Attacks on Protesters Escalate Thai Crisis1
Thai Leader Yingluck Under Pressure as Cash for Rice Farmers Dries Up7
Protesters in Thailand Move to Shut Down Bangkok
January 13, 2014
BANGKOK — Antigovernment protesters seeking to
block next month’s elections took over major roads in Bangkok on Sunday
as they began their campaign to shut down the city.
In this vast metropolis of
well over 10 million people, the protesters were unlikely to paralyze
all movement and commerce. But they vowed that by Monday morning they
would close busy intersections, make major government offices
inaccessible and besiege the homes of top officials in the
administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose party is
likely to win the general elections if they are held on Feb. 2.
“We have to shut down Bangkok,” said Ratchanee
Saengarun, a protester who stood in the middle of an intersection in the
city. “This is our last resort.”
By late Sunday, protesters had blocked a number of roads with double-decker buses and sandbags, and had diverted traffic.
One of the officials
singled out by protesters, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul,
told foreign reporters on Friday that he had already moved out of his
house, emblematic of the government’s defensive posture during two
months of aggressive street demonstrations.
“I’ve already packed my stuff,” he said.
In addition to mobilizing
thousands of riot police officers for what is widely called the “shut
down,” the government has called up 8,000 military personnel to guard
against chaos.
“We are pretty sure that
both the military personnel and the police can maintain law and order
and peace next week,” said Phongthep Thepkanjana, a deputy prime
minister.
Even in a city inured to
protest in recent years, the attempt to block major sections of Bangkok
was ambitious and fiercely controversial. Government supporters in the
north and northeast lashed out at the protest and mobilized over the
weekend to counter any takeover by the military, which has been
ambivalent in its support for the government. Business groups and
tourist associations pleaded with the protesters to stand down. And some
of the country’s leading scholars, who said Thailand was teetering on
the edge of widespread violence, urged protesters to allow the elections
to proceed unimpeded.
But the protest movement, a
highly motivated, emotional and idealistic group largely led by the
middle and upper classes in Bangkok and residents of southern Thailand,
appeared to enjoy considerable support. Among those casting their lot
with the protesters were the union representing Thai Airways, the
national carrier; an association of rural doctors; the union
representing employees of state-owned companies; and an association of
university rectors.
Other institutions were as
divided as the country itself. Many professors and students at one of
Thailand’s most prestigious universities, Chulalongkorn, vowed to
support the protest by blocking access to a central commercial district.
But others at the university said they were outraged that the protest
sympathizers would claim to represent Chulalongkorn.
The protesters are driven
by hatred of Ms. Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a
billionaire tycoon and former prime minister who is in self-exile
overseas but wields great influence over the government. The protesters
are passionately opposed to the family’s dominance in the country and
believe that the elections will cement its hold on the political system.
Disillusioned with electoral democracy, they want to replace Parliament
with a “people’s council.”
Yet Mr. Thaksin, who was
ousted in a military coup in 2006, and Ms. Yingluck are widely admired
by voters in the north and northeast for their transformative policies,
including universal health care.
The leader of the protests,
Suthep Thaugsuban, was quoted as saying on Sunday in the
English-language newspaper The Nation that he would chase Ms. Yingluck
out of Thailand. “You will no longer have a place to live,” Mr. Suthep
said. “We’ll fight until the victory belongs to the people.”
Seeming to acknowledge the
fears of his critics that the protests could kindle violence, he added
that he would retreat if there were signs of “civil war.”
“If someone instigates a civil war, I will tell the people to go home,” Mr. Suthep said.
In a country with a long
history of military interventions in politics, the head of the army,
Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, has given various Delphic answers to reporters
when asked about the possibility of a military coup.
Last week, the retired
general who led the 2006 coup, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, said military
intervention was “impossible” because the country was so deeply divided
that a “mass” of people, joined by dissident military groups, would rise
up to oppose a coup.
Mr. Sonthi said he was often asked by officers about the likelihood of a coup.
“If you love the country and the king, you better stop thinking about it,” he said he had told the officers.
“I can assure you that they won’t do it,” he said of any attempt at a coup.
泰國抗議者啟動「封鎖曼谷」行動
2014年01月13日
Ed Wray/Getty Images
抗議者周日封鎖了曼谷街道，圖為其中一條主路上的抗議者。
曼谷——力圖阻止下月大選的反政府抗議者已啟動封鎖曼谷的行動，於周日阻斷了曼谷的主要道路。
在這個人口遠超1000萬的巨型都市，抗議者不太可能讓所
有的活動和商業經營都陷入癱瘓。但他們鄭重宣告，到周一上午，他們會封鎖繁忙的交叉路口，截斷政府主要辦公室的出入路徑，並包圍總理英拉·西那瓦
(Yingluck Shinawatra)手下政府高官們的住宅。如果大選在今年2月2日舉行，英拉所在的政黨很有可能會贏得大選。
名叫拉差尼·森甲倫(Ratchanee Saengarun)的抗議者站在市內某交叉路口的中間說，「我們必須封鎖曼谷。這是我們最後的辦法。」
到周日晚間，抗議者已經用雙層大巴和沙袋封鎖了大量道路，車輛被迫繞道而行。
外交部長素拉蓬·多威差猜恭(Surapong Tovichakchaikul)是抗議者特意針對的官員之一，他在上周五對外國記者說，他已從家中搬了出去。此舉象徵了政府在步步緊逼的街頭示威中展現的防禦性姿態，這場示威已經持續了兩個月。
他說，「我已經把自己的東西收拾好了。」
為了應對被廣泛稱為「封鎖曼谷」的行動，政府不僅動員了數千防暴警察，還召集了8000名軍人來防範騷亂。
副總理蓬貼·帖甘扎納(Phongthep Thepkanjana)說，「我們很肯定，軍隊和警察能維持下周的法律、秩序和和平。」
即使是在近年來見慣抗議的曼谷市，封鎖市內主要路段的嘗試
依然可謂野心勃勃、極具爭議。泰國北部和東北部的政府支持者對抗議活動大加抨擊，還在周末動員起來對抗軍方的任何接管行動，後者一直態度曖昧，沒有明確表
態支持政府。商業團體和旅遊協會籲請抗議者放棄行動。一些主要的泰國學者敦促抗議者讓大選暢通無阻地進行下去，他們說，泰國正處於暴力蔓延的危急邊緣。
然而，抗議團體似乎獲得了大量的支持。這是一個高度情緒
化、帶有理想主義傾向的群體，積極性很高，它的領導者是曼谷的中上層群體和泰國南部居民。決意與抗議者共進退的團體包括代表泰國航運商泰國航空公司
(Thai Airways)的工會、一個鄉村醫生協會、代表國有企業員工的工會，以及一個由大學校長組成的協會。
其他機構就像泰國本身一樣分裂。泰國著名大學朱拉隆功大學
(Chulalongkorn University)的很多教授及學生誓稱要封鎖通往一個主要商業區的道路，以此支持抗議活動。該大學的其他一些人卻表
示，抗議活動支持者自稱代表朱拉隆功大學，他們對此感到非常憤怒。
抗議活動的起因是抗議者對英拉及其兄長他信·西那瓦
(Thaksin
Shinawatra)的憎惡，後者是億萬富翁及泰國前總理，目前在國外自我流放，但仍對政府具有很大的影響力。抗議者強烈反對西那瓦家族在泰國的統治地
位，認為選舉將會鞏固該家族對政治體系的控制。他們對選舉民主大失所望，希望用「人民委員會」來代替議會。
然而，他信已在2006年的一場軍事政變中遭到驅逐，英拉則因推出包括全民醫保在內的變革政策而得到了泰國北部及東北部選民的廣泛稱讚
周日，英文報紙《國家報》(The Nation)援引抗議活動領袖素貼·特素班(Suthep Thaugsuban)的話說，他會將英拉趕出泰國。「你將不再有立錐之地，」素貼說。「我們將戰鬥到人民得勝的那一天。」
批評素貼的人擔心抗議活動會引發暴力事件，素貼貌似承認了這一點，並且表示，如果出現「內戰」跡象，他將會做出讓步。
素貼說，「如果有人煽動內戰，我會讓民眾回家。」
泰國擁有軍方干預政治的長久歷史。被記者問到是否會出現軍事政變時，陸軍總司令巴育(Prayuth Chan-ocha)給出了各種不明確的答案。
上周，曾領導2006年政變的退休將領宋提(Sonthi Boonyaratglin)表示，軍方干預是「不可能的」，因為泰國深度分裂，「大批」民眾和持不同政見的軍方派別都會採取行動反對政變。
宋提表示，他經常被軍官們問到爆發政變的可能性。
他表示，自己已經告訴這些軍官，「如果你們愛我們的國家和國王，最好不要再想政變的事情。」
談到任何政變企圖時，宋提表示，「我可以向你們保證，他們不會發動政變。」
翻譯：張薇、許欣
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