Saturday, June 2, 2012

The escape route for Thai democracy is very narrow and dangerous

The "getaway" outlets for Thai democracy is rather narrow and dangerous. That's the scene from yesterday's Parliament in the wake of the demonstration by the yellow-shirts who blocked entrances to the House. MPs and Cabinet ministers had to scramble out of the place before they got stuck in there.

The protesters managed to forced the ruling Pheu Thai Party to take a step back. House Speaker Somsak Kiartsuranond declared the House session postponed -- and the deliberations of the controversial "reconciliation bill" put back indefinitely to cool things down.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) declared "victory" and will return on June 5 to monitor the next move by the government. The opposition Democrats said they would continue to oppose the bill at all cost. The ruling Pheu Thai accused the Democrats of breaking the House rules and the spirit of parliamentary democracy.

On the same day, the Constitutional Court decided to accept the appeal to consider whether the House's passage of the constitutional amendments was "constitutional" or not.

Red-shirt leaders, including Jatuporn Prompan, made a public statement calling for all red shirts to be on alert for a possible military coup. Army Chief Gen Prayuth Chan O-cha said he didn't know anything about the supposed coup.

For the Thai people, the new round of political turmoil has just begun.

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