{"id":44172,"date":"2020-10-28T02:25:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44172"},"modified":"2020-10-28T02:25:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:25:28","slug":"thai-pm-prayuth-says-he-will-not-resign-despite-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44172","title":{"rendered":"Thai PM Prayuth says he will not resign despite protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Months of anti-government protests have called for Prayuth\u2019s resignation and reform to powerful monarchy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha dismissed calls from opposition parties to resign during a special two-day session of parliament he had called to discuss months of protests demanding his departure and reforms to the powerful monarchy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not run away from problems. I will not leave my duty by resigning at a time when the country has problems,\u201d the former army ruler told the assembly on Tuesday. The parliament\u2019s entire upper house is chosen by the military.<\/p>\n

Protests that have brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets since mid-July are the biggest challenge in years to an establishment that has long been dominated by military men close to the Royal Palace.<\/p>\n

King Maha Vajiralongkorn\u2019s Palace has made no comment since the start of protests that have smashed a taboo on criticising the monarchy.<\/p>\n

Prayuth said the rallies, which he referred to as illegal protests, needed to be brought under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough the people have the freedom to protest based on the Constitution, authorities need to control the illegal protests,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not want to see clashes or riots in the country,\u201d he added, accusing some protesters of \u201cinappropriate actions\u201d.<\/p>\n

Protesters in Thailand have adopted the Hunger Games\u2019 three-fingered salute [Soe Zeya Tun\/Reuters]<\/figure>\n

Opposition members of parliament told Prayuth to stop hiding behind proclamations of loyalty to the monarchy and step down. His critics said he engineered last year\u2019s elections to keep power he seized in 2014. He said the ballot was fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve been in power for six-and-a-half years \u2013 five years under your coup and one-and-a-half years when you gained benefit from an undemocratic constitution,\u201d said Prasert Jantararuangthong, party secretary of the opposition Pheu Thai party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI call for General Prayut to resign as premier, which would be a solution to solve all problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Useless\u2019<\/h2>\n

One of the protest leaders, Tattep \u201cFord\u201d Ruangprapaikitseree, dismissed the parliament session as \u201cuseless\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prayuth said he had agreed to set up committees to study the problems, but claimed he did not know who he should talk to because \u201cthere are no leaders. They are all leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the highest profile leaders are among dozens of people arrested this month in a crackdown under a week of emergency measures that were rescinded after they sparked much bigger protests.<\/p>\n

A royalist supporter holds a portrait of Thailand\u2019s King Maha Vajiralongkorn during a rally to show support for the royal establishment amid unprecedented calls for reform [Lillian Suwanrumpha\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

Shows of support by royalists have so far been far smaller than those of anti-government protesters.<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 people gathered<\/a> in a central Bangkok park on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to show support and encouragement to his majesty,\u201d said Thatchapan Boriphet, 57. \u201cI am neutral politically but I cannot stand it when there is a violation of the monarchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s office shared an image of the demonstration on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Protesters have accused the king of political involvement and marched to the German embassy on Monday to seek an inquiry into whether he exercised his powers during long stays in Germany, something Berlin has said would be unacceptable.<\/p>\n

The two-day parliamentary session did not list the protests on its agenda, but was expected to discuss an incident earlier this month when protesters flashed three-finger salutes \u2013 a symbol of the movement \u2013 as the royal motorcade with Queen Suthida drove past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protesters say it was not in the plan for the Queen to pass that way, but the government says she can go anywhere,\u201d said Tankhun Jittitsara, one of the secretaries of House Speaker Chuan Leekpai.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one knows the truth so we\u2019ll talk about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three activists were charged over the incident under a rarely used law banning \u201cviolence against the Queen\u201d, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Months of anti-government protests have called for Prayuth\u2019s resignation and reform to powerful monarchy.Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha dismissed calls from opposition parties to resign during a special two-day session of parliament he had called to discuss months of protests demanding his departure and reforms to the powerful monarchy. \u201cI will not run away from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}