cope with planned red shirt protests.

Police officers react to the testing of a special high-intensity loudspeaker at a riot control demonstration at the Metropolitan Police Bureau yesterday. The device emits a high-frequency sound painful to humans and has a range of three kilometres and will be on hand in case this Sunday’s rally by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship turns violent. APICHART JINAKUL

The act will be imposed in the district to protect Government House and government agencies which the demonstrators might target, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban has been authorised to take charge of security operations in the district.

The act allows soldiers to step in to ensure law and order in the area. The government enforced the Internal Security Act in Phuket in July to prevent protesters derailing the meeting of Asean foreign ministers.

Red shirt protesters plan another major rally on Sunday at the Royal Plaza.

Under the law, the government would not ban peaceful protests. A rally could take place but it must not prevent government officials reaching their offices, Mr Abhisit said.

People would only be searched for weapons and authorities would consider the suitability of demonstrators' routes.

The prime minister said although the protest leaders insisted their demonstration would be peaceful, the government had learned from intelligence reports that there could be attempts to prolong the rally and make it spiral out of control to try to destabilise the government.

The government had to secure political order and a good atmosphere in the country to guarantee an economic recovery, he said.

Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep said the government would not wait for the situation to get out of control before invoking the act. The act could be exercised when a situation was looking likely to occur, the prime minister said.

"I would like to stress that the government respects the rights and liberties of people but it is also duty-bound to secure order.

"We want everything to be as normal as possible. I don't believe people nationwide want to see a recurrence of April's incidents," Mr Abhisit said, referring to the anti-government protests that turned into riots in Bangkok during the Songkran holidays.

Jatuporn Prompan, a leader of the pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) that is planning the rally, said the government was abusing its power by invoking the internal security law and red shirt demonstrators would take strong retaliatory action.

He said the UDD originally planned to rally this Sunday only to protest against the government's delay of its petition for a royal pardon for Thaksin.

But by invoking the internal security law, the government was limiting people's rights, being dictatorial and showing its intention to confront the demonstrators, he said.

The red shirts would also wear black today to protest against Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda. They would gather in front of his Si Sao Thewes home today, Gen Prem's birthday.