Thai protester leaders outline reform agenda at military meeting

Updated

Leaders of the protest movement trying to overthrow the Thai government have outlined their aims at an armed forces seminar on Saturday.

The country's military - which can make or break any attempt to remove Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office - has declined to take sides or say if a February election should take place.

Ms Shinawatra called a snap election on Monday, when 160,000 people besieged her office.

She remains caretaker prime minister but the protesters want her to go now, with political reforms pushed through before any election.

The army has staged or attempted 18 coups in the past 80 years - including one against Ms Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, when he was premier in 2006.

It has declined to get involved in the present crisis and Thanasak Patimaprakorn, supreme commander of the armed forces, maintained that neutrality when he opened the open forum.

"We live under rules and reason. For sure, we protect the lives and assets of people. It's not what my job's all about, cracking down on riots and things like that," he said.

"To have peace and prosperity, we must solve these problems properly, sustainably, and not let the same old cycle return."

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban told General Thanasak Patimaprakorn that the military had intervened in similar situations in the past.

"If you take a decision and choose sides, this matter will be over. If you decide quickly, the people will praise you and you will be a hero," Mr Suthep said.

At an earlier forum at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Mr Suthep said Ms Yingluck's government had no legitimacy.

"Today, Thailand has no government and no parliament. Today, there is already a political vacuum," he said.

He wants to use that perceived vacuum to set up a "people's council" and eradicate the influence of the "Thaksin regime".

His reform program remains sketchy but its priorities are becoming clearer.

A note circulated late on Friday said an interim government should focus on "laws relating to elections and political parties, to ensure that vote-buying and electoral fraud are prohibited".

It also promised "forceful laws to eradicate corruption", decentralisation, the end of "superficial populist policies that enable corruption" and the reform of "certain state agencies such as the police force" so they are more accountable to the public.

The Thai government has accepted the need for reform and will kick off the process with a forum of its own on Sunday, but it insists that, legally, change can come only after the election.

The chances of that election taking place may become clearer at the start of next week, when the opposition Democrat Party decides whether to take part. Ms Yingluck's ruling Puea Thai Party seems almost certain to win again.

Democrat lawmakers resigned from parliament on December 8 and joined the street protests.

Mr Suthep, a deputy prime minister in the Democrat-led government until 2011, had resigned earlier to lead the movement.

The protests gained momentum in early November after Ms Yingluck's government tried to push through a political amnesty bill that would have allowed Mr Thaksin to return home a free man.

As deputy premier, Suthep authorised a military crackdown to end weeks of deadly anti-government protests by Mr Thaksin supporters in central Bangkok in 2010.

AFP/ABC

Topics: government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, activism-and-lobbying, defence-forces, thailand, asia

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