tagged w/ Samak Sundaravej
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Thailand's political crisis is growing. The Constitutional Court has forced Prime Minister Samak Simdaravej to resign and no obvious replacement is in sight.
Thailand's political crisis is growing. The Constitutional Court has forced Prime... more
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BANGKOK — A court is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej violated the Constitution when he appeared several times on a television cooking show, “Tasting and Complaining.”
Cabinet ministers are forbidden from working for private companies, and opponents brought the case against him in the hope that a conviction could force him to step down.
“I have done nothing wrong,” the prime minister told the Constitutional Court on Monday. “I was hired to appear on the program and got paid from time to time. I was not an employee of the company.”
A conviction for cooking could bring a quick and farcical end to Mr. Samak’s confrontation with protesters who have blockaded his office for nearly two weeks, demanding his resignation.
But it is unclear whether it would bring an end to the protests. Protest leaders say they are aiming for an overhaul of Thailand’s political system.
A hardened and sharp-tongued politician of 73, Mr. Samak has shown a folksy side on his televised cooking show, stirring up personal recipes and sounding off on topics that catch his interest.
Television crews followed him on his shopping trips to Bangkok’s open markets, and one time, they reported, he hid in a restroom to escape them.
Mr. Samak made just a few appearances on the show after becoming prime minister seven months ago, but that was enough for a group of antigovernment senators, who brought his case to the Counter Corruption Commission, which forwarded it to the Constitutional Court.
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Thailand's beleaguered Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, has said he will not resign despite mounting pressure.
In a radio address to the nation, he said he would not bow to the demands of anti-government protesters.
On Tuesday Mr Samak imposed a state of emergency in Bangkok after his supporters and opponents clashed in the capital, leaving one person dead.
Protesters say the government is a front for Thaksin Shinawatra - the former prime minister, now in exile.
"I am not resigning," Mr Samak said, adding that he had a popular mandate to govern.
"These people want the government to quit, but how could I do that if the entire world is watching? It would be embarrassing to do so," he said.
He would not dissolve parliament, he said, adding that he would stay "to preserve democracy and to protect the monarchy".
Mr Samak's comments came shortly after the Thai foreign minister, Tej Bunnag, who was a close adviser to the king, had offered his resignation.
Thailand's beleaguered Prime Minister, Samak Sundaravej, has said he will not... more
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Thailand declared a state of emergency early today after one person was killed in political clashes between protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, and his supporters.
Samak empowered the army to restore order on the streets of Bangkok following the fighting, the worst violence seen since the anti-government campaign began in May.
The dramatic turn came after 400 troops in riot gear were deployed to separate the mobs brandishing clubs and sticks as they fought a brief pitched battle on the broad avenue that runs outside the regional headquarters of the United Nations.
A number of shots were fired by several of the protesters armed with pistols in an escalation in the scale of the violence.
In the swirling turmoil of Thai politics, the prime minister was also faced with the prospect of his eight-month old coalition being dissolved after the Election Commission recommended today that the supreme court disband his ruling People Power party for electoral fraud. However, the decision will take months to play out.
Earlier Samak declared the emergency rule in morning broadcasts branding it the "softest means possible", though he gave no timescale except to say that it would be over relatively quickly.
In the televised news conference Samak said that he had hoped to avoid emergency rule, but the rising violence that left one dead and 34 injured - two from gunshot wounds - had forced his hand.
"No one has the right to do such a thing as they have done," he said. "I had no other choice but to declare a state of emergency in Bangkok in order to solve the problem once and or all."
Samak gave the army's commander in chief, Anupong Paojinda, sole responsibility for enforcing the emergency rule in the capital, saying troops would assist the police in maintaining calm.
The order gives the army chief the powers to detain and remove people from any location, deploy soldiers on the streets, censor media reports that could "undermine public security", and bans gatherings of more than five people.
Tensions in Bangkok remained high as soldiers patrolled the streets around the UN headquarters where the avenue was strewn with rocks and debris from the night's trouble.
But it was unclear how the ruling would play out as hundreds of anti-government demonstrators from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) vowed to continue their occupation of the grounds of Government House in Bangkok.
"We have just announced that we must continue the rally [at Government House]," said a PAD spokesman today. "We want democracy. We want the prime minister to resign from his post."
The latest violence flared after red-shirted pro-government supporters from the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship marched through Bangkok in the early hours and clashed with the PAD near the compound.
The trouble prompted Singapore and South Korea to advise their nationals not to travel to Thailand unless their journeys were absolutely necessary, threatening to further disrupt the country's lucrative tourist industry.
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Moopak
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BANGKOK; Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej prepared to hold a special session of Parliament Sunday, declaring that he would not resign in the face of continuing protests and a disruption of rail and air service that included a blockade of airports at two popular tourist resorts.
The prime minister called a special session of Parliament for Sunday as members of his six-party coalition, meeting Saturday evening, told reporters they would stand by him.
I, the prime minister, have come to office in the appropriate way, and I won't resign; Mr. Samak said, noting that he had taken office after a democratic election just seven months ago.
The protesters, calling themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, accuse Mr. Samak of corruption and of seeking to amend the Constitution to allow the return of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr. Thaksin was ousted in a coup two years ago, returned to Thailand early this year, then fled this month to London, where he is seeking asylum to avoid several court cases alleging corruption and abuse of power which he says are politically motivated.
I have been very patient and have refrained from using force, Mr. Samak said, referring to a five-day protest in which thousands of people have camped out on the grounds of his office, forcing him to conduct government business elsewhere.
On Sunday he paid a visit to King Bhumibol Adulyadej in a sign of the seriousness of the political confrontation. Although the king has no political power under the Constitution, he wields the power of moral authority in Thailand and has stepped in to resolve political crises in the past.
There was no immediate word on the reason for the meeting or its outcome. Mr. Samak said he had initiated the meeting rather than being summoned.
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