Suthep's call for action fails to strike a chord

FORMER DEMOCRAT MP Suthep Thaugsuban’s call for a three-day strike and other types of civil disobedience has received a lukewarm response. It has, perhaps, even backfired.
Yesterday, the Suthep-led rally site at the Democracy Monument attracted a much smaller number of demonstrators than most of the protests of late. Empty space was even seen in front of the stage.
Stepping up his anti-government campaign, Suthep urged people to stage a three-day strike, suspend payment of corporate tax, hang a Thai flag outside their homes and blow a whistle every time they see a government figure.
Suthep expected his supporters to show their dissatisfaction from yesterday onward.
But as it turned out, even people in Suthep’s main support base of Surat Thani have hardly rallied to his cause. The Surat Thani Provincial Administration Organisation and all local tambon administration organisations operated as normal yesterday.
A high-ranking Democrat source admitted yesterday that Suthep’s proposed civil-disobedience measures to pressure the Yingluck government had failed to draw a response from either ordinary protesters or businessmen – especially the calls for a national strike and to delay tax payments.
The source said the Democrats’ strategy would now target the removal of the Shinawatras from Thai politics.
“We will publicly reveal their illegal conduct, and how they facilitated their business deals in a way that damaged the country. Whether they will dissolve the House or not has nothing to do with us,” the source said.
Most Bangkok residents reported to work as usual yesterday. Few took leave to heed Suthep’s call.
Satun Provincial Administration Organisation president Samrit Liangprasit, however, said he had received requests for personal-business leave from 170 officials.
“But I am not sure whether they have done so for civil disobedience,” he said.
An official of the Office of the Auditor General of Thailand had also informed his superiors that he wished to stop tax payments as a show of protest.
He requested that the OAG stop deducting tax from his salary and other income.
In a related move, Blue Sky TV executive Vittayen Muttamara posted a video clip on his Facebook page. In the clip, Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang faced whistle-blowing protesters during his lunch at a hotel.
Chaturon has said schools and colleges should not suspend classes to join the three-day strike. He added the school closures should only be based on concerns such as traffic issues, danger from protests or flooding. Students have the right to join the protests and express an opinion, but it should not impact upon their studies, he said.
Today, Satriwitthaya School and Mathayom Wat Makutkasat School are scheduled to open as normal after being closed due to their proximity to protest hotspots.
Thamrongsak Petchlertanan, head of Rangsit University’s political science programme, said the Democrats have erred in calling for university and school closures to allow staff and students to join protests, as it would put these institutions in a difficult position.
Universities, he said, would lose their status as a source of national wisdom and become political tools.