International Herald Tribune
By Thomas Fuller
Published: June 25, 2008
BANGKOK: "There are three things that can make Thai people emotional," said Gothom Arya, a veteran human rights campaigner here. "The royal family, nationalism and religion."
In its campaign to unseat the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, the political opposition in Thailand is tapping two out of three, Gothom said.
Opponents of Samak's five-month-old government are trying to remove him using a territorial dispute over an ancient Hindu temple on the Cambodian border, adding to an already poisonous political stalemate gripping the country. The opposition is also repeating assertions that Samak's government and its allies do not have sufficient respect for the country's monarchy.
Samak appeared ready to prevail over a vote of no-confidence Thursday in Parliament - his coalition controls two-thirds of the seats - but daily street protests and the emotive potency of the allegations against the prime minister have further weakened his government.
With protesters blocking access to his office, Samak has been forced to leave through back doors or work from alternate, undisclosed locations.
And although publicly Samak has tried to exhibit nonchalance toward the crisis - he was pictured in newspapers Wednesday making origami birds during the parliamentary debate - his government has shifted decisively to a defensive posture.
The opposition is divided between the Democrat Party in Parliament and a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy, which has organized street protests for the past month. But they have gelled over the issue of Preah Vihear, a 900-year-old Khmer temple that sits on a ridge along the Thai-Cambodian border.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but the surrounding land - and perhaps most importantly access to the temple - has remained in dispute. The temple can be reached from the Thai side relatively easily; on the Cambodian side it accessible only by scaling a cliff.
In an apparent attempt to help solve the dispute, Samak's government endorsed Cambodia's application to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site, a classification made by the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization.
The opposition has accused the government of having ulterior motives in backing Cambodia's application, claiming that Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire tycoon and former Thai prime minister who has close ties to the government, would benefit from business deals in Cambodia.
Negotiations on the Preah Vihear issue were led on the Thai side by Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who is a former lawyer for Thaksin.
"The problem at the moment is that it's very difficult to know what the truth is," said Jon Ungpakorn, a former senator. "Everything is being expressed in such an emotional way. Thai society is still extremely polarized."
Thai Rath, a mass-circulation daily newspaper, ran an article Wednesday about all the territory Thailand has lost over the past few hundred years.
Cambodia is one of Thailand's historical rivals, and some people in Thailand worry that the political controversy may spill over and sour relations between the two countries.
"It will be hard to bring the rocket down once it has been launched," said one politician, who wished to remain anonymous because he was still active in politics and did not want to alienate his allies.
Cambodian officials closed access to Preah Vihear on Monday when Thai protesters singing nationalist songs began a march toward the temple complex.
In 2003, the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh was damaged and Thai businesses in the city were attacked after a Cambodian newspaper quoted a Thai television actress as saying that the massive Cambodian temple complex of Angkor Wat actually belonged to Thailand.
Thaksin, who was prime minister at the time, threatened to send commandos in to secure the Thai Embassy and Thai businesses, some of which were his own.
Although out of power and largely out of the public eye, Thaksin remains at the center of the political impasse here. The opposition accuses the government of being Thaksin's puppet. Many senior officials in the current government are former members of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, which was disbanded by the courts.
Thaksin still faces several court cases for abuse of power and corruption while he was prime minister.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Thailand jailed one of Thaksin's lawyers and two of his legal advisers for what was judged as an attempt to bribe court officials with the equivalent of $60,000 hidden in a grocery bag.
Judge Mongkol Tabthieng said that Pichit Chuenban and two associates representing Thaksin were responsible for leaving the bag in the Supreme Court compound earlier this month during a hearing of a case against Thaksin over a land deal.
"Their joint action has tarnished the court's image," the judge said in his verdict.
By Thomas Fuller
Published: June 25, 2008
BANGKOK: "There are three things that can make Thai people emotional," said Gothom Arya, a veteran human rights campaigner here. "The royal family, nationalism and religion."
In its campaign to unseat the government of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, the political opposition in Thailand is tapping two out of three, Gothom said.
Opponents of Samak's five-month-old government are trying to remove him using a territorial dispute over an ancient Hindu temple on the Cambodian border, adding to an already poisonous political stalemate gripping the country. The opposition is also repeating assertions that Samak's government and its allies do not have sufficient respect for the country's monarchy.
Samak appeared ready to prevail over a vote of no-confidence Thursday in Parliament - his coalition controls two-thirds of the seats - but daily street protests and the emotive potency of the allegations against the prime minister have further weakened his government.
With protesters blocking access to his office, Samak has been forced to leave through back doors or work from alternate, undisclosed locations.
And although publicly Samak has tried to exhibit nonchalance toward the crisis - he was pictured in newspapers Wednesday making origami birds during the parliamentary debate - his government has shifted decisively to a defensive posture.
The opposition is divided between the Democrat Party in Parliament and a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy, which has organized street protests for the past month. But they have gelled over the issue of Preah Vihear, a 900-year-old Khmer temple that sits on a ridge along the Thai-Cambodian border.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but the surrounding land - and perhaps most importantly access to the temple - has remained in dispute. The temple can be reached from the Thai side relatively easily; on the Cambodian side it accessible only by scaling a cliff.
In an apparent attempt to help solve the dispute, Samak's government endorsed Cambodia's application to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site, a classification made by the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization.
The opposition has accused the government of having ulterior motives in backing Cambodia's application, claiming that Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire tycoon and former Thai prime minister who has close ties to the government, would benefit from business deals in Cambodia.
Negotiations on the Preah Vihear issue were led on the Thai side by Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who is a former lawyer for Thaksin.
"The problem at the moment is that it's very difficult to know what the truth is," said Jon Ungpakorn, a former senator. "Everything is being expressed in such an emotional way. Thai society is still extremely polarized."
Thai Rath, a mass-circulation daily newspaper, ran an article Wednesday about all the territory Thailand has lost over the past few hundred years.
Cambodia is one of Thailand's historical rivals, and some people in Thailand worry that the political controversy may spill over and sour relations between the two countries.
"It will be hard to bring the rocket down once it has been launched," said one politician, who wished to remain anonymous because he was still active in politics and did not want to alienate his allies.
Cambodian officials closed access to Preah Vihear on Monday when Thai protesters singing nationalist songs began a march toward the temple complex.
In 2003, the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh was damaged and Thai businesses in the city were attacked after a Cambodian newspaper quoted a Thai television actress as saying that the massive Cambodian temple complex of Angkor Wat actually belonged to Thailand.
Thaksin, who was prime minister at the time, threatened to send commandos in to secure the Thai Embassy and Thai businesses, some of which were his own.
Although out of power and largely out of the public eye, Thaksin remains at the center of the political impasse here. The opposition accuses the government of being Thaksin's puppet. Many senior officials in the current government are former members of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party, which was disbanded by the courts.
Thaksin still faces several court cases for abuse of power and corruption while he was prime minister.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Thailand jailed one of Thaksin's lawyers and two of his legal advisers for what was judged as an attempt to bribe court officials with the equivalent of $60,000 hidden in a grocery bag.
Judge Mongkol Tabthieng said that Pichit Chuenban and two associates representing Thaksin were responsible for leaving the bag in the Supreme Court compound earlier this month during a hearing of a case against Thaksin over a land deal.
"Their joint action has tarnished the court's image," the judge said in his verdict.
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