People ask Prime Minister Resignation in Thailand

by Don S

Well over a hundred thousand of people filled Royal Plaza in the biggest anti-government protest since the 1992 "mobile phone mob" which led to the fall of the Suchinda Kraprayoon military government.

The crowds cheered Sondhi and his team on as they reiterated allegations of corruption and lack of morals with Thaksin and his cabinet.

The event was fanned by the sell-off of Shin Corp last week which netted the Prime
Minister's family 73 billion Baht (1.8 billion USD) without a single
Baht in income tax. Public sentiment was tested and reached breaking
point when the tax authorities and the stock exchanged ruled that the
deal was not subject to any tax.

The protesters succeeded in submitting petitions to the Office of His
Majesty's Private Secretary, Privy Councellor General Prem
Tinsulanonda and Army Commander-in-Chief Gen Sondhi Boonyarataklin.

During the demonstration, news filtered through that
Information and Communication Technology Minister Sora-At Klinpratoom
resigned from the cabinet. Meanwhile, an official from CAT Telecom, who runs the country's
Internet backbone, said that Internet traffic was at an all-time high,
both domestically and Internationally as people clamoured for information.



Don Sambandaraksa is a journalist and open source advocate who is
doing his bit to promote the values of open source and free speech (as
opposed to free beer) beyond the IT industry in Thailand.