BANGKOK RESIDENTS celebrated the start of Songkran, the Thai new year, by drenching each other in water, as some red-shirt protesters threatened to march on an army barracks where Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has been based after the election commission unexpectedly recommended that his party be dissolved.
Thais celebrate Songkran by dousing what would seem to be the entire nation in water, and spirits were high in a three-day party of water fights, dancing and general mayhem. However, this year’s festivities had a chilly edge after weekend clashes that killed 21 and wounded hundreds in Thailand’s worst political violence in almost two decades.
Some of the shopping malls that were occupied by red shirts were open again yesterday, but thousands of protesters remained camped out in two city areas. Police shone torches into taxis driving through the downtown area as they sought to stop crowds of protesters collecting in key tourist areas.
Tourism, which accounts for 6 per cent of Thailand’s economy, has been gutted by the unrest. Despite tensions in Bangkok, the atmosphere was celebratory for the Songkran holiday. However, most Bangkok residents are fearful about longer term prospects for the country.
The court ruling means that Mr Abhisit, who came to power in 2008 when the army brokered a deal, would have to step down if the constitutional court, following the election commission’s findings, found his Democrat Party guilty of funding irregularities.
The opposition protesters, who are mostly rural and working-class supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and who is convicted of corruption charges, want Mr Abhisit to call elections immediately.
The enormous divide in Thai politics was underlined when 300 yellow-shirt activists gathered at the Victory Monument war memorial, calling on the red shirts to go home. The yellow shirts consist of the Bangkok elite – academics, businessmen, royalists and urban middle-class citizens who are opposed to Mr Thaksin.
The opposition says security forces were responsible for the shooting of protesters, but Suthep Thuagsuban, the deputy prime minister, ordered police to hunt for “terrorists” whom the government blames for the shootings.
The red shirts are demanding that Mr Abhisit step down immediately and have said they will step up their protest. They are planning to send out hundreds of motorcyclists handing out leaflets and pictures from the clashes. “We are also contemplating a march to the 11th battalion to ask Abhisit and the army he is hiding behind for an answer,” said one of the opposition leaders, Nattawut Saikua.
Speaking in Washington, Thai foreign minister Kasin Piromya said the international community should crack down on what he described as illicit money transfers by Mr Thaksin, whose media and telecoms empire gives him a strong war chest for any election campaign that might happen, and who is hugely popular among the rural poor for his populist policies on issues such as healthcare.
Mr Kasit claimed Mr Thaksin was illicitly providing the red shirts with €2.2 million a day, describing him as a “bloody terrorist”. “It would be nice to have a look at where the money is going,” he told reporters in Washington. Mr Thaksin has denied the charge.
Senior Thai army commander Anupong Paochinda said this week that early elections could end the stand-off. The army is crucial to deciding the fate of the country, and has staged or attempted 18 coups in 76 years of stop-start democracy in Thailand.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton made a statement that she was deeply saddened by the recent violence and loss of life, and called for a return to negotiations to seek agreement on a resolution.
As in previous Thai crises, all eyes are on the royal family, which commands huge respect. Bhumipol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-serving monarch, has been in hospital since September and there are divisive issues about who would succeed him.