Announcement Number 11/2008
People’s Alliance for Democracy
Purge of Thaksin Regime and the Nominee Government
Since the People’s Alliance for Democracy gathering on Sunday May 25, 2008, the PAD has decided to actively protest according to announcement Number 10/2008, dated May 25, 2008. Due to the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s actions in obstructing the PAD from moving to Government House, we have been forced to remain here at the Makawan Bridge and adjust our plans from announcement 10/2008 to move in front of Parliament house.
Today, Friday, May 30, 2008, we the PAD handed in 31,881 signatures to the Senate speaker to the begin the process to impeach members of Parliament and senators who have signed the initiation to amend the 2007 Constitutution. Today is also the sixth day that the PAD has gathered in its protest. Throughout the five days and five nights, the peaceful demonstrators have been threatened and assaulted by hired hooligans. However, that has not deterred members of the PAD throughout the country in gathering at the Makawan bridge.
Even throughout the evenings of Wednesday the 28th and Thursday the 29th of May, heavy storms and rain in Bangkok, did not deter our participants from gathering. They weathered the storm and refused to give up their determination to fight against the Thaksin regime and his nominee government.
The leaders of the PAD would like to make a formal announcement tonight, so we can record this in Thailand’s history books to show that hundreds of thousands of Thai citizens are joining us tonight, this Friday, May 30, 2008.
The PAD has announced it’s acheivements all five days and nights. The PAD would like to thank those who have participated in our movement in creating a new chapter in Thailand’s history.
The PAD is asking for the approval from the hundreds of thousands of participants tonight to purge the nominee government of Samak Sundaravej.
Our reasons for doing so are as follows:
1. The Samak administration and the PPP party has continued its action as a nominee of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party despite a ruling by the Constitution Tribunal, dated May 30, 2007 that the Thai Rak Thai party was a direct threat to Thailand’s constitutional monarchy.
2. The Samak administration has continued several projects suspected of irregularities and continuing the corruption initiated by the Thaksin regime to further its wealth. It has failed to solve several severe economic problems that have resulted in higher costs of living for consumers nationwide. One such instance is the monoply in the oil and natural gas industries in particular the privatization of PTT PLC and selling its shares at a lower price to its associates. Another example is the increasing price of commodoties such as sugar and rice. The Samak administration has increased the price of sugar without care of the public’s well being to benefit sugar producers and politicians. The recent increase in rice price throughout the country is due to the mismanagement of rice pricing, which benefits rice traders and rice mill owners. The deception, fraud, and corruption that is taking place has led to a heavy burden on laborers, fishermen, public bus concessionaires, small business operators, consumers, and the general public.
3. The Samak administration has absolutely failed to solve the problem of the people’s poverty and let farmers suffer from low produce prices resulting in protests nationwide. Moreover, the minimum wage has been kept low, contrary to the higher costs of living.
4. The Samak administration tried to obstruct the compulsory licensing of drugs, interfered in the work of the Pharmaceutical Organization to benefit pharmaceutical firms, thus resulting in putting patients lives in danger.
5. The Samak administration tried to interfere and disrupt the judicial process through the transfer of the director-general and officials of the Department of Special Investigations and police officers to prevent cases related to them and their cronies from entering the court process. At the same time, the Samak administration used its resources to threaten and pressure independent monitoring agencies set up by the Constitution.
6. The Samak administration has interfered with the work of the media to intimidate, threaten, and bully the media to try to present one-sided news benefiting itself.
7. The Samak administration failed in its efforts to solve the problem of unrest in the South. It also engaged in risky behavior that may result in Thailand losing its territories around the Preah Vihear Temple and maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Thailand to benefit politicians in the Thaksin regime.
8. The Samak adminstration allowed individuals who have committed legal offence and lack ethics to manage the country both in the administrative and legislative branches, contrary to the oath they gave when they entered office.
9. The Samak administration and the police allowed hooligans to threaten and clash with members of the public who are exercising their Constitutional rights to protest peacefully.
10. The Thaksin regime backed the campaign to initiate the movement to change the Constitutional Monarchy system and allowed individuals with dangerous viewpoints towards the Monarchy to run the country. The Samak administration cut loose some of its members who have been widely criticized on this issue, simply to save those behind the movement.
11. The nominee government joined hands with foreign capitalists to take over the country’s natural resources which may affect the country’s economic system, such as inviting foreign investors to study and monopolize the investment in the land bridge connecting the east and west coasts of Thailand. Also, Thaksin Shinawatra recently invited Middle Eastern investors to study farming and potentially invest in the rice industry in Thailand, which is reserved to Thais.
12. The Samak administration used its majority in Parliament to try to amend the Constitution, which has garnered the support of the majority of Thais in a public referendum. It hopes to eliminate charges against it and its cronies and interfere with the judicial system as well as destroy ethics, morality and the country’s legal system.
Once the public learnt of its real intention, politicians in the Thaksin regime tried to lower public dissent by withdrawing their names from the motion for the charter amendment, hoping that the move will put an end to the PAD gathering. However, the draft of the constitution amendment reflects their real intent which is a danger to the consitutional monarchy system and paves the way for the revival of the Thaksin regime.
The PAD will not fall under that disillusion. We maintain that Thailand’s problems lie within the 12 reasons that have been disclosed and directly involve former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his associates.
The Thai Rak Thai party and Thaksin Shinawatra have continued to use other political parties as their nominees to gain control of parliament and expand their power base to increase their wealth. This wealth will be used to gain control of all the law enforcement agencies, military, and judiciary system. The PAD, therefore, believes that our move to remove former Prime Minister Thaksin from power has not been finalized. The PAD would like to ask PAD members in Thailand and abroad to unite and stand up against the crony capatalism that has ruined our country, so we can rid ourselves of the parliamentary dictatorship and eradicate the Thaksin regime from Thailand.
We asked that Thais nationwide join in our movement to remove this nominee government.
With deepest respect,
People’s Alliance for Democracy
May 30, 2008
