Thai prime minister refuses to resign, suggests referendum (Roundup)

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Thursday refused to resign to end a protest crisis that has seen his cabinet barred from using their office headquarters more than a week by thousands of demonstrators bent on ousting him from power. 'I cannot leave because under a democratic system no one group can force me to resign,' Samak said in a broadcast to the nation Thursday morning. 'I will stay on to preserve the country's democracy. The whole world is watching us.' His cabinet Thursday agreed hold a referendum to end the political crisis which began on August 26 when thousands of protestors belonging to the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seized Bangkok's Government House, and have vowed to stay put until Samak resigns. The referendum, which requires the Senate to pass an organic law on referendums beforehand, would ask the people to vote on whether they wanted the government to resign, PAD to end its protest and whether they approved of the PAD controversial 'new politics.' 'This is a door opened by parliament,' said Samak, who urged the Senate to speedily pass the referendum legislation. The Cabinet session was held at Supreme Command, the government's temporary office. Samak, Thailand's prime minister for the past seven months, has been under mounting pressure to leave his post since Tuesday when pro-government and anti-government groups clashed near Government House in a pre-dawn street battle that left one person dead and 43 injured. Although Samak declared a state of emergency in Bangkok Tuesday and put the army in charge of solving the standoff at Government House, the military has announced it will not use force to evict the anti-government protestors who have seized the seat of government. Army Commander-in-Chief General Anupong Paojinda told a press conference Tuesday that he would prefer to see the crisis solved by the legal system and parliament, throwing the responsibility back to the government. The military's soft stance has puzzled observers and raised questions about the army's support for Samak. Under emergency law any gathering of more than five people for political purposes is illegal, making the PAD gathering at Government House clearly in the wrong. 'If there is no enforcement of the law there will be an impact on democracy,' said deputy government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar. 'I think it may be too early to conclude that Anupong will not implement the law, but the proof will not be long in coming.' Samak, in his broadcast, urged the public not to join the PAD, a loose coalition of politically conservative groups that was instrumental in toppling the government of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra. The PAD has been holding protests in Bangkok since May 25 calling for Samak's resignation after he proposed amendments to the constitution that might have led to Thaksin's return to power. Samak described the PAD as a 'cult,' and asked Thais to question the movement's concept of democracy. PAD leaders have proposed an alternative form of democracy called the '30-70 plan,' under which only 30 per cent of the members of parliament would be elected and 70 per cent appointed. 'They have revealed their hand. They want to go back to an appointment system,' said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University. Since a coup ended absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand's democratic system has see-sawed between governments run or appointed by the military and those run by elected politicians. The power of elected political parties peaked under Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who used populist policies to secure a near monopoly over Thai politics during his two terms between 2001 to 2006, before his excesses and self-serving deals turned the Bangkok middle class and elites against him. PAD followers, most of them middle-class Thais from Bangkok, claim to be fed up with Thailand's recent history of corrupt politicians who buy their way into power through the election system. The PAD first appeared on Thailand's political scene two and a half years ago when it led demonstrations to topple Thaksin. Thaksin was overthrown by a military coup on September 19, 2006. The PAD claims Samak is a stand-in for Thaksin, who is now living in self-exile in London. Samak leads the People Power Party which won the December 23, 2007, general election on an openly pro-Thaksin platform.