Return of Thai protest leader raises fears for fragile calm

Reuters/BangkokThe return to public life in Thailand of a fiery pro-establishment politician risks ending a period of calm and could lead to the delay of an election the ruling military has promised to hold next year, an opposition leader has said. Suthep Thaugsuban led violent protests backed by the Bangkok-based establishment against the populist government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. The military ousted the government in May last year, to Suthep’s delight, saying it had to take power to end the demonstrations and avoid more bloodshed. Suthep, a former deputy prime minister and top member of the pro-establishment Democrat Party, spent a year as a Buddhist monk but returned to public life this week with the launch of an organisation called the Great Mass of the People Foundation, which he described as a “collective, peaceful force”. He also promised there would be no more protests. But opposition supporters who backed Yingluck and are loyal to her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are dismayed. “I don’t believe a word Suthep says,” Jatuporn Prompan, leader of the pro-Shinawatra United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, said. “He will upset a period of calm we’ve had. I only hope the government does not heed Suthep and sticks to its promise of an election next year,” said Jatuporn. Jatuporn has himself been a protest leader when he, during periods over the last decade of polarisation and revolving-door politics, has campaigned against pro-establishment governments. The military government, under pressure to deal with a weak economy, has said an election will be held in September 2016. But delays are possible given a new constitution has to be drafted and adopted in a referendum. Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin or his allies have won every election since 2001 with policies his supporters say recognised the changing aspirations of farmers and the working class.  The establishment says Thaksin, who has lived abroad since 2008 to avoid a graft conviction, simply buys elections. Suthep said the aim of his foundation was to speak out if the government deviated from reforms, even if that meant delaying the polls, said Akanat Promphan, Suthep’s stepson and a spokesman for the movement. “We will peacefully urge the military government to stay on its path of reforms, no matter how long it takes,” he said. Kan Yuenyong, an analyst at Siam Intelligence Unit think-tank, said Suthep’s return would consolidate a Bangkok-centric agenda and raised the prospect of the return of street politics.