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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai ministry stormed after govt declares emergency |
| 2009-04-13 |
| Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency on Sunday to quell political unrest and vowed to take tough action against protesters after they forced cancellation of an Asia summit. Troops fired into the air when anti-government protesters stormed Thailand's Interior Ministry on Sunday after Abhisit declared the emergency. They mobbed the prime minister's car as he drove away from the ministry, beating it with clubs. Supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra stormed the venue of an Asian summit in resort of Pattaya, forcing some leaders to flee by helicopter. After declaring victory there, they have been gathering all day in central Bangkok and by 1200 GMT their numbers were estimated at around 40,000. The cancelled summit has undermined confidence in the government and dealt another blow to the economy, analysts said. Thaksin now lives in self-imposed exile but his absence has not healed the divisions between the royalist, military and business elite, who say he was corrupt, and the poor who benefited from his populist policies. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Big tension between the urban elites of Bangkok who believe they should run the country with a facade of democracy and the non-urban 'common' Thais who actually believe in one man, one vote democracy. Reflects to a certain extent the gulf between the Tea Party types here and the 'urban' elites [MSM, academics, special interests, etc] on their views of who should run this country. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-04-13 09:08 |