Anti-government protesters in Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo by Rufus David Cox/Getty Images)
Fierce protests in Thailand against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s rule were given new life on Wednesday when anti-corruption authorities announced some 300 lawmakers were being investigated, mostly members of her Pheu Thai party. While a legislative scandal won’t have a huge impact on the elections Shinawatra has called for early February given that opposition Democrats were planning a boycott anyway, it will likely bolster the energy of what is essentially a legitimate national insurgency, at least in the cities. Indeed, the charge being leveled at these pols — that of “malfeasance in office” — speaks to the protesters’ fears about Shinawatra’s grip on power, and the vague possibility that she is essentially serving as the public face for her brother, former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who some suspect has reassumed control from abroad.
At issue is a constitutional change enacted last year that would have made the upper house of parliament directly elected by the public, a sure boost to Shinawatra’s electorally dominant party. The change was struck down by the Constitutional Court in November. The history here is critical for some context: after Thaksin Shinawatra’s ouster in 2006, the military-controlled government changed the law so about half of the Senate’s members might be appointed by civil servants and judges, offering protection from the legislature being completely overtaken by one partisan sentiment. That the new Premier Shinawatra seemed to be removing this safeguard against a repeat of her brother’s rule was part of what set off alarm bells across this ideological spectrum and sparked this protest explosion in the first place.
So now protesters’ grievances have been legitimized by their government, if not its current political leaders, ahead of their planned “shutdown” of normal economic life next week. The question is if this blow at the heart of her party’s membership compels P.M. Shinawatra to step back and agree to a more comprehensive political overhaul; another round of elections, sure to go to Pheu Thai, won’t do the trick here. And we know from recent history that massive street protests during vacation season can dampen the national economy. That kind of one-two punch might be too much even for a seasoned machine politician like the premier to handle.
