Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra forced to quit after court ruling

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been found guilty of violating the constitution and forced to step down.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that she had abused her position when she transferred her national security chief to another post in 2011 which had benefited a relative. Yingluck denies any wrongdoing.

The decision comes after six months of protests in the capital, Bangkok, aimed at toppling the government.

Yingluck will be replaced by Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong and a caretaker government will take over until a general election is called on July 20. Cabinet ministers not implicated in the case will be allowed to stay on.

Yingluck’s supporters accuse the Constitutional Court of bias against the government and are preparing mass street rallies against the decision.

Court ruling ‘does little’ to resolve impasse

On May 7, Thailand's Constitutional Court ordered caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (main picture) and nine members of her Cabinet to step down for abusing constitutional powers. The court ruled that Yingluck had violated the constitution by improperly transferring the National Security Council chief in a 2011 reshuffle that allowed her brother-in-law to become national police chief.

The court's decision was seen as a victory for anti-government protesters who had been trying to remove the premier from office for six months. The protesters, who had staged some of the largest street demonstrations in Thai history and disrupted a general election in February, had accused Yingluck of being a puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra.

In a DW interview Kim McQuay, The Asia Foundation's country representative to Thailand, says the judgement has arguably done little to resolve the political crisis. According to McQuay, the ongoing political tensions and uncertainty are likely to have continued negative consequences for Thailand's economy and social stability.

DW: Do you expect caretaker PM Yingluck and her government to respect the court's decision?

Kim Mcquay: Since the anti-government movement began six months ago in response to the lightning rod blanket Amnesty Bill, the Pheu Thai government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has taken the prudent approach of consistently side-stepping trouble in the context of street protests and escalating anti-government pressure.

Similarly, while the Constitutional Court's decision to remove Yingluck and nine members of her Cabinet reflects a different and time-proven tactic on the part of opponents of government, I expect that the Government will respect the decision to remove those involved in the transfer of former National Security Council head Thawil Pliensri in 2011.

Were you surprised at the verdict?

I think it is fair to say that virtually no Thais or observers of Thai politics, myself included, are surprised by today's Constitutional Court decision. In the days leading up to the ruling, comments made by government spokespersons and leaders of the Government's 'Red Shirt' supporters indicated that they fully expected the court to rule against Yingluck. What was not clear was whether the Constitutional Court would go a step further and remove the entire Cabinet, creating a power vacuum in a situation in which the Constitution provides little clear guidance. Fortunately, it declined to do so.

Thailand's judiciary and independent agencies are no strangers to politics. The present combination of judicial cases and referrals of alleged political malfeasance to independent agencies conjure a worrisome sense of déjà vu and of legal precedents that fly in the face of the political realities of contemporary Thailand.

Will the ruling help in any way solve the country's ongoing political crisis?

It is too early to predict whether today's Constitutional Court ruling will ultimately help to temper or resolve the political crisis, but my best guess is that the decision does little to resolve the impasse.

The removal of Yingluck has been a priority objective of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) movement from its inception in 2013.

One can be sure that there will be chuffed celebration in the PDRC camp this evening. At the same time, with the Pheu Thai government staying on in its caretaker capacity and continuing its push for new elections, opponents of the government are not fully satisfied with the court decision. It fails to leave the complete power vacuum that they presumably hoped would be filled in a manner favorable to them under the direction of the Senate.

After Yingluck's dismissal as premier, Thailand's caretaker government quickly appointed a new acting prime minister and vowed to press ahead with a planned July 20 election to establish a new government. How likely are elections given the heightened political tensions?

While the Pheu Thai government has been dealt a vexing blow, its record of several election victories in succession suggests the Pheu Thai could go into the next election confident of victory through the support of voters in its traditional electoral power bases in the north and northeast, with or without a member of the Shinawatra family designated to serve as prime minister.

With this prospect unlikely to sit well with PDRC or the opposition Democrat Party, one assumes that an election on terms identical to the February 2 election, without reform or other measures acceptable to the opposition in advance of the election, would be met with similar resistance.

What are the potential social and economic consequences of this decision for the country?

The present political crisis has raised concerns about economic recovery with the remarkable ease of earlier political crises. Experts have argued that the political crisis has drawn the economy to the brink of recession, while business houses are revising their economic performance forecasts for 2014 and prospective foreign investors are reportedly placing their plans on hold pending the outcome of the political crisis.

The distraction of the political impasse has diverted the attention of law and policy makers from addressing constraints to Thailand's advancement to upper income status and prevented Thailand from assuming a leadership role in the efforts of the ASEAN community to establish an integrated regional economy in 2015.

Given the latest developments, how will democracy continue in Thailand?

While the removal of Yingluck and members of her Cabinet will be celebrated in some quarters, these latest developments seem unlikely to bring Thailand any closer to resolution of the political crisis through necessary compromises on the part of all political stakeholders.

The political crisis seems destined to continue in the short term, but again one hopes that political stakeholders will reach a compromise that leads to an election that is contested by all major political parties and independently scrutinized by domestic and international observers.

Kim McQuay is The Asia Foundation's country representative to Thailand, where he manages programs that promote peaceful conflict resolution, greater citizen engagement in political processes, and more responsive and transparent systems of governance.

Opinion: Thailand is bargaining away its future

The conviction of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine of her cabinet members on charges of abuse of power is the latest development in a political crisis in Thailand that has dragged on since November 2013.

Although the Constitutional Court's decision may lie within the framework of the law, many regard the ruling as biased. According to the judges, Yingluck and part of her government violated the constitution in 2011 by unlawfully transferring the National Security Council chief. This meant that both Yingluck and member of her Cabinet had to step down. But the fact is that many Thais simply don't follow the arguments of the court.

The trial and the ensuing verdict cannot detract from the fact that Yingluck Shinawatra was Thailand's elected prime minister. And nobody doubts that her Pheu Thai party will win the upcoming elections - as it has done repeatedly since 2001.

No political advantage

But the opposition, led by Suthep Thaugsuban, has refused to accept this and tried to sideline his political rival. But neither massive street protests nor the disruption of the February 2 general election - which was later nullified by the Constitutional Court - were initially able to force Yingluck to step down. Yingluck remained in office and adopted a strategy of de-escalation. She had the ministries evacuated that had been occupied by the opposition and called on the police to exercise restraint.

The Constitutional Court's ruling won't provide any of the quarreling parties with a political advantage. On the one hand, part of Yingluck's administration will remain in office with the task of carrying on with the duties of a caretaker government. The opposition, on the other hand, will keep on staging mass protests. The intransigence on both sides alongside their unwillingness to compromise will cause great harm to the country and its people.

A strong impact

Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia after Singapore. However, the International Monetary Fund has already slashed the country's GDP growth forecast for 2014 from 5 to 2.5 percent. Key investments in infrastructure projects have been put on the back burner as foreign financiers hesitate to invest money in the politically instable country. The tourism sector, which accounts for 7 percent of the country's GDP, has been particularly affected by the crisis as many governments have issued travel warnings, leading to a significant slowdown in international tourism visits to Thailand.

But perhaps even more dramatic is the way Thailand has lost political significance in the region. The country is one of the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), an organization aimed at enhancing the economic, security and socio-cultural cooperation between its member states.

The next stage of ASEAN cooperation has been set for December 2015 and important negotiations as to who will be leading the implementation process are already underway. Due to the ongoing political crisis, however, Thailand will only be represented in these negotiations by low-ranking politicians with no voting rights. As a result, Thailand will likely be excluded from important positions for several years.

Thailand is an economically strong and politically important country. Compared to most of its Southeast Asian neighbors, it has made great strides in terms of establishing democracy and rule of law. This is why it is most regrettable that Thai elites are simply bargaining away the country's future.

One dead, 23 injured in Thai quake: official

BANGKOK: An elderly woman died and 23 other people were injured after a strong earthquake shook northern Thailand, an official said Tuesday, as aftershocks continued to rattle the mountainous region popular with tourists.

The 83-year-old woman died when a wall in her house collapsed after the 6.0-magnitude struck quake on Monday afternoon, according to an official at the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department in Bangkok. 'Twenty-three people were also injured in separate incidents caused by the quake,' the official told AFP, without giving further details.

The quake, which struck at a shallow depth of just 7.4 kilometres (4.5 miles), had its epicentre in the remote Phan district of Chiang Rai province, geologists said, and was felt hundreds of miles to the south in Bangkok and even in Myanmar´s commercial capital Yangon.

'Since last evening (Monday) there were six large aftershocks with a magnitude between 5.0 to 5.9 and the last was this morning,' Burin Wechbunthung, of the Meteorological Department told, adding there were a dozen smaller tremors.Residents on Monday said they had seen cracked building facades, broken shop windows and damage to roads, while power was cut for several hours in Phan.The area is a remote mountain retreat near the border with Myanmar and Laos and popular with foreign visitors.

The quake was felt in the tourist hub city of Chiang Mai 160 kilometres (100 miles) southwest of Chiang Rai and as far away as Bangkok, 800 kilometres to the south, where tall buildings shook for several seconds.Major earthquakes are rare in Thailand, although tremors often strike the north of the country.

Brazil’s social anger risks fouling World Cup

Brazil, one month from launch of its football extravaganza, wants the world to see keen youngsters inaugurating Sao Paolo’s Corinthians Stadium (which workers are rushing to finish). But instead, the world news shows Brazilian violence, regularly.

Ordinary people are rebelling because hosting the World Cup has inflamed prices and the money spent on the event means money not spent on social considerations.

Millions of tourists will start arriving soon. They’ll see heavily armed security forces. But that sight itself feeds the anger of many less affluent Brazilians.

Opinion polling has shown that 52 percent of the population are happy World Cup’s coming. That is down from 79 percent last November — a 27 percent dive.

UEFA President Michel Platini said: 'The Brazilians really must be told that they’re here to show what’s best about their country, their passion for football, and if they can wait one month before their social explosions it would be good for all of Brazil and for Planet Football.'

The riots started heating up a year ago, as people saw things get more expensive and their purchasing power suffer. The announcement of what the thing was going to cost sparked ignition.

Eleven billion euros, where the national average salary equals around 640 euros and the lowest legally is around 240 per month. The minimum estimate for a family’s basic needs is 1,000 euros.

Inflation, 3.6 percent a few years ago, heated up to 6.5 percent last year. As a high end consumer index, take the iPhone; you’ll pay nearly 900 euros for it in Brazil — not quite double the US price. And Brazilians have to pay some 50 percent more for a car or household appliance than in most other industrialised countries.

Food products — rice, vegetables, chicken — are up 20 to almost 100 percent. Rents have more than doubled.

This is the world’s seventh-largest economy, yet six percent of its people live in shanty towns. This parallel world of the poor, occupied against any regulations, house nearly half the population in big cities, missing infrastructure, rife with drugs and crime.

In the absence of adequate public services, notably for health, education and transport, in urban and rural Brazil, the spending on football feels to many like a social programme to exclude them.

Boko Haram threatens to sell abducted schoolgirls after group admits to the kidnappings

The leader of Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has threatened to sell the hundreds of school girls it kidnapped three weeks ago.

In a video message Abubakar Shekau admitted Boko Haram had abducted the girls from a boarding school in Chibok.

Around 230 pupils aged between 16 to 18 are missing.

Shekau said he was instructed by God to take the young women and that they should be married and not in school.

Boko Haram means 'Western education is sinful.'

Meanwhile, the families of the kidnapped are furious with the reaction to the abductions by the government of Goodluck Jonathan.

Martha Yarama Ndirpaya is the mother of a missing girl:

'The government told lies, about finding 121 girls, while after some time we discovered that it was a pure lie. They are not doing anything up till now.'

Relations between the families and the government are fraught. An activist was detained and later released seemingly on the orders of First Lady Patience Jonathan.

Jonathan allegedly accused the families of fabricating the kidnappings.

Pakistani gives street kids the gift of education

It's a chilly morning in Islamabad, and Muhammad Ayub's pupils are dutifully reciting their first lesson of the day. The class is taking place, as always, in a city park just around the corner from Islamabad's well-known Kohsar Market. Ayub has been running this school for poor children for nearly two decades. It's become his vocation.

'Everyone who is already educated must help educate illiterate people in their homes, in their towns, in their cities and other places where they are,' Ayub says. 'If they teach one word every day, then [you will] see, little by little, how we can overcome the education gap in our country.'

Those who can afford it send their children to elite private schools with fees running to thousands of Pakistani rupees per month. The rest have to rely on under-financed government schools to educate their children.

Without Ayub's street school these kids would never get access to education at all.

Humble beginnings

Ayub isn't a trained teacher. After his parents died, he had to care for his siblings and educate and feed them. He came to Islamabad looking for a job and worked as a laborer, 'anything to help feed my family and afford the expenses of my own education.'

During the months it took him to find a stable job, he became aware of the poverty around him.

'I used to see so many children in the streets, picking rags or just selling the few possessions they had found or made. I asked these children why they didn't go to school, and they told me that their parents couldn't afford to send them to schools.'

That's when Ayub started offering free lessons. It was the beginning of a journey, he says.

First he had to contend with hostility from many of the wealthy residents in the surrounding areas in the beginning. They didn't want to see street children gathering in the local park.

'Some people called me a spy, some called me a foreign agent, some thought I was a Christian,' Ayub recalls. 'But when I started teaching the children, everyone went quiet.'

He began with three pupils, three notebooks and three pencils.

Filling a gap

Almost 20 years later, the school is a permanent fixture in the community. Two-hundred and forty pupils are enrolled, most of whose parents work in the bungalows of wealthy people in the neighboring areas.

The school has earned Ayub respect in the neighborhood, and though he still doesn't get any proper funding, donations of books or stationary come from passersby who see him teaching in the park. And many former pupils return to help Master Ayub and share their knowledge.

Farhat Abbas is one of them.

'I used to work in the forest, cutting wood which I would then sell in the market,' he explains. 'Master Ayub took me in because my parents didn't have the financial resources to educate me.'

Ayub's teaching opened new doors for Abbas, who is now at university. Other former pupils have gone on to work in office jobs in the capital, a far cry from their beginnings.

Ayub's motivation for working as a volunteer teacher remains the same now as it was when he started. He says he feels that education in Pakistan is inherently unfair.

'The elites and the rich children have the highest standards and access to the best schools and colleges,' he says. 'For the poor student it is hard for them even to buy books or paper. This division between the 'haves' and 'have-nots' has destroyed the education system in Pakistan and made opportunities unequal.