Word: bangkok
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Even at the best of times, politics in Thailand rarely hew to the playbook of a mature democracy. But the current situation is quickly reaching that of political farce. Members of the PAD, who have been staging protests in Bangkok for months, are pushing for Samak's resignation and calling for a new, largely appointed parliament to take over governmental duties. The protesters accuse Samak, whose party won a national vote last December, of being nothing more than a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a bloodless army coup in 2006 and now faces corruption...
Golf clubs aren't the usual accouterments of anti-government protestors, but the demonstrations gripping Bangkok this week haven't exactly been normal. For three days now, thousands of members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have occupied Thailand?s halls of power, camping out near the offices of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. In the early morning hours of Aug. 29th, protestors - some armed with bamboo poles, others with sporting gear more often associated with the Scottish highlands - managed to evict hundreds of police offers from the grounds of Government House. After celebrating their victory, the demonstrators snoozed...
...also banned from politics.) This time around, the PAD's allegations are similar and its leaders are repeating claims that they are taking action to protect Thailand?s monarchy from a dissolute government. But unlike Thaksin, Samak has close connections with the palace. And though the former Bangkok governor made his earlier career as a blustery hard-liner, Samak has so far kept his resolve to use restraint against the PAD protesters occupying his offices...
...Despite the party atmosphere and Samak's assurances that security forces will not escalate the situation, there?s still a danger that the siege could turn violent. The Thai military has a dark record of targeting political agitators, most recently in 1992 when its forces massacred unarmed demonstrators in Bangkok. And the specter of another coup perennially hangs over a nation that has suffered multiple military takeovers over the past half-century. As evidence of the prevailing nervous mood, Thailand's benchmark stock index has plummeted nearly 25% since the PAD began its protest movement...
...Asia started on August 19 when Vietnamese authorities deported him from Ho Chi Minh City after he served 27 months in prison for sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11. But Gadd didn't want to go home to Britain. He refused to board a connecting flight in Bangkok, where Thai immigration authorities rejected his request to remain in the country, even after he claimed to have a heart attack in the departure lounge. Gadd then hopped a flight to Hong Kong, where officials once again denied him entry, sending him instead back to Thailand. After twenty hours...