泰国总理拒绝示威者辞职要求
时间：2013-12-05 03:03:41
搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。
（单词翻译）
泰国总理拒绝示威者辞职要求
BANGKOK — Thailand's prime minister says she is open to negotiations1 to defuse the country's political crisis, but remains2 unwilling3 to bow to her opponents’ demands to turn over the government to an unelected council. Yingluck Shinawatra also says the country's influential4 military will remain neutral in the standoff.
Bangkok's street rallies, which began weeks ago, have
escalated5 into increasingly violent
confrontations6 as protest leaders
vow7 to topple the government this week.
Outside the prime minister's offices, police fired rubber bullets, tear gas canisters and
deployed8 water
cannons9 to contain the protesters.
Despite the
chaos10 at some rally sites, business in the city largely continued unimpeded Monday and most government workers appeared to ignore the
opposition11's call for a strike.
But demonstrators remain committed to their cause. Protester Watcharapon Vichayathanatom, says the fact that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s party won an election
landslide12 in 2011 is meaningless.
She said the prime minister’s election resulted from vote buying and buying the votes of politicians. So she may have won the election but millions of people have now come out, so she cannot say any longer that she has the majority of votes.
Yingluck said the opposition is neither asking for her resignation nor for the dissolution of parliament, but rather that the prime minister’s power be returned to the people.
“I don’t know how we can proceed with this offer because this offer does not exist under the practice of this constitutional law,” Yingluck said.
To some of the protesters, such as Raewat Pampradit, people power - although not clearly defined - is the only solution. He said power must be returned to the people and a people’s council established.
Tight corner
Thailand has been politically
unstable13 for seven years since Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was
deposed14 in a military
coup15. But the governing party has won every election since 2001.
Chulalongkorn University political science professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak said the prime minister finds herself in a tight corner even though what the opposition proposes is likely not acceptable to a majority of the
electorate16.
“It’s a kind of
civilian17 coup led by the protest movement backed by the
Democrat18 Party
machinery19 and representing many minority voters who have been losing the elections in Thailand. They have become fed up,
disillusioned20 with the election system and Thailand electoral democracy,” said Thitinan.
Democracy has long been fragile here with the military conducting 18
coups21 since the end of absolute
monarchy22 rule in 1932.
Yingluck said the generals will remain neutral. But many observers believe the military will ultimately be the deciding factor, in the days ahead, in whether this government survives.
分享到：
