The country's beleaguered prime minister declared the emergency Wednesday night after protesters briefly broke into parliament, capping weeks of protests that have paralyzed the government and cost businesses tens of millions of dollars.
The “Red Shirt” demonstrators championing the rights of the rural poor remained uncowed. Their makeshift camps set up in Bangkok's historic district March 12 have spread to the main commercial district and beyond, and they planned a mass rally Friday.
Amid fears that a showdown could end in violence, a Red Shirt leader dared a government crackdown. “If you have the guts to do it, do it now. But I warn you that our Red Shirt brothers and sisters would flood into Bangkok in greater numbers, if you crack down on us,” Jatuporn Prompan said.
The emergency move by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came after mostly peaceful protests turned chaotic when demonstrators burst into Parliament and forced lawmakers to flee on ladders over a back wall, with senior officials hastily evacuated by helicopter.
The confrontation is part of the long-running battle between partisans of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by a 2006 military coup, and those who oppose him.
Thaksin was accused of corruption and showing disrespect to the country's revered monarch.
The demonstrators, called the Red Shirts for their attire, benefited from Thaksin's populist policies such as cheap health care and village loans. They have demanded that Abhisit dissolve parliament within 15 days and call new elections, claiming he took office illegitimately in December 2008 with the help of military pressure on parliament.
Instead, the prime minister has offered to do so by the end of the year.
Protesters camped in the city have ignored court orders and a massive security presence. They have shown surprising tenacity as well as organizational skills, living under primitive conditions in scorching heat and moving around the city in well-ordered motorized columns.
Abhisit has become harshly criticized for failing to take strong measures to end the disruptive demonstrations. He has entered negotiations with the Red Shirts and ordered security forces to pull back from possible confrontations.
Several shopping malls have closed and luxury hotels put under virtual siege since Saturday, when demonstrators moved to a busy intersection at the heart of Bangkok's commercial district.
Merchants have complained the boisterous demonstrations have cost billions of baht (tens of millions of dollars), and economists have expressed concern continuing protests will hurt the GDP.
Abhisit, in a televised broadcast that interrupted regular programming, said the aim of the emergency decree was to restore normalcy to Bangkok, and prevent “further related crime and disaster.” “I want you to understand and stop taking part in any illegal demonstration,” the prime minister told the protesters.
The emergency decree allows security officials to detain suspects without charge for up to 30 days, and gives them the option of imposing curfews, banning public gatherings and censoring media.
However, the effectiveness of the decree is debatable.
Although it gives the military greater powers to restore order, both Abhisit and the army know a crackdown could result in bloodshed that would be political poison.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the protesters have a right to express their views, but he urged them to avoid violence.
“We respect the right of freedom of expression, however, forcibly entering government buildings is not an appropriate means of protest,” Crowley said.
Surat Horachaikul, a political science lecturer at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said the emergency announcement can be interpreted in two ways.
“First, it might be an attempt by the government to buy some time. Or it might actually mean that the government and the army have reached an agreement in solving the current problem,” he said.
The Red Shirts' confrontational tactics mimic those of their ideological opposites, the Yellow Shirts, who staged the original anti-Thaksin protests. In 2008 they occupied the prime minister's offices for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week, causing hundreds of millions dollars in economic losses.
The Yellow Shirts represent Thailand's traditional royalist and military elite and are popular with Bangkok's middle class.
