10  theSun | THURSDAY APRIL 9 2009

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100,000 rally against Thai PM

BANGKOK: More than
100,000 protesters rallied in
Bangkok yesterday in their
biggest bid yet to topple
premier Abhisit Vejjajiva,
deepening Thailand’s po-
litical crisis days before it
hosts a key Asian summit.
Demonstrators wearing
jail term for corruption,
thanked his supporters
in a speech delivered via
videolink after nightfall.
“I was overwhelmed to
see this sea of red,” he said.
“I want to congratulate
the entire Thai nation.
We are gathering here
so-called “Red Shirts”, add- former pre-
ing they planned to stay in mier who is
place until tomorrow. now a key aide
Abhisit rejected the to King Bhumi-
protesters’ demands to dis- bol Adulyadej,
solve his four-month-old after thousands
administration and hold of demonstra-
fresh elections, warning of tors ringed the
strong action if there was compound.

signature red shirts massed
outside the house of a top
royal aide whom they
accuse of masterminding
the 2006 coup that ousted
former premier Thaksin
Shinawtra and eventually
led to Abhisit’s rise.
They also gathered
outside the offices of the
British-born Abhisit, where
protesters have staged a sit-
in for the past two weeks,
chanting “Bring Thaksin
back, Abhisit get out!”
Billionaire tycoon
Thaksin, who is living in
exile to avoid a two-year
because we are thirsty for
real democracy. This fight
is not for me, it’s about our
country, our people, our
future generations.”
Thousands of security
forces guarded key sites
across the capital, but
there was no immediate
sign of violence despite
the prime minister’s warn-
ings that a core group of
protesters would try to
provoke bloodshed.
“We came here to expel
the government,” protest
leader Nattawut Saikuar
told the cheering crowd of
any violence.
“The government will
act decisively with any
provocateurs. I will not dis-
solve the house because of
violence,” he told reporters.
He said some protesters
wanted to trigger “chaos on
the streets”, adding that an
attack on his car on Tues-
day in the beach resort
of Pattaya showed there
were deliberate efforts to
provoke the government.
Police issued a formal
warning to protesters not
to enter the house of Gen
Prem Tinsulanonda, a
B a n g k o k
deputy police
commander
Lt-Gen Chakthip
Chaijinda said he
had informed Ab-
hisit that there were
more than 100,000
protesters in the city
and that more were
expected overnight.
“We are worried
that third parties may
act tonight and may launch
a bomb attack. But we have
enough officials and also a
large number on standby.”
Abhisit insisted there was
no threat to a sum-
mit of Asian leaders, including
the Chinese and Japanese premiers,
due to start tomorrow in Pattaya where
the attack on his car took place.
The unrest has prompted specula-
tion that Thailand’s army could try to
EPAPIX
Supporters of Thaksin
demonstrate outside the
surrounded Government
House in Bangkok yesterday.
mount
another coup, but
powerful army chief GenAnupong
Paojinda dismissed talk of a putsch.
Thaksin’s recent accusations that
Prem conspired to overthrow him
broke a major taboo in Thailand,
where royalty is revered, and fuelled
the risk of what Abhisit described ear-
lier this week as a “civil war”. – AFP

briefs
Second woman dies of
food poisoning in Singapore
SINGAPORE: A second woman died yesterday after a food-
poisoning outbreak hit Singapore last week, a radio report
said. Norani Kassim, 59, who was admitted to hospital on
Saturday, died after lapsing into a coma, hospital officials
told the local 938LIVE station. Aminah Samijo, 57, died on
Monday while another woman lost her two-month-old
foetus after suffering food poisoning by eating a salad at
a food stall. News reports said 137 people had suffered
food poisoning after eating the salad called Indian rojak
from a popular hawker stall last week. The government
has initiated an investigation and closed the entire market
where the stall was located. – dpa
US crew retakes control
of hijacked ship: Reports
WASHINGTON: The US crew of a ship hijacked by
pirates off the coast of Somalia has retaken control
of the vessel, US networks reported yesterday, cit-
ing unnamed Pentagon officials. One of four pirates
who seized the ship earlier yesterday was captured
and three others jumped off the ship, CNN quoted
an official as saying. MSNBC also reported that one
pirate was captured when the 20 US crew members
regained control of the Danish-owned container ves-
sel. The Maersk Alabama, loaded with emergency
United Nations’ food supplies, was boarded as it
headed towards Kenya’s port of Mombasa. – AFP
US space tourist returns to earth
ALMATY (Kazakhastan): A Russian Soyuz space capsule car-
rying US billionaire Charles Simonyi and a Russian-American
crew landed safety in central Kazakhstan at 0716 GMT (3.16pm
in Malaysia) as planned yesterday. Simonyi – a Hungarian-born
former Microsoft executive paid US$35 million (RM126 million)
to fly into space for the second time. – AFP
Indonesian elections
highlight reforms, growth
JAKARTA: Indonesians vote today
in the first of two elections that will
determine whether Southeast Asia’s
biggest economy pushes ahead with
key reforms to attract much-needed
investment, create jobs, and revive
growth. The parliamentary elec-
tion is the forerunner for the more
important presidential vote on July
Robinho
8, when President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, Indonesia’s first directly
seeks a elected leader, is expected to run for,
and win, a second five-year term.
return to That would allow Yudhoyono
form to push ahead with more reforms,
pg 30 tackling a bloated and inefficient
civil service, an unpredictable court
system, and endemic graft in institu-
tions ranging from parliament to the
police – flaws that deter investment
and hold back Indonesia’s growth and
development.
“This election is important for
consolidating democratisation and
providing reformers with a stronger
mandate for pursuing institutional
reforms, primarily in the civil serv-
ice and the judiciary,” said Kevin
O’Rourke, a Jakarta-based political
risk analyst and author of Reformasi
Weekly Review.
For the world’s third-largest de-
mocracy, these elections are a massive
exercise and logistical nightmare.
More than 170 million registered
voters across an archipelago of 17,000
or so islands will choose from several
thousand candidates for the national
and local parliaments.
The ballot papers, listing 38 parties,
are the size of a newspaper or roughly
the width of a polling booth. None of
Yudhoyono’s rivals for the presidency
has the same commitment to reform,
analysts say.
His main opponent, former
president Megawati Sukarnoputri,
was criticised during her three-year
stint for failing to address corruption,
while two former generals from the
Suharto era, Prabowo Subianto and
Wiranto, have poor human rights
track records.
Parties that win less than 2.5% of
the votes will not get any seats in par-
liament. As the smaller parties drop
out, and the undecided voters make
their choice, some analysts predict
the Democrat Party could win up to a
third of the seats.
In order to field a presidential
candidate, a political party or alliance
needs to win 20% of the national votes
or a quarter of the seats in parliament
on April 9.
Both Yudhoyono and his Demo-
crats lead in most recent opinion
polls, with 45-52% and about 20%
respectively, a sign of support for his
anti-corruption and economic poli-
cies, and the progress Indonesia has
made in the past five years.
Progress has been slow and much
more needs to be done. But to put it
in perspective, just over a decade ago
at the height of the 1997-98 Asian fi-
nancial crisis, Indonesia was a basket
case, on the brink of political, social,
and financial collapse.
Former president Suharto, the
autocrat who ruled for more than
three decades overseeing a system of
entrenched corruption and nepotism,
was forced to resign in May 1998,
amid the chaos.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most-
populous country, was bailed out by
the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and embarked on political and
economic reform. Since 1998, Indo-
nesia has had five presidents, with
Yudhoyono the first since Suharto to
serve a full five-year term.
Today, Indonesia looks politically
and economically stronger and more
stable than many of its Southeast Asian
peers, including Thailand, Malaysia,
and the Philippines, amid the global
crisis. – Reuters

Sri Lankan protest heads into third day in London

LONDON: A protest outside
Britain’s parliament by Tamils
urging London to intervene in
Sri Lanka’s conflict stretched
into a third day yesterday, with
hundreds refusing to move
despite police warnings.
Seven people were arrested
on Tuesday after repeated scuf-
fles with police, who warned
they could be forced to make
a “huge number of arrests” if
protesters refused to leave the
site they have occupied since
Monday afternoon.
But 300-400 protesters re-
mained at the site in the early
hours of yesterday, police said,
from a peak of about 3,000.
The overwhelmingly peace-
ful protesters are calling for
an immediate ceasefire in Sri
Lanka and want former colonial
ruler Britain to intervene with
Colombo to protect the Tamil
people, who they say are being
targeted. Many said they would
not disperse until they receive
a firm commitment of action
from the British government.
“We will stay here as long as
the killing goes on,” said pro-
tester Guhan Gukendharan.
Police have warned that
they could be forced to make
“a huge number of arrests”
unless the demonstration is
dispersed.
It is illegal under a law which
prohibits demonstrations close
to parliament without prior po-
lice permission. Scuffles flared
on Tuesday as police confis-
cated flags which they said
represented the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
whom Sri Lankan forces are
fighting and who are a banned
organisation in Britain.
Protesters insisted the red
flags they were flying were
Ta m i l
Tamils are confronted by police during a
protest outside Parliament in London.
national flags, not connected
to the Tigers, and accused
the police of brutality. London
Ambulance Service said it had
treated 10 people at the scene
for minor injuries, of which five
EPAPIX
were taken to hospital.
“The police have been
terrible today,” said Yalini
Thayaparan, 34, who was at
the protest on Tuesday with
her 15-year-old daughter and
other family members. “It’s
really, really hard, they push
all the ladies, they hit lots of
boys.”
The noisy demonstration –
filled with drums and chanting
– began on Monday afternoon.
Police were deployed early
on Tuesday to clear away the
protesters blocking Westmin-
ster Bridge and surrounding
streets.
Passions were running high
with many protesters saying
they had family members
who were killed or wounded
in recent violence in Sri Lanka,
although the demonstrators
insisted their action would
remain peaceful.
“It’s because of the bomb-
ing and killing in Sri Lanka. They
have started to use chemical
bombs in Sri Lanka,” said
Nathan Kumar, chairman of the
British Tamil Forum.
Four lifeboats were scram-
bled after two protesters
jumped into the nearby River
Thames. They were taken to
hospital. Police chief Jerry Savill
said his officers were showing
restraint. “We’ve been remark-
ably tolerant really,” he told the
BBC, explaining that police had
to be careful because women
and children were also among
the demonstrators. – AFP