Phuket PAD Set to Call for PM to Stand Down

By Phuketwan Reporter

Saturday, December 4, 2010

THE YELLOW shirt movement will reemerge later this month on Phuket when the People's Alliance for Democracy hold a high-profile seminar in Phuket City.

PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul, the man who couldn't be silenced even with an assassination bid, will head a gathering that will bring all the key PAD leaders to Phuket on December 21.

The conference at the Royal Phuket City Hotel in Phuket City is aimed at explaining the PAD's attitude to what it sees as territorial concessions made to Cambodia in the dispute over the Preah Vihear temple, which is claimed by both Thailand and Cambodia.

The PAD has come to be seen as an ultra-nationalist organisation because of its no-concessions approach to the dispute. The wrangle has led to the destruction of its once-amicable alliance with the ruling Democrat Party.

On December 21, those who attend the gathering are likely to learn why the PAD now wants Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to stand down, even though the popular impression is that the yellow shirt blockade of Bangkok's Suvarhabhumi airport in Bangkok led to his ascension to the Prime Minister's role in 2008.

That the temple belongs legitimately to Thailand has been the PAD view for a long time. Street protests have been held on Phuket urging governments - both ''red'' and ''yellow'' - to not make concessions to the Cambodians.

Phuket has traditionally been both a stronghold for the Democrats and for the PAD. But the schism between the two yellow partners has soured over the temple dispute and the Democrat plan to rewrite the Constitution.

The December 21 gathering in Phuket City is one of a series of meetings around Thailand in the leadup to a major yellow shirt protest set for January 25.

With a national election scheduled for 2011, it's unclear what the division now emerging between the PAD and the Democrats will mean for Phuket voters.