Yasmeen H.A. for BBC

Thailand: Chaos and Controversy

Yasmeen H.A.

Protestors in central Bangkok, 5 Jan 2014

Anti-government protests in Thailand commenced in October 2013 and have continued throughout the New Year, becoming more severe by the day.

Such protests began due to a proposed amnesty bill that would pardon Thai politicians Abhisit Vejjajiva and Suthep Thaugsuban over murder charges, as well as the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra over corruption allegations. This bill would permit Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled Thailand in order to avoid imprisonment, to return to the country. Shinawatra had been ousted in a 2006 coup d’etat and is still greatly disliked by a majority of the public. His sister Yingluck Shinawatra’s role as the current prime minister of Thailand is troubling for many Thai citizens who fear that this allows Thaksin Shinawatra to have an influence over the Thai government.

The two Shinawatra siblings are members of the Pheu Thai political party, founded in September 2008 as a replacement for the People’s Power Party, which the Constitutional Court of Thailand dissolved after finding some of its members guilty of electoral fraud. The main goal of those protesting today is to evict this political party from power. Another aim is to ensure that an amendment is made to the country’s 2007 constitution. This amendment would have transformed the Senate from a partially to a fully-elected body. This was originally the case before the 2006 coup d’etat. The Pheu Thai Party rejected this and claimed that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter. This incident triggered mass protests. 

The protesters have divided themselves into two major categories: the Yellow Shirts and the Red Shirts. The Yellow Shirts are those opposed to the Pheu Thai party, while the Red Shirts are those in favor of it. On November 29, 2013, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced that a new election would not be in order. In early December, however, she declared that she was dissolving the parliament and that new elections were to be held shortly, as she feared that the protests would worsen. The “Yellow Shirts” group announced on December 21 that it would boycott the elections set for February 2. The protests took a violent turn near the end of December, when a protestor was shot dead by an unidentified gunman, becoming the eighth person to die on account of street clashes.

In early January, protesters began blocking roads in parts of Bangkok in an effort to oust the government before the elections in early February. On January 21, the Thai government imposed a 60-day state of emergency in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces. This declaration gave the government power to censor the media, ban public gatherings, detain suspects without charge, assign curfews, and designate certain parts of Bangkok as “off-limits”. On January 26, the Yellow Shirts surrounded polling stations, blocking early voting processes. Currently, the Thai government is making final preparations for the February 2 elections.

It will undoubtedly be one of the most agitated and disconcerted elections the nation has ever witnessed.