Thai police use hugs and roses to defuse political tensions

In a surreal turn of events amid a week of simmering political tensions, Thai police swapped teargas and water cannons for hugs and red roses yesterday in the capital, Bangkok, after the embattled government opened up its doors to protesters in a possible truce after days of fighting left at least five dead and hundreds more injured.

The largely tactical move was seen as an attempt to defuse political tensions ahead of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 86th birthday tomorrow. But protest leaders said a truce was temporary and that fighting would carry on “as long as it takes” until prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government is ousted from power.

After a night of fighting between anti-government demonstrators and police in which rubbish trucks and bulldozers rammed into barriers and fireworks and rockets were fired at police, the mood yesterday, in turn, was jubilant.

Police stood down and dismantled barriers and razor wire, resulting in protesters wandering freely among previously secured buildings and snacking on the lawn of the prime minister’s offices. Policemen handed out red roses, posed for photos and sang love songs on ukuleles, while others snoozed in the shade. “We’re done here,“ one policeman said with a smile. “We’re going home.“

Suthep Thaugsuban, the organiser behind the Bangkok protests, called this only a “partial victory”.

“You cannot go back home yet,” he told protesters at a rally. “We must continue our struggle.”

Mr Thaugsuban, along with his Civil Movement for Democracy, aims to remove Ms Shinawatra’s democratically elected government and install a “people‘s council” of unelected representatives, with the king serving as head of state.

Protesters view Ms Shinawatra as a puppet of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister who was ousted in 2006 in a military coup. He now lives in Dubai to avoid a corruption conviction he says is politically motivated.

Angered by an amnesty Bill that would have allowed Mr Thaksin to return and quashed his corruption conviction, protesters rallied in their thousands to call for an end to the “Thaksin regime”, although their numbers have dwindled as the days have worn on.

Mr Thaugsuban, a former lawmaker in the opposition Democrat party who served as deputy premier in the last government, has planned further rallies today and said full demonstrations would resume after the king’s birthday, only ending “when we reach our goals”.

Ms Shinawatra has offered to negotiate several times. Yesterday she said she hoped “all sides“ would come together for talks. However, Mr Thaugsuban has said his movement will not stand for any negotiation. Nor will it abide by a dissolution of parliament, any form of coalition, or a new appointment, vetted by Ms Shinawatra and approved by the protesters, for prime minister, he added. His reasons for an unelected people’s council formed of “good people”, he said, were clear. “From a western point of view, ‘democracy’ is an elected government serving as the people‘s representative.

"-Unfortunately, elections in Thailand do not represent people's choices because their votes are bought."

It is unclear just what will happen next, with rumours circling of army involvement in the crisis, and many waiting for the king’s expected speech today for any insinuation of political unity or strategy.

– (Guardian service)