Tens of thousands of protesters seeking Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ouster descended on Bangkok's busiest shopping district yesterday, disrupting business and causing massive traffic jams in the heart of the capital.
About 20,000 demonstrators swarmed the street outside the posh Siam Paragon shopping mall, which was closed in anticipation of the protest, said Colonel Pinit Maneerat, spokesman for Bangkok's Metropolitan Police.
Demonstrators parked giant trucks in front of the mall, which claims to be the biggest in Southeast Asia and sits at one of the busiest junctions in the city, as police diverted traffic.
PHOTO: EPA
Organizers, taking their protests against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra downtown after weeks of rallies elsewhere in the city, planned to use the trucks as a stage to address the crowd later in the evening.
Draped across the side of the mall hung a banner that read: "Thak, your time is up."
Traffic ground to a standstill for kilometers on a major road near the protest, as the city's public transport system added trains to the service to help the many commuters who decided to avoid driving downtown.
Protest leader Chamlong Srimuang said demonstrators would spend at least two nights on the street outside the mall, where police have warned that they could be jailed for disrupting traffic on already clogged streets.
`Prosecute us'
"Police can go ahead and arrest and prosecute us," he said before the rally got under way.
Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya had threatened to file criminal defamation charges against five protest leaders if they proceeded with the latest protest.
Thaksin, who was in his home town of Chiang Mai for religious services, said he had canceled his own rally for tomorrow evening in a downtown park to avoid any clashes with the protesters.
"Their move to Siam Paragon is an attempt by protest leaders to incite violence, but government will still be open for political reforms after the election," he said.
Thaksin called Sunday's election three years early, hoping to win another mandate and to end protests that intensified last month over his family's US$1.9 billion tax-free stock sale.
Demonstrators accuse him of corruption and abuse of power.
The self-made billionaire, who remains hugely popular in poor rural areas, is expected to win the vote -- but opposition parties are boycotting the polls, meaning he still may not be able to govern.
The election commission has warned that the vote probably would not fill all 500 seats in parliament as required by law to confirm a new prime minister.
Promise
Thaksin has insisted that the polls should go ahead and has styled the election as a referendum on his rule. He has promised not to take office if he wins less than 50 percent of the vote.
The main support for protesters has come from the middle class in Bangkok, but a poll on Tuesday indicated that moving the rallies into the center of the capital could cost the demonstrators support.
"The protesters think moving to a new location is worth the risk even though police say it will make the public unhappy because of the traffic jam," political analyst Siripan Nogsuan said.
The demonstration in a major commercial district marks the first time that the rallies will have had a serious impact on the capital's businesses.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS