Protesters spurn reconciliation plan in Thailand

Bloomberg

Thai pro-democracy activists rejected a parliament-initiated plan to form a reconciliation committee, calling it a “political ploy to buy time,” and reiterated the demand for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha.
The Thai parliament is setting up a committee to discuss the demands of the protesters in a bid to ease political tensions and restart the stalled process for charter amendment later this month. However, the protest groups said in a statement on Wednesday that those steps would be meaningless if Prayuth clung to power.
“Such committees won’t be able to come up with any solutions because in reality Prayuth is the biggest obstacle,” according to the statement read out at a briefing in Bangkok. “All of the problems can’t be resolved if Prayuth doesn’t quit.”
The protesters have spurned Prayuth’s request to use parliamentary process to resolve their demands, which also include a rewriting of the
constitution and more accountability and transparency from the monarchy.