By Jaya Spier
On Saturday a meeting of Asian leaders was canceled in Thailand due to anti-government protests in Pattaya. A state of emergency was declared as foreign leaders were flown out of the country. This was the second time the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) summit has been canceled. The previous time was in December because of political turmoil.
The summit was going to be the first meeting held for Asia-Pacific leaders since the G-20 conference that was held in London earlier this month. Heads of state from Japan, South Korea, India, China, Australia and New Zealand along with Managing Director of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon were planning to attend (Bloomberg.com.) The summit was to be held in Thailand since it currently holds Asean’s chairmanship.
The protests were reportedly a deep embarrassment for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the recently reformed Thai government. Vejjajiva came to power in December after protesters closed down airports in November in an effort to evict the previous Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. The airports were closed for days. Foreigners were stuck in Bangkok and couldn’t go anywhere in case the airports reopened. It was a waiting game. My friend’s parents were in Thailand at the time and their flight was postponed for almost a week.
The protests that occurred during the summit were in support of the previous Prime Minister. The so called “Red shirts” wanted to show world leaders that Vejjajiva was unwelcome. Just as the meet was about to begin Shinawatra supporters broke into the resort in Pattaya and entered the media center next to the hall where the conference was taking place. Luckily all the leaders made it out and the state of emergency ended after they had all left.
The summit was supposed to take place April 11th and 12th to discuss global finances. Now the meeting has been postponed once again as the Thai government seems to be falling to pieces.
Thaksin, who continues to wield considerable political influence in the country despite being mostly in exile since September 2006, called on his supporters to overthrow the government on Sunday, promising to return if the government moved to crack down on protests. (Al Jazeera)
The Asia and Pacific director at Amnesty International USA, T Kumar, has stated that the only real option to prevent civil war is to hold elections. Otherwise revolution and extreme violence will descend upon the country. He also noted that the action of the military against Thaksin supporters this weekend was a contrast to the inaction against anti-Thaksin protesotrs last year.
Violence did break out this weekend, some protesters were shot and others wounded. There is a danger of the military continuing to hurt civilians, which could lead to more violent protests.
We will just have to see how Vejjajiva handles his responsibilities and deals with the humiliation caused by this weekend’s demonstrations.
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