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Pro-Thaksin camp vows more Thai protests in 2009
Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:43pm EST
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By Khettiya Jittapong
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed on Wednesday to resume their street campaign in the new year to pressure the new government to call fresh elections.
In a sign of the political strife to come in 2009, leaders of the pro-Thaksin camp also warned they may target a regional summit in Bangkok in February to pile pressure on the new government led by former opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.
The threat came after thousands of red-shirted demonstrators, who blockaded parliament for two days and forced Prime Minister Abhisit to change the venue of his maiden policy speech, ended their siege after midnight.
"We are discussing among DAAD leaders that we will protest against the government again after the New Year holidays," Veera Musikapong, leader of Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD), told reporters.
"Our demand is the same, a dissolution of the house," he said.
This week's protests by DAAD supporters angry at a court ruling which dismissed a pro-Thaksin government earlier this month is the latest twist in a three-year old political crisis that has badly damaged the economy.
STIMULUS PACKAGE
In his speech made at the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, Abhisit said the country's deep political divisions could help trigger a recession if the government failed to implement a $8.6 billion stimulus package and restore confidence.
"These conflicts are the country's weakness, especially at a time when the world economy is entering its worst crisis in a century," he told legislators gathered at the ministry.
Slowing exports, falling tourist arrivals, weak commodity prices and delayed private investment would be major problems facing Thailand in 2009 as the global economy weakened, he said.
The Bank of Thailand painted a bleak picture of the economy on Tuesday, reporting a nearly 18 percent fall in exports in November, the first decline since March 2002, and a slump in manufacturing.
It blamed the export decline on weakening global demand and a week-long siege of Bangkok's main airport by yellow-shirted members of the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which crippled cargo shipments and tourism.
Many Thai and foreign companies have already cut jobs, prompting Abhisit to warn that unemployment could double without urgent government action.
But analysts doubt Abhisit's stimulus package can spare the economy from recession, given the prospects for more political unrest in 2009 and the country's heavy reliance on exports, which amount to more than 60 percent of GDP.
This week's protests were largely peaceful, but the impasse between Bangkok's royalist and business elite, who accused Thaksin of corruption, and rural voters who loved his populist policies, shows no sign of abating. Continued...
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