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Thai international air links being restored
Associated Press - December 4, 2008
Denis D. Gray, Bangkok – Thailand's battered political parties tried to come up with a candidate Thursday to replace the ousted prime minister as airport authorities hurried to restore international air links severed by protesters who occupied Bangkok's two airports for a week.
The airport sieges, which were lifted Wednesday, had stranded more than 300,000 travelers while an unknown number have been trying to fly into Thailand from around the world.
Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi international airport was taking in a limited number of international flights but Associated Press reporters at the airport said none were yet flying out. Travelers were using U-Tapao airport in eastern Thailand to leave the country.
But the national airline, Thai Airways, said in a news release that it would operate 24 international flights – 12 outbound and 12 inbound – to and from Europe, Asia and Australia at Suvarnabhumi before midnight Thursday.
The airline and the Airports Authority of Thailand was preparing to sue the demonstrators for damages resulting from the occupation of the airports, said Chaisak Anksuwan, general director of the Aviation Department. Legal action would be taken as soon as damages were assessed, he said.
Local media speculated widely about the selection of a new prime minister following the dissolution by court order Tuesday of the three main parties of the ruling coalition, and the ouster of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from politics for five years.
The parties, which were meeting Thursday, have reconstituted under new guises and have 30 days to come up with a candidate before Parliament meets. On Wednesday they endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Chaowarat Chandeerakul as caretaker leader, but were deciding Thursday on a candidate for permanent prime minister.
The People's Alliance for Democracy, which led six months of anti-government protests and seized the airports, has warned that it would resume its demonstrations should a candidate close to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra be put forward.
Thaksin, toppled in a 2006 military coup, is accused by the alliance of gross corruption and attempting to undermine the much-revered monarchy. The demonstrators say that the latest government was controlled by Thaksin's proxies.
Although exiled, Thaksin remains extremely popular among the rural poor and the new government is certain to include his allies, igniting fears of future instability.
"It is nothing more than an intermission. It is not over until the two sides of the political spectrum can reconcile and the prospect of that happening is very bleak," said Charnvit Kasetsiri, a historian and former rector of Bangkok's Thammasat University.
All sides awaited the annual birthday speech Thursday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who over the past four decades has stepped in to defuse several bloodypolitical confrontations.
"Expectations are very high. If the royal comments are seen as fair and balanced with a way (out of a crisis), people will try to think about that and maybe to push for that way forward," said Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
But Thitinan said that the king's guidance, if any, might not be sufficient to heal the deep polarization.
"It's also possible that one side or the other will see it as insufficient, in which case they will not stand down and go home quietly. It is uncertain whether all sides will accept the royal commets," he said.
Following months of protest by the alliance, in which at least six people were killed and scores injured, the country's Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the three ruling coalition parties were guilty of committing fraud in the December 2007 elections which brought them to power.
The ruling banned Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law, and 59 executives of the three parties from politics or five years.
Charnvit said that despite its losses the coalition was still strong enough to form a government dominated by pro-Thaksin politicians.
"Neither side has been completely ruined and unil that happens, Thailand will go from one crisis to another," he said. "Both sides are beyond reconciliation or typical Thai-style compromise."
The anti-government alliance claims Thailand's rural majority – who gave landslide election victories to the Thaksin camp – is too poorly educated to responsibly choose their representatives and says they are susceptible to vote buying.
It wants the country to abandon the system of one-person, one-vote, and instead have a mixed system in which most representatives are chosen by profession and social group.
Pro-Thaksin politicians have been pushing to amend th constitution to allow Thaksin, who is also banned from politics and convicted on corruption charges, to make a comeback.
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