2008–2010 Thai Political Crisis - History

History

The PPP won the December 2007 general election. Though it became the largest party in the House, it did not gain an absolute majority. However, PPP became the leading party when five other smaller parties, who had previously been allies of Thaksin Shinawatra, agreed to join the coalition government under Samak Sundaravej.

The coalition government vowed to amend the 2007 constitution they called undemocratic, prompting the PAD to resume protests against the constitutional amendment plan after having suspended its movement after the 2006 coup. The PAD protested that the amendment was aimed at revoking Thaksin's legal charges and the election fraud charges on PPP executive members. The Samak government finally suspended its amendment plan, yet the PAD vowed to continue their protest, calling for Samak Sundaravej's resignation, noting that during his election campaign, he had declared himself a nominee of Thaksin. The tension escalated when the PAD seized Government House.

Samak was forced to resign in September after the Constitutional Court found him guilty of being hired and paid by a cooking TV program after he became the prime minister. PPP deputy leader Somchai Wongsawat, vice president of PPP and a brother-in-law of Thaksin, was elected by the members of parliament and became the new prime minister. This change prompted a continuation of PAD protests. The protests led to violent clashes between the police, the PAD, and anti-PAD protesters on 7 October as the government aimed to disperse them from blocking the entrances of the House. Consequently, a PAD protester was killed due to a grenade near the premier's office, while a member of the PAD security forces was killed when his car exploded prematurely. Many protesters were also injured.

As the PAD was attacked, the PAD then stepped up their protests by seizing the government's temporary offices at Don Muang Airport, and the seizure and closure of Suvarnabhumi Airport after the arrest of Chamlong Srimuang, one of its leaders. The sieges ended in December due to the verdict of the Constitutional Court, which dissolved the PPP and banned its executive board from political office after finding it guilty of election fraud. The Constitutional Court dissolved two coalition partners of the PPP on similar charges, which broke the coalition apart. Prime minister Somchai resigned.

It is alleged that the army then urged MPs of a former PPP faction, the Friends of Newin Group, and MPs of the former PPP coalition partners to cross the aisle and form a coalition with the Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva. After days of negotiations, Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party, was voted in eventually by a margin of 235 in favor and 198 against.

PPP members and its supporters, UDD, then protested Abhisit's rise to power and engaged in a mass protest in Bangkok in April 2009. The Government's House was under siege again and main roads, intersections and entrances to hospitals were blocked in downtown Bangkok.

The protest also took place in Pattaya, the site of the planned Fourth East Asia Summit. After clashes with security forces and government supporters called 'the blue-shirts', the Thaksin loyalists eventually stormed the hotel, disrupting the Fourth East Asia Summit in Pattaya. A state of emergency was then declared in Pattaya while protests in Bangkok became more violent. The next day the government arrested the leaders of the Pattaya protest, causing unrest at the Supreme Court and the Interior Ministry, where prime minister Abhisit was declaring the State of Emergency in Bangkok. The protesters finally stormed the ministry, 'hunting' the premier and ministers. The premier's secretary and several guards were injured. The situation became more intense in the evening after the government called in the military forces to secure the capital. The military forces began disbanding the protests on main roads. Violent clashes, burning buses, and wheels were seen in downtown. Clashes between the red-shirts and the 'Bangkokians' took place in many areas as the red-shirts tried to storm their homes, burning wheels and blocking the railway. The protesters claimed that at least two Bangkokians were shot dead in downtown, the charge was denied by the authority as there was no strong evidence supporting the charge. Eventually, on 14 April, the leaders of the red-shirts decided to end their protest at the Government House.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, comprising media activists, social activists, academics, and leaders of worker's unions, is opposed to what it calls the "Thaksin system", which is seen by some as the Thaksin' 'autocracy'; in what has been described as his domination of independent supervisory institutions and violations of human rights and the freedom of the press. It began the mass protest against Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 after the removal of the critical TV program of Sondhi Limthongkul. In 2008, the PAD accused Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat of being proxies for Thaksin. Samak had announced that he was Thaksin's nominee during his election campaign, Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law, and several new Pheu Thai Party members are former TRT/PPP members. The PAD is opposed to all attempts to reform the constitution in ways that would allow politicians banned from political office to re-enter politics, and to revoking the charges against Thaksin. The PAD has also called for "New Politics", a 'new age of politics, free from the corrupted politicians'. In May 2009, the PAD founded its party, the New Politics Party. One of the PAD's major aims is to oppose what it considers as the anti-monarchy movement, supposedly among some Thaksin supporters. PAD has promoted the role of the king as the 'guard' of the all people's power against the 'corrupted politician'. That is why the PAD uses the colour of yellow, the Rama IX's symbolic colour of his birthday, Monday, as its brand. Yet its ideology was blasted by some critics as 'anti-democratic'.

The National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship is the group consisting of mainly social activists, scholars, and Thaksin supporters which opposes the 2006 coup deposing Thaksin Shinawatra. It believes that the coup was supported by powerful persons, the 'elites' or 'nobles', targeting Prem Tinsulanonda, the Chief of the royal Privy Council. The UDD aims to topple the amatayathipatai (government run by traditional elites, nobles, and the bureaucratic polity). In the April 2009 protest, its aims were the immediate resignation of the prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and members of the Privy Council Prem Tinsulanonda and Surayud Chulanont as well as fresh elections. It also demanded that charges be brought against the PAD for the 2008 airport seizures and unrest. Several members of Parliament in the Pheu Thai Party are public in their support of UDD, as well as of Thaksin Shinawatra himself.

In early 2010 a series of events occurred in which the situation escalated. On 26 February, assets worth 46 billion Thai baht were seized from former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. On the evening of 27 February, M67 grenades were thrown from a motorcycle outside three branches of Bangkok Bank. By mid-March "red shirt" protesters, composed mainly of Thaksin supporters, had moved into Bangkok. Although relatively peaceful in nature, human blood donated by some of the protesters was poured outside parliament. On 10 April, the protesters took control of a TV broadcasting station causing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to vow to restore Thailand to normalcy. Clashes between protesters and military had resulted in 18 fatalities (both civilian and military) and over 800 injured by 11 April. On 22 April, a series of explosions in Bangkok killed at least three people and injured 75 more, including four foreigners. At least some of the explosions were caused by grenades, which the government claimed had been fired from the Red Shirt encampment.