Street power politics

There is some need to reflect on the wisdom of compelling an elected PM to leave office by the use of street power. The institutional weakness needs to be looked at.

The political turmoil in Thailand in the wake of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s resignation is as unprecedented as it is disturbing. It’s for the first time that a democratically elected Thai prime minister -- holding three-quarters of the parliamentary seats -- has been ousted in the way Mr Thaksin was. Elected to a second-term in a landslide victory just last year, Mr Thaksin won the controversial snap poll he called last Sunday, but the outcome revealed an erosion of support in the crucial Bangkok area.

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It remains to be seen whether even now he can weather the storm of protests over his family’s sale of its telecommunications company to a Singapore government corporation. The deal was not technically illegal, but it appears to have infuriated large sections of the Thai middle-class that accuse Mr Thaksin of abusing his post for personal gain. These allegations reached a crescendo in the last two months. It’s evidently true that Mr Thaksin enjoys enormous popularity among Thailand’s rural poor -- particularly in the country’s north and northeast. He has championed hard for these groups that were neglected by the traditional political elites and his policies like cracking down on the drug trade, subsidising healthcare, and initiating poverty-reduction programmes have dramatically lifted incomes in some of Thailand’s poorest regions. This, of course, does not absolve him of guilt from any corrupt deal he may have conducted.

But there is some need to reflect on the wisdom of compelling an elected prime minister to leave office by the use of street power. Thailand perhaps needs to see whether its system has some institutional weakness that led to this impasse which is not healthy for a democracy. The political developments in Bangkok could have repercussions not only in the neighbouring Philippines. where pressure could increase on embattled President Gloria Arroyo to step down, but across the region.