Bangkok: Opposition activists prepared for talks with Thailand's government on Sunday to seek a way out of an intractable political conflict, but with neither side willing to budge, a resolution seems far from likely.
Tens of thousands of red-shirted protesters mobilised around the capital on Saturday in a convoy of motorcycles and pickup trucks in a deafening show of force aimed at toppling Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government.
Abhisit is refusing to bow to pressure to dissolve Parliament and call a new election, but said on Saturday he was willing to negotiate with the "red shirts”, although analysts said neither side had anything to bring to the table.
The mass rally entered its eighth day on Sunday, with no sign of any "red shirt" violence, a factor that helped lift Thai stocks to a 20-month high last week, with foreigners continuing to pour hot money into one of Asia's cheapest bourses.
Protest leaders agreed to the government's offer of talks, either on Sunday or Monday, but only if Abhisit was present.
Long criticised for his reluctance to reach out to the "red shirts”, Abhisit welcomed talks -- as long as ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the assumed leader and financier of the movement, was off the agenda.
"My question is: What is the standpoint of the 'red shirts'? -- Democracy or Thaksin? If the answer is democracy, we can talk," Abhisit told Channel 3 television on Saturday.
But analysts said the stakes were too high for both sides and talks were unlikely to produce any compromise.
"There's nothing to talk about," said Somjai Phagaphasvivat, a political scientist at Bangkok's Thammasat University.
"The minimum the 'red shirts' will accept is house dissolution and the government will not yield to that. The root cause of the problem will not be addressed and talks will just pave the way for more protests and upheaval in future."
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, March 21, 2010, 11:05