King Bhumibol Adulyadej has called for unity in deeply divided Thailand to stop it from falling into ruin, in a rare foray into the country's four-year political crisis.
"I am quite worried our country is going into ruin because people have done things their own way," King Bhumibol told an audience of civil servants in a speech aired on national television yesterday.
"But if people are working together ... the country will prosper," said the king, who is the world's longest-reigning monarch.
Despite being a constitutional monarch who is officially above politics, the king has considerable influence over Thailand's 67 million people and has intervened at times of crisis to end bloodshed or break deadlocks.
His speeches in the past years have been nuanced and focused on the need for national unity, although his calls for clean government were widely read as a swipe at Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup.
The comments come as pressure mounts on the fragile government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Oxford-educated premier whose efforts to revive the economy have been hampered by violent protests and rifts within his six-party coalition.
Analysts say Thailand's political future remains uncertain, with no sign of a way of out of a complex crisis that has polarised the country and dented the confidence of investors and tourists.
The pro-Thaksin United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) on Friday announced they would hold a rally outside Mr Abhisit's office on August 30th to demand his resignation.
Their three-week occupation of Government House in April led to Thailand's worst violence in 17 years.
The UDD, better known as the "red shirts", last week submitted a petition with 3.5 million signatures calling for the king to pardon Thaksin, who fled Thailand in October before being sentenced to two years in prison for corruption.
Thaksin, who is currently in Dubai, from where he regularly addresses his supporters by telephone, says the conviction was politically motivated and denies wrongdoing.
Reuters
Richardson)