Thai PM sees little risk of another coup

Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra greets her colleagues as she arrives at a Cabinet meeting, in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. Shinawatra said Wednesday she was confident the military would not launch another coup to try to end the kingdom’s political crisis, despite a history of seizing power. AP

BANGKOK—Thailand’s premier said Wednesday she was confident the military would not launch another coup to try to end the kingdom’s political crisis, despite a history of seizing power.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said the coup-makers who ousted her older brother Thaksin as prime minister seven years ago realized that it “doesn’t solve any problems.”

“I don’t think the military will do that again,” she told foreign reporters in Bangkok.

The 2006 coup ushered in years of political turmoil and sometimes violent street protests, with dozens of Thaksin supporters killed in a military crackdown on their rallies in central Bangkok three years ago under a previous government.

Thailand has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.

Opposition protesters have appealed to the army to help them overthrow Yingluck’s elected government.

Problem should be “solved by politics”

But apart from sending some unarmed soldiers to help protect government buildings, the generals have so far avoided any public return to the fray.

Army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha said last week problem should be “solved by politics.”

Thailand’s courts also have a record of intervening in politics, dissolving parties and banning their executives. Some observers believe corruption allegations against the ruling party could form the basis for another “judicial coup.”

But Yingluck said she was confident the party could defend itself against any such accusations.

The premier has faced weeks of mass opposition protests aimed at replacing her administration with an unelected “people’s council” and ridding the kingdom of the influence of Thaksin.

Critics say he controls his sister’s administration from his self-exile in Dubai.

In an effort to ease tensions, Yingluck on Monday called an early election, set for Feb. 2.

She said Wednesday she had not yet decided whether she would run for prime minister again.

The political conflict broadly pits a Bangkok-based middle class and royalist elite backed by the military against rural and working-class voters loyal to Thaksin.

Parties allied to the tycoon have won every election since 2001, most recently with a landslide victory for Yingluck’s Puea Thai in 2011.

The premier criticized the anti-government protesters for ignoring the voice of her rural supporters.

“I came from the people’s election of 16 million votes but nobody listens (to them),” she said.

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