Protests force Thailand to scrap ASEAN summit

The shattering of glass as the doors of a luxury hotel heaved, then gave way. The whup-whup of helicopter blades as regional leaders were evacuated from a rooftop. The humiliation in the voice of a Thai leader apologizing to his guests.

Those were the sounds Saturday as thousands of anti-government protesters forced officials to scrap a key Southeast Asian summit in the resort city of Pattaya and raised new concern about Thailand’s political stability.

Capping a week of protests, demonstrators swarmed past police barricades and riot police to demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva step down and dissolve the government. Many were waving flags, blowing whistles and horns and chanting “Thaksin,” the name of their exiled leader and benefactor, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Wearing red shirts, they raged through several buildings in the sprawling Pattaya Exhibition and Conference Center before gathering outside the meeting hall where leaders of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, were having lunch.

Other protests were reported in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where a road was blocked, and in Udon Thani, where City Hall was surrounded by demonstrators.

In Pattaya, Abhisit apologized to his regional counterparts in an impromptu news conference in the abandoned venue hours after the protesters’ assault.

“Anyone who declares this a victory is an enemy of the country,” Abhisit said.

He had insisted for weeks that he would not allow protesters to disrupt the summit. Instead, they were able to humiliate the Thai leader in front of regional powers, including China, Japan and South Korea.

Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN’s secretary-general, appealed for a peaceful end to the protests and said regional leaders must resume their meeting to discuss crucial issues, such as the spreading financial crisis.

“It is for the interest of all the 570 million people in ASEAN [member nations] that leaders of ASEAN and East Asia are able to come together to discuss and synergize efforts to cope with the many challenges that the world is grappling with now,” he said in a statement.

“Many people are affected by these challenges, and it is imperative that we do not let these efforts be derailed at the expense of the people.”

The opposition group, known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, or UDD, says Abhisit and his 4-month-old coalition government came to power undemocratically in what they call a “silent coup” abetted by the military and Bangkok elite.

The demonstrators have given Abhisit until the end of the three-day Thai New Year, which begins Monday, to resign. The group’s leader, Arisman Pongreungrong, has said that if the government remains silent on its demands to step down, it will apply more pressure through social protests.

Throughout the last week, 100,000 supporters staged protests in Bangkok, the capital. On Tuesday, Abhisit was attacked by protesters while his vehicle was stopped at a traffic light in Pattaya.

“We showed the world today that the people can win. It’s a victory, but it’s just the first step,” said Chatchai Suksom, one of many Bangkok taxi drivers who traveled the 90 miles to Pattaya to support the anti-government protesters. “We will stop the corrupt puppet government. We have shown the government’s weakness to the world.”

The summit’s botched security is a huge embarrassment for Abhisit, a 44-year-old Oxford economist who had promised to restore stability to Thailand and boost its reeling economy. Fourteen countries have issued travel warnings because of the crisis, and tourist officials predict that the number foreign visitors will decline 40% from the 2008 level, local news reports said.

The summit’s collapse also sets the stage for a political grudge match between Abhisit and Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon whose whereabouts are unknown.

Thaksin faces a two-year prison sentence on corruption charges but still has a strong support base in rural northern Thailand for his populist policies. His supporters say that he has the skills to guide the country through the economic crisis and that he would win a national election.

Late last year, protesters overran Bangkok’s administrative center, the Government House, and seized its two international airports in a successful campaign to topple two Thaksin-linked governments. Abhisit was appointed by parliament after his party came in second in national elections.

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McDermid is a special correspondent.