??? Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday breezed through a no-confidence vote in parliament where her party holds a commanding majority, but faced mounting pressure from widening anti-government protests. ????THAI Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra survived a no-confidence motion in parliament Thursday as opposition forces in the Asian nation tried to unseat the government amid ongoing street demonstrations. ????The vote in parliament was 297 to 134. The opposition’s chances of success appeared slim going into the vote, with Yingluck’s party in the majority. ????“I will not dissolve the house,” a defiant Yingluck told reporters before the vote. ????“It is clear the protesters are not looking for house dissolution so, starting today, let us find a way out this together,” Yingluck said. ????Her Puea Thai Party and coalition partners dominate the lower house with 299 seats and comfortably survived the three-day debate during which the opposition grilled Yingluck on a 3.5 billion baht (US$108 million) water management scheme and financially troubled government rice intervention scheme. ????The real test after the vote was whether Yingluck would be able to appease the growing mass of protesters showing up at government buildings. ????Hours after the vote Thursday, protests were growing at the capital and beyond. Yingluck’s government is facing the biggest demonstrations to hit Thailand since the violence of 2010. ????Protesters have been calling for an end to the government of Yingluck, sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecommunications tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup. ????UN chief Ban Ki-moon has voiced concern over the tensions and urged restraint. He urged all sides “to exercise the utmost restraint, refrain from the use of violence and to show full respect for the rule of law and human rights.” ????Yingluck has invoked special powers allowing curfews and road closures and police have also ordered the arrest of the protest leader — but so far no move has been made to detain the protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban. ????Critics of the Thai prime minister accuse her of being a puppet of her older brother Thaksin, a deeply polarizing figure who was removed from power by the military while in New York in 2006. He has since lived in exile, except for a brief return in 2008, and was convicted by Thai courts for corruption and sentenced in absentia to two years in jail later that year. ????Meanwhile, thousands of anti-government demonstrators have kept up pressure on the government by surrounding official buildings. ????Protesters in Bangkok stormed the finance ministry building Monday and turned into their secondary command center. ????Their objectives include the public health, labor, industry, social development and science ministries, as well as a government complex that houses multiple agencies, notably the Department of Special Investigation. ????The number of demonstrators, led by the opposition Democrat Party, has declined from the huge gathering of roughly 100,000 people that assembled in Bangkok on Sunday. ????Certain sections of some roads in Bangkok have been shut down because of the number of protesters camping out and spilling into the street. ????The current protests have reanimated the tensions along Thailand’s political fault lines — Thaksin’s mostly rural support base on one side, the Bangkok-based elite and middle classes on the other — that left the country wracked with turbulence for four years after the 2006 coup, culminating in a 2010 army crackdown on Thaksin supporters that left more than 90 dead. ????The current round of protests was triggered in response to a government-backed amnesty bill that could have extended a pardon to Thaksin and opened the door for his return to Thailand. ????The Thai senate rejected the amnesty bill Nov. 11, but since then demonstrations continued, with the opposition calling for the current government to be replaced by a new administration. ????More than a dozen countries have issued travel warnings for citizens to avoid areas near protests in Bangkok. ????The protests threaten to destabilize Thailand at a delicate time, just as its $366 billion economy, Southeast Asia’s second biggest, is losing momentum. Data released on Wednesday showed exports fell 0.7 percent in October from a year before, worse than the 0.7 percent rise most economists had expected. ????Waving multi-colored flags, tooting on whistles and backing up traffic, the protesters appear intent on shutting down Thailand’s government. They have occupied the Finance Ministry since Monday but have failed to force their way into other ministries. Instead, they gather at the gates, causing staff to evacuate. ????Responding to the crisis, Thailand’s central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates by a quarter point at its policy-setting meeting Wednesday. ????Born in June 1967 Yingluck is Thailand’s first female Prime Minister and is the youngest Prime Minister of Thailand in over 60 years. ????Yingluck began her career as a saleswoman and marketing intern at Shinawatra Directories Co., Ltd., a telephone directory business founded by AT&T International. She later became the director of procurement and the director of operations. In 1994, she became the general manager of Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of International Broadcasting Corporation. She left as deputy CEO of IBC in 2002, and became the CEO of Advanced Info Service, Thailand’s largest mobile phone operator. After the sale of Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings, Yingluck resigned from AIS, but remained managing director of SC Asset Co Ltd, the Shinawatra family property development company. ????On 16 May 2011, the Pheu Thai Party, which maintains close ties to Thaksin, voted to name Yingluck as the party’s top candidate under the party-list system for parliamentary election scheduled for 3 July. ????Yingluck has one son, Supasek, with her common-law husband, Anusorn Amornchat. Amornchat was an executive of the Charoen Pokphand Group and managing director of M Link Asia Corporation PCL. Her sister, Yaowapa Wongsawat, is the wife of former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat.(SD-Agencies) | 