Ex-PM's rural supporters 'not happy'
The impeachment of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has caused a stir among her rural supporters. "I absolutely disagree with her impeachment," Northeastern Farmers Association chairman Panupong Pattarakon-ngarm said yesterday.
He felt the move represented efforts by the new power clique to destroy Yingluck’s camp.
Yingluck was impeached over her role in her government’s rice-pledging scheme. National Legislative Assembly (NLA) members yesterday voted 190 to 18 to impeach her.
“Many red shirts who disagree with the current government are now political undercurrents. They are waiting to rise to the surface,” Panupong warned.
A security source in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen said security agencies had been monitoring the situation, but to date no group had made any clear move to rise against the impeachment motion.
The news, meanwhile, clearly attracted much attention from people in Nakhon Ratchasima. Yesterday’s newspapers sold out fast, apparently because headlines about her impeachment were eye-catching.
“We are worried about what will happen next because there are so many red shirts and yellow shirts here,” a resident said on condition of anonymity.
Pol Senior Sergeant Major Pichit Tamoon, a red-shirt leader in Chiang Mai province, said he wondered how the NLA could impeach Yingluck given that she did not hold any political office any longer.
Pichit said he may be pessimistic but he felt both the 2006 and 2014 coups were staged to eradicate the base of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party and the Pheu Thai Party.
But he felt the red shirts would not be able to do anything under the current circumstances.
