Thai Spring to target Thaksin online

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The Thai Spring group is set to launch an anti-government Web page called Thai Spring Forum as a venue to hold regular online meetings, before calling on supporters to stage rallies when the time is right.

The group, led by Vasit Dejkunchorn, a retired police general, and former senator Kaewsan Atibodhi, has been protesting since last month against comments made by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a speech in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.

Kaewsan said he would today reveal details of the group’s “Ulan Bator letter”, endorsed by 26,000 supporters. The letter will be distributed to democratic countries across the globe, he said.

The group will launch the Thai Spring Forum Web page next Friday, with eventual plans to hold online meetings every Friday and Sunday. During the initial stage, meetings will be held every other Friday and Sunday from 6-7pm.

The Web page would give group members a forum to express their opinions, which will then be recorded and uploaded on YouTube. Attendance at the weekly meetings would be assessed according to the number of people viewing the Web page.

Kaewsan said he and Vasit would invite guest speakers and pick topics for discussion. A rally would later be scheduled, which members will be able to view online.

The former senator said the Yingluck government’s actions had inspired him to create Thai Spring, adding that apart from abusing the state’s power to further its own interests, the government had tried to whitewash Yingluck’s brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and corrupt politicians by amending the charter.

‘Misuse of power’

“People do not elect the government to whitewash the PM’s brother or use the legislative process to destroy the judiciary. We know that people are against these attempts but they have no stage to express their disapproval,” he said.

“We can protest through civil disobedience without resorting to force or violence or seize state property. The charter guarantees [the right to] peaceful protest,” Kaewsan said.

“We have two worlds [the real and cyber worlds]. We can express our opinions on social networks, since [on such forums] there is no need to have a leader or followers; there are only participants. We have white-mask friends who communicate online and one day we can set up appointments to meet somewhere,” he said.

He likened the birth of the Thai Spring Forum to Sondhi Limthongkul’s staging of anti-Thaksin rallies at Lumpini Park.

“The impact of our group will depend on the government’s actions. We want to create this cyber-campaign first just to be an ‘electric charge’ and wait for ‘the magnet’ to attract more people,” Kaewsan said.

In a separate development, some 300 members of the white-mask group rallied in front of Government House yesterday to demand that the prime minister sack Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi immediately.

Meanwhile, a group of about 120 red shirts yesterday rallied in front of Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda’s residence calling on him to intervene and to tell the nine Constitutional Court judges to resign.

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