Thailand’s Yingluck on Shaky Ground as Protests Gather Steam
An escalation of mass street rallies in Bangkok could deepen divisions in polarised Thailand and threaten the stability of a government feeling the backlash of a political gambit that it might now be regretting.
Several thousand protesters gathered in central Bangkok on Tuesday in protest against a government-backed amnesty bill that has galvanized a cross-section of society into action, ending two years of relative calm.
Critics say the bill is an attempt by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to whitewash the crimes of her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and bring him home without facing a two-year jail term handed down in 2008 for graft.
Thaksin, a telecoms tycoon-turned-populist politician, remains a divisive figure, idolised by the urban and rural poor but reviled by royalists, elites and the urban middle class, who chafe at the prospect of his return to office.
A rejection of the bill by the Senate late on Monday appears to have had no impact on protesters who vowed to continue until the draft was killed off, threatening the kind of turmoil that has plagued Thailand since the military ousted Thaksin in a 2006 coup.
More: Thailand’s Yingluck on Shaky Ground as Protests Gather Steam - the West Australian