Thailand’s opposition questioned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s loyalty to the revered monarchy yesterday, a serious charge that lit new sparks in a no-confidence debate on his government.
Samak took power after December elections that ended more than a year of rule by royalist generals who toppled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.
The military had accused Thaksin of widespread corruption and of disrespecting King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is revered with an almost religious devotion.
Thaksin tapped Samak to rally his supporters in elections in part because of his family’s long-standing ties to the palace and Samak’s own history of supporting the monarchy.
But a junior minister in his four-month-old government was forced to resign last month after giving a speech last year that questioned the role of monarchy in Thailand’s democracy.
Any discussion of the monarchy’s role in Thailand’s political life can be prosecuted under a strict lese majeste law.
“The monarchy has been insulted as never before without any attempt from government to protect the institution,” said Nipit Intarasombut, a member of parliament from the opposition Democrat Party, referring to the speech.
Samak responded by noting that his family has served in the palace for generations and that he has several royal decorations.
“Don’t question me on my royalty,” Samak said.
The prime minister said he had told police to investigate the speech made by former minister Jakrapob Penkair, who implied that the palace had a role in the coup against Thaksin.
“Jakrapob quit because police found that the allegation was substantial,” Samak said.
The censure debate, which lasted until midnight on Tuesday, was scheduled to wrap up later yesterday. A no-confidence vote was scheduled for today but could be postponed.
Samak has vowed to step down if he loses the vote, but that appeared unlikely as his six-party coalition controls about two-thirds of the 480 seats.
Outside parliament, the prime minister still faces street protests by the so-called People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has camped outside Samak’s offices since Friday.
The PAD led protests against Thaksin in the months before the coup and its latest demonstrations have raised fears of a new takeover, which has sent investors fleeing the Thai stock market.
The group’s rallies exert a strong influence because its leadership is seen as a reflection of the traditional power centers in the palace and the military.
Thaksin had antagonized Bangkok’s elite with policies such as free health care that endeared him to the populous rural heartland.
Samak had campaigned openly as a proxy for Thaksin, but on Tuesday he tried to distance himself from the billionaire, who is still loathed by the Bangkok elite.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home