Boycotts are new weapon in Thailand anti-government protests

Making little headway on the streets, protesters trying to oust the Thai government have opened a new front by targeting companies tied to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's family, and are using social media to drive the effort.

Calls for a boycott – broadcast at rallies and spread via Facebook and other social media – had an immediate and striking impact this week: Shares of a property developer controlled by the Shinawatras and a handset distributor with links to the family plunged by about 10 percent over three days.

This week, they targeted businesses linked, or once linked, to the Shinawatra family, sending stock prices tumbling. On Saturday, some answered protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban's call to return their SIM cards belonging to mobile phone company Advanced Info Service Pcl (AIS). The company promptly sent a text message to clients saying it no longer had any connection with the Shinawatra family.

"AIS is not involved in politics and is not a pipeline for any side," it said. "Dr. Thaksin and family have already sold all shares in the company since 23 January, 2006, and from then are no longer connected with the company."

The boycott tactic immediately drew fire from the government side.

"What we don't like right now is their involvement in threatening companies on the stock exchange that is not involved with government," said Tida Tawornseth, chairwoman of the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). "It's a move away from government into business"

The protests have already taken a toll on the economy, especially the tourism sector, with arrivals in Bangkok sharply down.

It is too early to tell what the impact will be on companies' sales and profits, but fears that they will be hit have already wiped out about a billion dollars of the value of firms seen as associated with Yingluck and her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Company boycotts are nothing new. Neither is the use of social media and texting to organize boycotts or rally supporters to political causes.

What appears new is how the rallying cry of anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban – "If you love your country, stop using Shinawatra products" – is bringing that together and turning the prospect of a boycott, usually a tool of advocacy or consumer groups, into a potent weapon in political conflict.

This week, responding to a call by Suthep posted on a Facebook page, hundreds of people showed up to disrupt business at a service center of a mobile affiliate of telecoms group Shin Corp, founded by Thaksin before he entered politics. Shin Corp says the company no longer has any connection with the Shinawatra family.

In terms of its political impact, it remains to be seen how the assault on the Shinawatra family's business interests will play out. A spokesman for Yingluck’s party dismissed it, but the campaign at least adds to a perception that Yingluck is becoming increasingly embattled.

It is also a game both sides can play.

The anti-government camp intent on ousting Yingluck and ending the influence of her self-exiled brother represents the Bangkok-based establishment: the royalist bureaucracy, the army and old-money families, many with business interests that would be highly vulnerable to the same tactic.

Indeed, the more numerous Shinawatra camp – Thaksin and his parties have won every election since 2001 – could be expected to pack a more effective punch when it comes to boycotts.

Reuters