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Election of new Thai PM a sign of strong democracy
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Mon, Dec 15, 2008
AFP
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>JAKARTA - The election of Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the country's new prime minister is a sign that Thailand's democracy is strong, the ASEAN chief said Monday.
The Thai parliament's election of Abhisit shows democracy endures despite six months of opposition protests that paralysed the country, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said.
"I do think that the fact that it could go back to the parliament, the fact that a constitutional process works, the fact that they have fought it out very very intensely and now there is a decision collectively made on one person is good," said Surin, a former Thai foreign minister.
"It's proof of the strength of the system of democracy itself," he said.
The British-born Abhisit, who leads the Democrat Party, was elected prime minister after predecessor and rival Somchai Wongsawat was forced from power by the Constitutional Court earlier this month on vote fraud charges.
Abhisit is the first premier since the end of military-backed rule in December 2007 who is not linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The six-month campaign of anti-Thaksin protests that helped bring down the government and culminated in the occupation of Bangkok's international airport were remarkably free of violence considering their size, Surin said.
"For hundreds of thousands of people to occupy this building, that building, but violence (to be) rather minimal, I think that's again a sign of the resiliency of the culture of the system," he said.
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