SitiWanMahani - Perdana
Menteri Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra berkata pada hari Isnin dia akan “membuka
setiap pintu” untuk mencari penyelesaian secara aman kepada krisis politik
semasa, beribu-ribu penunjuk perasaan mengambil jalan-jalan di ibu negara yang
mahu menjatuhkan kerajaan beliau.
Beliau
memberitahu sidang media bahawa polis tidak akan menggunakan kekerasan terhadap
penunjuk perasaan. Tetapi kemudian, ketua keselamatan negara berkata peluru
getah telah digunakan sebagai penunjuk perasaan mengancam untuk maju ke pejabat
Yingluck, tumpuan utama demonstrasi sejak hujung minggu.
Keganasan
adalah twist yang terbaru dalam konflik kelas pertengahan bopeng di Bangkok dan
elit pendukung raja terhadap kebanyakannya yang miskin, penyokong luar bandar
Yingluck dan abangnya, Thaksin Shinawatra, Perdana bekas menteri populis yang
digu-lingkan dalam rampasan kuasa tentera pada tahun 2006 dan tinggal diri – dlm
buangan.
Seorang wartawan Reuters berkata penunjuk perasaan telah berjaya
mengambil turun sekurang-kurangnya satu lapisan luar halangan konkrit yang
telah diambil oleh pihak berkuasa untuk mempertahankan ‘Government House’,
pejabat Yingluck di tengah-tengah Bangkok.
Selepas
menggunakan pusingan apabila pusingan gas pemedih mata pada hari Ahad untuk
menghalau penunjuk perasaan, polis meningkatkan respons mereka pada hari Isnin.
“Kami seli antara penggunaan meriam air, gas pemedih mata dan peluru getah.
Peluru getah yang digunakan dalam satu kawasan sahaja dan adalah jambatan
berhampiran ‘Government House,” Paradorn Pattanathabutr, ketua Majlis
Keselamatan Negara, kepada Reuters.
Gas
pemedih mata juga digunakan terhadap penunjuk perasaan di ibu pejabat Bangkok
polis metropolitan. Ketua penunjuk perasaan Suthep Thaugsuban bertemu Yingluck
lewat semalam tetapi menegaskan tiada rundingan untuk menamatkan krisis politik
yang paling teruk sejak pergolakan berdarah pada tahun 2010.
“Saya memberitahu
Yingluck jika polis meletakkan senjata mereka, kita akan mengalu-alukan mereka
kerana mereka juga Thailand,” katanya kepada penyokong kemudian. “Saya
memberitahu Yingluck bahawa ini akan menjadi mesyuarat hanya kita dan kita
tidak akan berjumpa lagi sehingga rakyat menang.”
Mesyuarat
itu, katanya, telah diatur oleh tentera, sebuah institusi yang kuat yang telah
mengambil-dua pihak terhadap kerajaan Thaksin - bersekutu dalam krisis sebelum ini
dan meletakkan gerakan pro-Thaksin pada 2010. Kemudian lebih daripada 90 orang mati.
Kali ini, tentera telah mengambil tempat duduk belakang. “Pihak
tentera telah meletakkan dirinya sebagai neutral dan ia mahu melihat cara yang
aman di luar,” Yingluck mem-beritahu sidang akhbar itu.
Pasaran
kewangan Thailand lemah pada hari Isnin, dengan mata wang baht ke bawah
berbanding dolar walaupun Bank of Thailand campur tangan untuk menyokongnya.
Walau bagaimanapun, ia pulih sedikit selepas komen Yingluck mengenai protes.
Baht telah jatuh 3% peratus sejak awal November dan indeks saham penanda aras
telah kehilangan 5.8% peratus pada bulan yang lalu.
Kos menginsuranskan
pendedahan kepada hutang kerajaan Thailand melalui swap kemungkiran kredit (CDS)
juga telah merangkak sehingga dalam beberapa minggu kebelakangan ini.
Thaksin,
yang memenangi lebih pengundi luar bandar dan golongan miskin di bandar dengan
dasar-dasar populis , didapati bersalah tanpa hadir rasuah pada 2008 tetapi dia
menolak tuduhan sebagai bermotifkan politik. Beliau dilihat sebagai kuasa di
sebalik kerajaan Yingluck, kadang-kadang mengadakan mesyuarat dengan kabinet
dengan webcam.
Bantahan telah disertai oleh Demokrat pembangkang, parti politik
tertua di Thailand. Ia tidak memenangi pilihan raya di lebih daripada dua dekad
dan telah hilang setiap undi kebangsaan selama 13 tahun yang lalu untuk Thaksin
atau sekutu-sekutunya.
Suthep
, 64, adalah seorang timbalan perdana menteri dalam kerajaan Demokrat yang
diterajui yang kehilangan kuasa untuk Yingluck dalam pilihan raya 2011. Dia
mahu yang samar-samar ditakrifkan “majlis rakyat” untuk menggantikan kerajaan
beliau dan parlimen yang terdiri daripada layak dahulu yang dinamakan.
“Tuntutan
Penunjuk perasaan ‘adalah mustahil untuk bertemu di bawah rangka kerja
perlembagaan,” Yingluck memberitahu sidang akhbar itu.
Thai Prime Minister Calls for
talks As police use rubber bullets
on protesters . . .
Thai
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Monday she would "open every
door" to find a peaceful solution to the current political crisis, as
thousands of protesters took to the streets of the capital seeking to topple
her government.
She
told a news conference that police would not use force against the protesters.
But later, the national security chief said rubber bullets were being used as
protesters threatened to advance to Yingluck's office, the focal point of the
demonstrations since the weekend.
The
violence is the latest twist in a conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and
royalist elite against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her
brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who was ousted in
a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile. A Reuters reporter
said demonstrators had succeeded in taking down at least one outer layer of the
concrete barriers set up by the authorities to defend Government House,
Yingluck's office in the heart of Bangkok.
After
using round upon round of teargas on Sunday to repel the protesters, police
stepped up their response on Monday. "We are alternating between the use
of water cannons, teargas and rubber bullets. Rubber bullets are being used in
one area only and that is the bridge near Government House," Paradorn Pattanathabutr,
the head of the National Security Council, told Reuters.
Teargas
was also used against protesters at the headquarters of the Bangkok
metropolitan police. Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban met Yingluck late on
Sunday but insisted there were no negotiations to end the worst political
crisis since bloody unrest in 2010. "I told Yingluck that if police put
down their weapons, we will welcome them as they are also Thai," he told
supporters later. "I told Yingluck that this will be our only meeting and
we will not meet again until the people win."
The
meeting, he said, was arranged by the military, a powerful institution that has
taken sides against Thaksin-allied governments in previous crises and put down
a pro-Thaksin movement in 2010. More than 90 people died then. This time, the
military has taken a back seat. "The military has positioned itself as
neutral and it wants to see a peaceful way out," Yingluck told the news
conference.
Thai
financial markets were weak on Monday, with the baht currency down against the
dollar despite Bank of Thailand intervention to support it. However, it
recovered slightly after Yingluck's comments on the protests. The baht has
fallen 3 percent since early November and the benchmark stock index has lost
5.8 percent in the past month. The cost of insuring exposure to Thai government
debt via credit default swaps (CDS) has also crept up in recent weeks.
Thaksin,
who won over poor rural and urban voters with populist policies, was convicted
in absentia of graft in 2008 but he dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
He is widely seen as the power behind Yingluck's government, sometimes holding
meetings with the cabinet by webcam. The protests have been joined by the
opposition Democrats, Thailand's oldest political party. It has not won an
election in more than two decades and has lost every national vote for the past
13 years to Thaksin or his allies.
Suthep,
64, was a deputy prime minister in the Democrat-led government that lost power
to Yingluck in a 2011 election. He wants a vaguely defined "people's
council" to replace her government and for a parliament made up of
nominated worthies.
"The
protesters' demands are impossible to meet under the framework of the
constitution," Yingluck told the news conference.
