Bangkok, stock market and currency slump: power vacuum threatens to scuttle Thailand
Bangkok (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Thai baht has dropped to a monthly low and stock market indices have plummeted. The market crash mirror the institutional and political chaos following yesterday's dismissal of the Prime Minister and nine other Ministers of the Thai Government. The Constitutional Court found Yingluck Shinawatra "exempt" from office for having "abused" her political power "for personal purposed". Yingluck is sister to former Prime Minister and Thai billionaire Thaksin who fled into exile to escape a two-year sentence for corruption. The episode that has reopened the power vacuum in the country dates back to 2011, the beginning of her mandate: Yingluck and nine ministers dismissed the former head of national security Thawil Pliensri. An unconstitutional removal according to the supreme court, because "illegal and unethical" and "not made in the national interest" but for "the political benefit" of the Prime Minister, her government and the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
According to
prosecutors , Thawil was an obstacle to the Shinawatra project to replace the
head of security with a relative, General Priewpan Damapong, Thaksin's brother
in law .
The
judgment and the vacuum that has resulted - with a temporary transfer of power
to a new interim Executive Cabinet, led apparently by Niwatthamrong
Boonsongphaisan and with the task of leading the country to new elections in
July - have crippled markets; the
national currency has plummeted as has the stock exchange, with investors
worried about short - medium term risks. Experts
point out that "the political vacuum could be prolonged, which makes financial
support impossible".
Meanwhile, today
the Anti-Corruption Commission must decide whether to indict former Prime
Minister Yingluck and return her to trial; an
event that would result in the political demise of Thaksin's sibling and a ban
on her running for public office. Her
rice subsidies program is at the heart of the issue, having caused a hole of
billions of dollars in the state budget .
Now,
there is the danger of a resurgence of the political violence that have rocked Thailand
over the past years, with the Red Shirts - close to Shinawatra - ready to take
to the streets to defend a government elected by a partial vote, boycotted by
the opposition. It
is also in response to the protests promoted by the opposition - the Yellow
Shirts, closer to the Democratic Party - who have been demanding "end of
the Thaksin regime" (always winners at the polls since 2001) for months and
asking for political reforms and new elections.
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