Thailand’s widely respected king made a rare foray into the country’s long-running political problems, warning that Thailand could become increasingly unstable if its feuding politicians fail to unite, media reports here said Saturday.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, offered the remarks at an audience at a seaside palace late Friday night as worries grew about the durability of the current government led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. His words were later broadcast on national television and reported by Thai media.
“Right now, it can be said that our country is going towards ruin,” the Bangkok Post newspaper reported King Bhumibol as saying, but he added that disaster can be averted if different sectors of society can bring themselves to work together.
Thailand, one of the largest economies in Southeast Asia and a major production hub for companies such as Toyota Motor Co., has lurched from crisis to crisis since a military coup unseated former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006. Yellow-wearing royalists helped pave the way for the ouster, accusing the former telecommunications magnate of using dictatorial powers to sidestep the country’s parliamentary system of checks and balances. Last year, yellow-clad protesters invaded and closed Bangkok’s international airports in a successful attempt to force the collapse of a pro-Thaksin government.
Mr. Thaksin’s supporters, meanwhile, took up red as their color and have demanded greater democracy and less military influence in Thailand. Last week 20,000 of them gathered outside Bangkok’s Grand Palace to submit a 3.5 million-name petition seeking a royal pardon for Mr. Thaksin, who is currently living abroad to avoid imprisonment for a corruption conviction.
Economists worry the continuing tension could derail a possible economic recovery in Thailand as its neighbors begin to bounce back from the global financial crisis. At the moment, the government expects the Thai economy to contract 3.5% this year before expanding in 2010.
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In addition, concern is growing that Thailand’s current leader – the Oxford-trained economist Mr. Abhisit – is losing control of the fragile, military-backed coalition which came to power last December. Thai police officials last week refused to accept his nomination for a new national police chief, raising speculation that Mr. Abhisit main soon dissolve parliament and call fresh elections. On Friday, Mr. Abhisit said he was still in charge and that he was still on good terms with his coalition partners, which include defectors from the Thaksin camp.
It is unclear what impact King Bhumibol’s words may have. As a constitutional monarch, like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, he typically steers clear of political controversies.
Yet, at the same time, King Bhumibol commands substantial moral authority and has intervened in previous political crises, sometimes endorsing military coups but also encouraging the restoration of democratic rule, as he did in 1973 and 1992.
When King Bhumibol missed his customary birthday speech last December because of ill health, many Thais worried whether Thailand would be able to resolved its protracted political conflicts without the steadying hand of their monarch.
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