Ruling on 'peaceful' Thai rallies raises suspicion

BANGKOK

A contentious ruling by the Thai Civil Court that protests by the anti-government movement are peaceful -- a day after violent clashes left five people dead -- has heightened suspicion that the judiciary is part of an "elite" alliance that is keen to oust the government.

With the Thai military reluctant to intervene to resolve a four-month-long political crisis, there has been repeated speculation that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government is being strangled by the courts and independent agencies such as the anti-graft body.

Critics have described this process as a slow "judicial coup" -- a term used frequently in recent years by supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and some analysts, to question the legitimacy of verdicts by senior courts that have brought down governments he was alleged to have run while living in exile. 

Thai legal expert Verapat Pariyawong -- an independent Harvard-educated lawyer -- said on his Facebook page Thursday: "The Thai civil court's order today is one step closer to full scale judicial coup."

He claimed the ruling would "pave ways for the protestors to claim pseudo legitimacy to overthrow the government."

On Wednesday the Civil Court referred to an assessment made previously by the most senior court in the Kingdom that the protest was peaceful and conducted "without weapons."

It said the government had the right to call a state of emergency, but sharply curtailed the power of security forces to protect government buildings.

The verdict was starkly at odds with videos posted on social media and seen by millions of Thais showing a grenade fired at police seeking to disperse protesters in central Bangkok, and people on both sides being shot.

Sunai Phasuk, from Human Rights Watch, told the Anadolu Agency on Thursday that the ruling could send the wrong message that protesters are being shielded from criminal prosecution and accountability for violence and serious human rights violations.

"Claims that anti-government groups are peaceful and unarmed are dispelled by their use of firearms and other acts of violence over the past three months, ranging from obstruction of (the) electoral process and voting to many clashes with police and government supporters," he added.

Chalerm Yoobamrung, director of the government's Center for Maintaining Peace and Order, said he would challenge the court's restrictions prohibiting the dispersal of protesters, but National Security Council Chief Lieutenant-General Paradorn Pattanatabut seemed less perturbed - he said the authorities would simply focus more on individuals and people who commit offences. 

Rallies continued in Bangkok on Thursday, although there were no reports of violence.

Radical monk Luang Pu Buddha Issara -- closely allied with the anti-goverment movement -- led hundreds of people in a symbolic protest outside the Shinawatra Tower, a base for businesses linked to the prime minister's family.

- Country in crisis

Thailand has been lurching from one crisis to another since a 2006 coup, in which Yingluck Shinawatra's brother - Thaksin -  was overthrown and then found guilty of abuse of power.

Yingluck is facing a wave of opposition protests after her government pushed through an amnesty in 2013 which would have lifted a conviction against Thaksin  -- a deeply divisive figure whose Thai Rak Thai (Thais love Thais) party led the country from 2001.

Thaksin, who is said to still exert strong influence on the government, fled before the judgment and has been living in exile, mostly in Dubai.

Confronted by massive protests, the government withdrew the bill, but the opposition has alleged massive corruption by the government and Shinawatra family.

Yingluck dissolved parliament on December 9 and called February 2 elections, which were disrupted by an anti-government movement - the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) - who want an unelected "people’s council" to run Thailand until the political system is reformed.

The PDRC has also asked the Constitutional Court to dissolve the government for "abuse of power" for its organization of the February elections.

Thailand is deeply divided between an urban middle class which despises Yingluck's populist government and provincials in the the poorer north and north-east, determined to maintain an administration which has delivered them clear material benefits.

The conflict also puts two rival factions of the elite at opposition - the traditional establishment focused on the monarchy, comprised of old Sino-Thai business families, and a class of "new rich" Thais, who have made a fortune since the beginning of the 1980s.

The new wealth is epitomized by former prime minister Thaksin, a telecom magnate and billionaire, who is accused of massive corruption by the anti-government demonstrators, but adored by the provincials for his social policies.

According to renowned Thai political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a lynchpin of the crisis has been the will of the old elite to push away Thaksin through short-cuts - military coups or judicial coups, as in 2007 and 2008 when two pro-Thaksin political parties were dissolved by the Constitutional Court.

- Rice subsidies problems

Elsewhere in Thailand on Thursday, farmers upset at the government over its failure to pay for rice submitted under a controversial rice subsidies program drove an armada of tractors from the central region toward the capital. 

Over a million farmers are owed money for rice sold to the government up to five months ago, however, the calling of a snap election -- partly blocked by the protesters -- has hindered the government's capacity to pay the massive cost of the scheme. 

More than a dozen farmers owed money are reported to have committed suicide because of the financial difficulties caused by not being paid. 

On Tuesday, the country's National Anti-Corruption Commission filed corruption charges against Shinawatra with regard to the program.

The Commission does not have the power of indictment -- it can press charges, but then it has to transfer the case to the Thai Supreme Court. If the court accepts the case, there can be an indictment, a trial and eventually a conviction.

On Thursday, the prime minister indicated she would fight those charges, and questioned the "record" speed at which the agency had processed the case. 

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