Boot Thaksin out, King urged

King Bhumibol

BANGKOK - Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej faces a dilemma. Pressure is mounting on the 78-year-old to step in to resolve a political crisis spawned by a six-month campaign to kick out Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

But as a constitutional monarch, his options are limited, and any intervention against a popularly elected leader could do untold damage to Thailand's vibrant but intermittent democracy, analysts say.

"In a time of intractable crisis like this, we have the King to look to, but ideally we should try to solve our problems ourselves to mature as a democracy," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"But failing that, you have the King to go to."

Thaksin, still wildly popular with the rural voters who make up 70 per cent of the Thai population, called snap elections for April 2, hoping an effective referendum on his leadership would stymie the middle-class, metropolitan campaign to kick him out.

But a boycott by the three major opposition parties means that the poll will almost certainly throw out a constitutionally unacceptable result, suggesting that the political crisis will intensify rather than ease.

Leaders of the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy say the King should step in under the constitution's "emergency" clause to appoint an interim replacement.

Thailand's absolute monarchy was abolished in 1932 but Bhumibol has intervened in politics several times. Earlier this month, all TV channels aired 1992 footage showing the King dressing down PAD leader Chamlong Srimuang, and the ruling general of the time, Suchinda Kraprayoon.

- REUTERS