Thai Elites will lose ABC News Thai junta caught between rock and hard place over ex-PM impeachment Reuters LOSE-LOSE FOR JUNTA Peerasak Porchit, vice president of the NLA, said the impeachment vote would again polarize the country. No matter which way it goes, there will be those who agree and those who disagree. It wont please everyone, said Peerasak. Prayuth said on Monday that he had not ordered the 220 members of the NLA to vote against Yingluck. The NLA was handpicked by the junta and is considered little more than a rubber-stamp parliament tasked with enacting the widespread reforms Prayuth wants to see before calling an election. Over 100 NLA members are former or currently serving military officers. A decision to ban Yingluck would require three-fifths of the vote to be held on Friday. If Yingluck is found innocent, there could be a backlash by middle and upper-class Thais, who took to Bangkoks streets a year ago to protest against her familys political grip over the country. Her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister, was removed in a 2006 putsch. The army staged a coup in May following prolonged protests by Bangkoks middle class aimed at ousting Yingluck, saying it needed to restore order after months of unrest. The impeachment is the latest chapter in 10 years of turbulent politics that has pitted Yingluck and her brother against the royalist-military establishment which sees Thaksin, a former telecommunications tycoon, as a threat. Thaksin lives in self-exile to avoid a 2008 graft conviction but remains hugely influential. Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs affiliated with Chiang Mai University, said either way the vote would create dissension against the junta. Ultimately, no matter which way the NLA votes, it will create dissension against the NCPO by either pro or anti-Thaksin elements of Thai society. (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Pracha Hariraksapitak and Kaweewit Kaewjinda; Editing by Simon Webb, Jeremy Laurence and Clarence Fernandez)
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 18:23:40 +0000