Political talks between the government and leaders of the red-shirt protest group reached an impasse yesterday as both sides failed to find a common stance to end the ongoing stand-off.
Prime Minister Abhisit suggested Parliament be dissolved late this year after a referendum on amendments to the Constitution, but the red-shirt group insisted that the government should announce a dissolution of the House within 15 days.
Veera Musigapong, head of the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD), tried to maintain contact with the government by proposing informal talks with prime minister's secretary Korbsak Sabhavasu to try to seek solutions.
However, Jatuporn ended the meeting saying if both sides wanted to maintain their respective stances, they should not talk any more.
Prime Minister Abhisit resumed the second day of talks after returning from Brunei, as the red shirts' protest continued for a third week on Bangkok's Rajdamnoen Avenue.
The atmosphere in the meeting room at King Prajadhipok's Institute yesterday was a bit tense compared with the first time the two sides met on Sunday evening. And the session heated up as Jatuporn alleged the government and Prime Minister Abhisit had no legitimacy to stay in the power, because the government was set up undemocratically.
Jatuporn claimed ministers in the government were involved in many scandals and corruption cases and that Abhisit used "double standards" for legal enforcement.
"You used to call for the late prime minister Samak Sundaravej to dissolve Parliament when the yellow-shirt People's Alliance's for Democracy protested in 2008, so why don't you apply the same principle today?" he asked. "Just simply follow your own words, and you'd be a great leader."
"If you sacrificed your power for the country, people would regard you as the leader, or on the contrary do you want people remember you as a tyrant?" he said.
Prime Minister Abhisit nearly lost control when Jatuporn raised the incident at the Interior Ministry last April and claimed Abhisit was not in the car when the red-shirt mob attacked. The PM said Jatuporn was lying.
Red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn tried to clam Abhisit down, saying the prime minister should not retaliate against Jatuporn as such verbal quarrels made him (the PM) look bad.
While saying that, Weng made another allegation - that soldiers shot empty-handed protesters in the crackdown in Bangkok last April. He showed Abhisit a number of pictures to try to prove his claim.
Veera tried to push the talks |forward by asking for a possible time frame from the government |on when it would dissolve Parliament.
Abhisit said he needed time to pass the budget bill for the next fiscal year, in order to buoy the economy at a time of global recession. The government also needs time to hold a referendum on changes to the Constitution, which will require at least 120 days plus a few months for Parliament to process amendments. That will take roughly nine months.
Jatuporn said such a time line was impractical, because he did not believe the government would be able to push the constitution amendments through within nine months. It could take all of Abhisit's remaining time in office.
Later, fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra said in a video link to the red-shirt rally that the failure of the second round of talks was not unexpected, since the government was not sincere.
"As we have so different a stance, let's go our different ways," he said.
