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BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Tuesday (October 27) dismissed calls by opposition parties to resign in a parliament session he had convened to discuss months of protests demanding his departure and reforms. to the powerful monarchy.
“I will not run from problems. I will not give up my duty by resigning at a time when the country is in trouble,” the former army leader, whose upper house was elected by his former military government, told the assembly.
The protests that have brought tens of thousands of people to the streets since mid-July are the biggest challenge in years for an establishment that has long been dominated by the military near the Royal Palace.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s palace has not commented since the protests began that have broken a taboo of criticizing the monarchy.
Opposition members of parliament told Prayut to stop hiding behind proclamations of loyalty to the monarchy and to resign. His critics say he engineered last year’s election to maintain the power he took in 2014. He says the vote was fair.
One of the protest leaders, Tattep “Ford” Ruangprapaikitseree, called the parliament session “useless”.
Prayut said he had agreed to set up committees to study the issues, but referring to the protesters, he said: “I don’t know who I should talk to because there are no leaders. They are all leaders.”
Some of the highest-profile leaders are among the dozens of people arrested this month in a crackdown under a week of emergency measures that were canceled after they sparked much larger protests.
So far, the royalists have shown much less support than the anti-government protesters.
More than 1,000 gathered in yellow jerseys at a park in central Bangkok on Tuesday.
“We want to show support and encouragement to his majesty,” said Thatchapan Boriphet, 57. “I am politically neutral but I cannot bear it when there is a violation of the monarchy.”
The prime minister’s office shared an image of the rally on Twitter.
The protesters accused the king of political involvement and marched to the German embassy on Monday to request an investigation into whether he exercised his powers during long stays in Germany, something Berlin has said would be unacceptable.
