Because they are setting a good example for the rest of us.
"Call for election fails to quell Thai protests; Demonstrators demand ouster of prime minister" by Thomas Fuller | New York Times, December 10, 2013
BANGKOK — A call for new elections by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand on Monday failed to quell antigovernment demonstrations, as tens of thousands of protesters massed outside her office and vowed to expel her powerful family from the country.
See: Yingluck Runs Out in Thailand
Yingluck’s announcement that she would “let the people decide the direction of the country” set in motion the dissolution of Parliament and the official endorsement of elections by the king. She rejected calls for her resignation before the vote.
A royal decree set the election for Feb. 2, more than two years before the government was expected to finish its term.
Yet leaders of antigovernment demonstrations, which have left five people dead and several hundred injured over the past two weeks, vowed to press on with their quixotic campaign to rid the country of the influence of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin, the billionaire tycoon and former prime minister whose policies have cemented the loyalty of voters in the most populous regions of the country.
There is your first tell that these are not approved agenda-pushing protests.
A prominent Thai historian warned that continuing the protests despite the announcement of new elections could create “indefinite” conflict. The police said that more than 100,000 protesters filled the streets Monday.
In a rambling speech to supporters, the main leader of the protest, Suthep Thaugsuban, declared a “people’s revolution” and a chance for the country to “start over.”
There is your second tell. The propaganda pre$$ never refers to those it favors in that way.
The police, notorious for their corruption, would be replaced with “security volunteers,” he said. A new constitution would be written that would ban populist policies of the type that Thaksin has employed. And a “people’s council” would replace Parliament.
While many areas of this metropolis remained peaceful and unaffected by the protests, Bangkok’s historic district, where demonstrators have gathered, witnessed budding scenes of anarchy.
There is your third tell. Protesters are anarchists!
Fearing confrontation with protesters, police forces withdrew from the area, leaving demonstrators to direct tangled traffic at intersections. Trash built up on sidewalks, cars triple-parked with impunity, and protesters erected barriers to roads they wanted closed off.
OKAY! Yup, those stinky kids are filthy and are triple-parked. Plus they stink, have bad breath, farted in a crowd, and picked their noses!
Amid this barely controlled chaos, the way forward for Thailand remained unclear. Officials in Yingluck’s party said she would run for Parliament and remain the party’s candidate for prime minister.
Need I comment at all?
The leaders of the opposition Democrat Party, who resigned from Parliament on Sunday in a show of protest, did not indicate whether they would participate in the elections — or boycott them as they did in 2006, a move that heightened the country’s polarization and was followed by a military coup.
The civil servants and opposition party politicians have joined the protesters. Yingluck has run out.
Because of the deep affection that the governing party has in the north and northeast of the country, scholars say, it would be very difficult for the Democrat Party to reverse its two-decade losing streak in national elections.
In the last elections, held in July 2011, the governing party received 15.7 million votes, compared with 11.4 million for the Democrats.
Looks like a rigged election to me.
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"Leader moves to calm Thailand political crisis; Prime minister calls for elections as protests swell" by Todd Pitman | Associated Press, December 09, 2013
BANGKOK — Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Monday she will dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call elections in an attempt to calm the country’s deepening political crisis.
Yingluck’s announcement came as thousands of antigovernment protesters began marching through Bangkok in a ‘‘final showdown’’ against her government....
She did not immediately set a date and it was unclear whether the move would ease the country’s political standoff, which deepened Sunday after the main opposition Democrat Party resigned from the legislature en masse.
Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut said his party could not participate in the Legislature anymore because the body is ‘‘no longer accepted by the people.’’
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban called on supporters to stay peaceful, but many fear the day could end violently when demonstrators converge from nine locations on Yingluck’s office at Government House. More than 60 Thai and international schools in Bangkok have closed as a precaution.
Beware of agent provocateurs! Anyone encouraging violence is for Shinawatra.
Thailand has been plagued by political turmoil since the army toppled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s brother Thaksin in a 2006 coup. In broad terms, the conflict pits the Thai elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksin’s power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.
That is a CRAP LIE that keeps getting REPEATED!
‘‘We will rise up. We will walk on every street in the country. We will not be going home again,’’ said Suthep, whose supporters have occupied the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex for more than a week. ‘‘The people who will be going home empty-handed are those in the Thaksin regime.’’
Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and 289 injured. Violence ended suddenly last week as both sides paused to celebrate the birthday of the nation’s revered king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turned 86 Thursday.
Late Sunday, a group of hooded and masked men crept in the dark toward a police post at Government House and attacked it with slingshots loaded with nails and sharp metal projectiles, according to Police Major General Piya Uthayo. Police did not respond, and the assailants retreated, he said. There were no injuries.
Agent provocateurs.
Democrat leader and former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva said Yingluck’s government has been ‘‘illegitimate’’ ever since her ruling Pheu Thai party tried to ram through an amnesty bill that critics allege was mainly designed to bring back Thaksin from exile, Abhisit said. Thaksin lives in Dubai to avoid a jail sentence for a corruption conviction he says was politically motivated.
‘‘The solution to our current problems needs to start with the showing of responsibility,’’ Abhisit said. ‘‘The prime minister has never showed any responsibility or conscience.’’
He also criticized Yingluck’s party for trying to amend a clause in the constitution that would have transformed the Senate into a fully elected body.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Thai protest leader claims state authority" by Sinfah Tunsarawuth and Grant Peck | Associated Press, December 11, 2013
BANGKOK — The head of Thailand’s protest movement extended his extraordinary claims to holding power over government activities on Tuesday, issuing orders to officials over whom he has no authority.
Suthep Thaugsuban’s latest move was bold, but bizarre.
Agenda-pushing propaganda pre$$ really tipping its hand now.
He turned the tables on his nemesis, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, saying his opposition group was ordering the prosecution of her on a charge of insurrection — a capital crime for which he himself faces for leading temporary occupations of government offices and urging civil servants to refuse to work.
The orders from Suthep gave no clue as to how the deadlock over Thailand’s political crisis will be resolved. Instead, the demands would probably keep tensions high after clashes last week between protesters and police.
There is widespread speculation that the military, which has staged about a dozen coups since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, could be the ultimate arbiter of power, but it insists it is neutral in the political struggle.
And I'm pretty sure which side they will be coming in on now. They abandon posts and allowed protesters in to take over some places. As Mao said, the military must swim in the water of the people.
Yingluck said Tuesday that she would not resign ahead of national elections set for Feb. 2. Her opponents scorned her declaration and claimed they would appoint their own government in her place.
Yingluck spoke one day after she announced the elections — and one day after Suthep told his followers to stay in the streets and insisted his movement had more right to power than the elected government.
The brazen claim — unbacked by law or control of any state institutions — has nonetheless been taken seriously by protesters and some Thai media.
Translation: not only is this a people's movement, they have most authorities and civil servants on their side as well as some media now.
The protesters want to oust Yingluck, accusing her of serving as a proxy for her billionaire brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in self-imposed exile to avoid jail for a corruption conviction but still wields immense influence.
It's the IMF-imposed austerity agenda that is sweeping the planet that is the source of the problem. Yingluck is just the Thai tool of use.
Besides calling for Yingluck be prosecuted for insurrection for allegedly trying to overthrow the constitution, Suthep told the police chief to order all his men to withdraw from their posts and said soldiers should protect government offices.
So he is not an anarchists as was previously impLIED above.
In what he called the second order of his ‘‘People’s Democratic Reform Committee,” he called on people to monitor movements of the Shinawatra family and allies, and express their feelings toward them in a ‘‘nonviolent way.”
He means watch where they go and go where they live. I suggest all yelling "Assholes, Assholes" upon seeing them.
Although couched in legalistic language, it was an appeal for his supporters to harass their targets.
Well, we $ure can $ee what side my propaganda pre$$ has taken.
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The increasingly strident and insulting terminology can only lead to the conclusion that the global masters are shitting a brick in their shorts.
