Thailand’s embattled prime minister warned on Saturday that ongoing political unrest may hurt the economy, as leaders of a pro-democracy movement seeking to oust him urged voters to boycott upcoming national elections.
”The state of uncertainty — if it continues — will undermine the trust of investors,” Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address. ”A capitalist economy is based on trust, without which money is nothing more than paper.”
But the prime minister, whose decision late on Friday to dissolve Parliament and call snap elections is widely seen as an attempt to diffuse growing anger against him, said he welcomes the chance to make his case to voters in the April 2 elections — three years ahead of schedule.
”The best way is to ask the people. One man, one vote,” he said.
”It is the people who make the decision. If you don’t like me, vote for others,” he said. ”When the people make a decision, all parties have to respect it.”
Thaksin’s election gambit appears intended to shift the public’s attention away from the massive anti-government protests that have taken place over the past few months — and another, larger still, is planned for Sunday. The demonstrators accuse Thaksin, one of the country’s richest men, of corruption and abuse of power.
But Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesperson for the People’s Alliance for Democracy, which has led anti-government protests in recent weeks, reiterated the alliance’s call for Thaksin to resign, ”to pave the way for political reform”.
”The Parliament dissolution is only a trick that allows him to whitewash his problems and return to power, which will lead to an even more serious crisis,” he said.
Thaksin is hoping the election will effectively sideline his detractors, who have captured headlines in recent weeks but don’t have the resources or the votes to beat him.
He appeared upbeat and confident in his radio address on Saturday. The free-spending prime minister is expected to focus on campaigning, an area where his well-funded Thai Rak Thai Party holds a big advantage over the fractured opposition.
The ruling party is generally expected to win the election, although with a reduced majority. Thaksin won a second term a year ago after his party took an overwhelming 377 of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives.
”This is not a fair political game,” Sathit Wongnongtoey, a senior member of the Democrat Party, said on Friday. ”The prime minister is the main problem of the country, but he sought to dissolve the House instead of resigning.”
The Democrats have been slow to recover after losing power in 2001, when Thaksin swept into office. But Sathit insists the party is ready to fight a new election.
Analysts said the House dissolution is unlikely to end political tension, largely because most of his opponents will not be satisfied until he resigns. They also said that as long as the situation does not collapse into violence, the markets are unlikely to be impacted — and could even rise now that a confrontation has been averted.
”Thaksin could regain democratic legitimacy, but he will not have the moral legitimacy to rule,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, explaining that the prime minister has failed to explain his family’s murky business dealings.
The anti-Thaksin campaign expanded greatly last month after the prime minister’s family sold — tax-free — its controlling stake in telecom giant Shin Corporation to a Singapore state-owned investment company for 73,3-billion baht ($1,9-billion).
Critics said the deal underlined how Thaksin has failed to separate his family’s business from the national interest.
Thaksin has also been criticised for mishandling a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, where more than 1 300 people have died over the past two years. He is also accused of stifling the press and allowing business and political cronies to reap enormous gains from state policies. — Sapa-AP