Word: thailander
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...tires serves as the makeshift headquarters of the anti-government alliance that has thrown Thai politics into anarchy. Sitting cross-legged on the sheeting, Sondhi Limthongkul, the co-leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), explains why thousands of protesters have occupied Bangkok's Government House, Thailand's seat of power, for more than a week to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej. "It's taken for granted in the West that democracy is the best system," says Sondhi, a media mogul by day. "But all we are getting in Thailand is the same vicious...
...failed to deter many camped out at Government House, who accuse Samak of acting as a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a 2006 military coup and now faces corruption charges. "We are ready to fight," vowed Jantana Klinchan, a sandwich vendor from central Thailand, as she swayed to a folk song calling for political change. "We are not scared to defend ourselves." That kind of brinksmanship may be just what the PAD wants. Its leaders decry the electoral system in Thailand, alleging that vote-buying in poor rural areas largely discredits any poll results...
...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...
...Thaksin rallies, which swelled to tens of thousands of people in the months before the military deposed the former Prime Minister in September. Back then, the PAD accused Thaksin of abuse of power and graft, even going so far as to imply that the billionaire tycoon showed disrespect to Thailand's monarch - an incendiary charge in a country where the King is deeply revered. Last December, after a period of military governance, the Thai electorate ushered in Samak, who initially campaigned as the heir to Thaksin's political legacy. (Thaksin's party was dissolved during army rule...
...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...