ON THE REOCRD
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| People's Alliance for Democracy supporters rally outside the Yothinburana school in the Kiakkai area to give moral support to students and teachers as the school has been earmarked for relocation to make way for the new parliament building. — JETJARAS NA RANONG |
After calling on People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters from all over the country to converge for today's "final war" protest march against the Samak Sundaravej administration, PAD core leader Sondhi Limthongkul talked to the Bangkok Post's Nattaya Chetchotiros.
What is the PAD strategy for the rally?
It will be the day we change Thailand through the people. Our position today is much clearer than over the past 90 days.
If we don't do it, the monarchy might collapse. That's because soldiers and civil servants haven't earnestly protected the country, the nation and the monarchy.
Will water and electricity supplies to state agencies be cut off?
That's a statement by state enterprise labour union leaders. It has nothing to do with the PAD. We won't do anything that could affect people or lead to violence.
What did you mean when you said the rally is a battle against old politics?
It's because people in Thai society were misled into believing that just having an election is a sign of democracy. We can see that nothing has improved after 60 years of elections.
Elections today are an investment. A sane person would not invest 30 million baht to earn a monthly salary of a bit more than 100,000 baht. And no insane person makes such an investment, only investors. MPs today are hired voters. The claim that they are elected representatives is wrong.
How will the "final war" be different from PAD's previous wars?
Watch out. The rally [today] won't be an ordinary rally. We'll do everything to halt all the state's administrative mechanisms.
We'll block the roads from southern, northern and northeastern regions, but we'll let our supporters arrive in the city first. We'll block the roads after midday. At noon, we'll close Phuket airport and Hat Yai airport. We will post this plan online [on the Manager website] at 10am.
We'll seize all the ministries on Ratchadamnoen avenue. We'll ask civil servants to leave their offices.
The government won't be able to function any longer. It's a power vacuum. Samak knows that he will soon have to step down.
This final war has been seen as trying to make way for another military coup.
If there is a coup [today] on the ground that they need to intervene to end turmoil in the country and reorganise things, I will immediately protest against them. All five PAD core leaders agree that such reasoning is unacceptable.
But if they claimed they launched a coup to improve politics, to help people who were protesting, and if they agreed with us that politics must be improved and the monarchy must continue to exist, we would not be against them.
We won't disband, though.
We will see, first, who is the coup leader. Second, what he does next. What statement he makes. Who he appoints as prime minister.
We will wait until we're satisfied with the new leader.
What makes you confident the military won't crack down on the people?
It's because soldiers today are cowards. Did you notice that army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda is not in Bangkok? He left for Malaysia yesterday and will return on Aug 28.
So keep an eye on Lt- Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, the First Army chief. If the country has become this chaotic, and you haven't come out. Then it's your business.
What's your second plan if you fail?
I'll ask our people...[Today] there'll be over 300,000 people with us.
Why did you ask all supporters to drop everything and come down for the last time?
It's the last whistle blow. If we fail this time, we'll quit and surrender the country to them.
When people don't care about us, we won't have to care about them. Let others take over the country.
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