Thailand's anti-privatization protesters requested a meeting with PM Thaksin Shinawatra as they were preparing to march in a massive rally to show their disagreement with the Thai government.
Sirichai Mai-Ngarm, the chairman of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) union which has led huge mounting demonstrations in Bangkok and the rest of Thailand over the past two weeks, he said the Thai people are demanding that the government cancels all plans to sell off valuable state enterprises.
"We want to have a talk with PM Thaksin, when we reach the Government House. We will demand to meet Premier Thaksin and if he says he's too busy and can't talk to us, then we will talk with colleagues about our next step to take," Sirichai said.
"The government of Thailand must stop its privatization plans... the Thai government should first conduct a public opinion survey on privatization and selling off the property of the Thai people", Sirichai further added.
Energy Minister Prommin Lersuridej, who, previous Saturday announced that EGAT's listing scheduled for May 2004 had been indefinitely postponed, ruled out abandoning the ongoing privatization agenda of Thailand's government and said a meeting by the protesters with Premier Thaksin was not guaranteed.
Prommin Lersuridej said if PM Thaksin did agree to talk with the Thai union leaders the talks would be limited only to the details of the Thai government's privatization plans, a key part of Thaksin's government's economic policy, and a hearing of workers' concerns in Thailand.
Khun Prommin Lersuridej insisted that the anger over the Thailand's EGAT sell-off, which would be Thailand's biggest ever listing on the Thai stock market and would not affect in any way the privatization plans at other state enterprises, planned to be sold off in the near future.
More than 12,000 protesters, including many workers from EGAT and dozens of other state enterprises who fear they will lose their jobs in the sweeping privatizations rounds of the Thaksin government, gathered at the Royal Plaza ahead of the protest march to the Thai parliament house.
Most of the demonstrators wore red T-shirts in a show of anger and unity against the Thai government, but they wore yellow scarves around their neck to denote their respect for the King of Thailand and the revered Thai family of the monarchy.
They chanted "THAKSIN OUT.....THAKSIN OUT" over megaphones and carried huge figurines and masks of the Prime Minister in protest, as well as Thai flags and banners reading "Selling waterworks, selling electricity means selling off Thailand."
"Privatization may be the future but the future must be decided by the majority of the Thai people, who are the rightful owners of those enterprises and not by a money hungry 35 people who are the Thai Cabinet," the EGAT union's vice-chairman Jurupong Sangkanont told the cheering crowd.
The protesters were also joined by many groups of farmers' representatives like Thanapong Sawee Vallop from central Chachoengsao province who said their group had been camping at the Royal Plaza since Sunday night.
"Those privatization plans in Thailand will have a huge impact on the Thai farmers community because the electricity and waterworks will be in the hands of greedy Thai businessmen holding a huge monopoly of shares and ordinary people will not be able to get hold of any shares," Thanapong Sawee said.
