Word: panitan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Government Spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said it was unlikely Prime Minister Abhisit would resign even if the protesters were able to temporarily paralyze parts of Bangkok. "They did that last year and the Prime Minister did not resign. We have the capability and legal authority to clear the streets if they begin breaking the law," he said...
...Panitan said that he suspects some red shirts hope to provoke the military into responding with force, or even stage an incident so that the military will be blamed. They would then appeal to constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej to intervene. The 82-year-old king, recuperating in a Bangkok hospital from a lung infection, has on occasion intervened to end bloodshed and forge a compromise during times of crisis. Thaksin's opponents have questioned whether he and the red shirt movement are loyal to the monarch...
...Thailand's airport takeover marked an ominous turning point in a months-long political battle that has morphed from sideshow farce to center-stage emergency. "When you close down the gateway to the country, then you have reached the point of a national crisis," says Panitan Wattanayagorn, a national-security expert at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "In fact, because this now affects Thailand's connection to the wider world, it is becoming an international crisis...
...this verdict and the other corruption charges against him, as well as electoral fraud charges against the ruling People Power Party. "With this guilty verdict, it is going to be harder for the government to push through any charter changes that would exonerate Thaksin or grant him an amnesty," Panitan said...
...case may be weakening. Last week, a Thai court dismissed an assets concealment charge against the former Prime Minister, and earlier this year three of Thaksin's lawyers were jailed when they were caught attempting to bribe court officials overseeing his cases. All this is making it harder, says Panitan, for Thaksin's friends and allies in Thailand and overseas to defend him in his accusations against Thailand's courts. "Conflict of interest laws are a common feature of developed societies. To defend Thaksin now is to basically oppose the rule of law," Panitan said...