Yellow shirts call for 'failed' govt to step down

via CAAI

Published: 6/02/2011 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

The People's Alliance for Democracy has intensified its protest and is now calling for the government to step down.

The yellow shirt pressure group, which was instrumental in the ouster of the Thaksin Shinawatra administration via military coup in 2006, said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his government had failed in its efforts to run the country and to resolve the border dispute with Cambodia.

Therefore the Abhisit government should resign and allow more capable people an opportunity to take its place, the PAD said.

The demand was made Saturday during the alliance's anti-government protest at Makkhawan Rangsan Bridge, near Government House.

PAD key leaders, including Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang, Sondhi Limthongkul, Pibhop Dhongchai, and Parnthep Pourpongpan, appeared on stage at the rally and asked for a consensus from the yellow shirt supporters to intensify their protest.

The PAD said it would mobilise people across the country to support its agenda.

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Earlier the PAD had only made three demands of the government _ to return seven Thais arrested by Cambodian soldiers in disputed border areas, to revoke the Thai-Cambodia memorandum of understanding regarding border issues signed in 2000, and to disperse all Cambodians living in disputed border areas. At the time, the group said it was not seeking to overthrow the Abhisit administration.

But the alliance said last night the prime minister and his government should step down to make way for people who would be more decisive in protecting the country's territory and sovereignty and in tackling corruption.

A government with leadership skills and moral integrity is needed to run the country, the PAD said.

The alliance claimed the government's refusal to heed the PAD's three initial demands had resulted in the loss of territory to Cambodia.

The PAD also said corruption in Thailand had been at its most severe under Mr Abhisit, and that the government's alleged administrative failures had led to economic problems, an increased cost of living and the soaring prices of consumer products and commodities.