Bangkok's Right-Wing "Revolution" amid Murder Indictments

A court on Thursday (Dec. 12) indicted former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for alleged murders, but his deputy did not arrive for the same indictment because he was whipping up a right-wing "people's revolution" which cut off the prime minister's electricity and water to force her resignation.

The murder charges date back to 2010 and are echoing in Bangkok's current month-long "insurrection" which is fueled mostly by urban-based royalists and military officers, plus middle and upper classes who favor dictatorial, appointed officials instead of popularly elected politicians.

In the latest twist, a man standing in the street on Thursday (Dec. 12) afternoon used a lengthy pole to disconnect overhead electric cables leading to Interim Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's now-vacant Government House office, while a curious crowd watched.

Others cut the water supply and some barbed wire protecting the building.

Ms. Yingluck refuses to resign and now uses police and army buildings as her office.

This Buddhist-majority, Southeast Asian major non-NATO U.S. ally has spiraled into political chaos partly because Ms. Yingluck has been reluctant to use force against thousands of anti-government protesters.

In response, anti-Yingluck protesters occupied and looted the Finance Ministry, the Technology Crime Suppression Division, and other official buildings, stealing computers, hard drives, and smartphones -- paving the way for a possible WikiLeaks-style expose of confidential documents.

A Criminal Court on Thursday (Dec. 12) meanwhile issued a murder indictment to Mr. Abhisit who was prime minister from December 2008 to July 2011.

He was released after posting bail.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) had charged Mr. Abhisit and his deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban with premeditated and attempted murders committed in 2010.

The two politicians allegedly approved the use of live ammunition, allowing troops to shoot at thousands of Red Shirts and others who fought with Molotov cocktails, slingshots and other weapons behind bamboo barricades, while calling for nationwide elections.

At least 90 people, mostly Reds and other civilians, died during the nine-week uprising.

The murder charges came after a man, 43, and girl, 14, were allegedly shot dead during the crackdown.

Mr. Abhisit and Mr. Suthep deny wrongdoing and said they acted within emergency laws they had declared at that time, which also granted them some immunity.

Today, the elitist Mr. Abhisit leads a Democrat Party which failed to win any popular elections during the past 20 years, so he joined the current right-wing protests.

Mr. Suthep, the wrathful self-appointed protest leader, faces charges of "insurrection" -- punishable by life imprisonment or lethal injection -- after five civilians died during clashes among his supporters and Reds favoring Ms. Yingluck.

Mr. Suthep demands cancellation of Ms. Yingluck's 2011 landslide election victory.

He also wants to blacklist Ms. Yingluck and her wealthy powerful relatives, plus all her political allies, from government in the future.

Mr. Suthep demands replacing Thailand's superficial, unbalanced democracy with a dictatorial "people's revolution" which would unveil a "people's council" which he said on Thursday (Dec. 12) will include 400 selected people, but no politicians.

The council could then take 18 months "reforming" Thailand's governing system.

The result would severely weaken future elected politicians, and empower additional appointed officials who favor their business cronies, monarchists, the military, the urban elite and others.

The often confused Ms. Yingluck, who draws most of her votes from Thailand's north and northeastern neglected rural areas, recently appeared on the verge of tears.

She dissolved parliament's House of Representatives on Dec. 9, leaving a half-appointed Senate in power.

She is now a caretaker prime minister facing fresh elections scheduled for Feb. 2.

Mr. Suthep rejects that election and said Ms. Yingluck must resign, so a pliant leader can be installed who would agree to Mr. Suthep's authoritarian schemes.

"I will do everything to stop the next election," Mr. Suthep told inquiring businessmen, bankers and industrialists on Thursday (Dec. 12).

Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms. Yingluck's manipulative elder brother, is meanwhile boosting his sister who he dubbed as his personal political "proxy."

Mr. Thaksin was toppled in a bloodless 2006 military coup.

He suffered when post-coup court convictions sentenced him to two years imprisonment and seized $1.2 billion of his cash and assets, as punishment for two separate business deals conducted while he was in power.

Mr. Thaksin and his sister became Mr. Suthep's easy targets when Ms. Yingluck's government failed to win a justice-defying "amnesty" for officials on all sides accused or convicted of crimes since 2004, including Mr. Thaksin.

Meanwhile, Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who played a role in the 2006 coup, is publicly trying to appear neutral, denying speculation by Red Shirts and local media that he may be using Mr. Suthep to stage a "civilian coup".

"The suspense is building, everyone in #Thailand would like to know which side Gen. Prayuth is on," a pro-Red analyst tweeted on the Rajprasong News site on Thursday (Dec. 12).

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and recipient of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final chapter, Ceremonies and Regalia, in a new book titled King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective.

His websites are
http://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets
https://gumroad.com/l/RHwa

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