Govt retreat deals big blow to Thai protest

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - It was billed as a "final battle" to unseat Thailand's government but, unfortunately for the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), it now looks as though the government, not it, could be the last one standing.

By some yardsticks, Monday's marches were "mission accomplished" for the PAD, the monarchist street movement that has occupied Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat's offices for three months and paralysed his government for six.

Its siege of parliament forced the postponement of a debate on some international treaties, and its occupation of the elected administration's temporary headquarters at Bangkok's old airport caused several ministers to beat a hasty retreat.

But by other measures, the day was a washout for a protest movement that has relied on the oxygen of publicity and openly courted anarchy and bloodshed on the streets of the capital in the hope of triggering a military coup.

Determined to avoid confrontation, unarmed riot police at parliament simply walked away or climbed over locked gates into Bangkok zoo at the approach of the PAD vanguard, a phalanx of masked heavies wielding clubs and iron bars.

A threatened nationwide strike on Tuesday by the PAD's public sector union allies, who also accuse Somchai of being a puppet of his brother-in-law, ousted and exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra, failed to materialise.

"Thaksin's provocations will give them some energy, but the PAD simply cannot mobilise sufficient mass support to maintain a drawn-out campaign," Thailand researcher Andrew Walker of Australian National University said.

"There is every chance that, left to their own devices, the PAD will degenerate into a rather eccentric political cult with a bankrupt and self-absorbed leadership," he said.