In that speech, Mr Plodprasop appeared to say that if Phuket people wanted things from the Pheu Thai government, they should vote for Pheu Thai parliamentary candidates.
The boisterous marchers were led by local Democrat Party MP Rewat Areerob and potential parliamentary candidate Boonsuppa Thanthai, President of the Rak Phuket Group, who both stressed the demonstration was spontaneous.
“People who came to the demonstration today didn’t come because any of us brought them, but because they are fed up with the way Deputy PM Plodprasop verbally abused Phuket,” said Mr Rewat.
He added, “How can you say such a thing when your title is Deputy PM? It’s most inappropriate. Phuket generates tax income for the country of almost B200 billion a year so today we are demanding transparency in how our taxes are used.”
During the march, speakers standing in a pick-up truck asked why there was such a rush by the government to alter the Constitution when more fundamental problems such as the rising prices of eggs, cooking oil, fuel and other consumer products, as well as soaring corruption.
On reaching Provincial Hall the demonstrators – surrounding a cheap chipboard coffin marked with a skull and crossbones and labelled “Plodprasop Suraswadi, passed on from this world June 7, 2013” – discovered that Gov Maitree was not in his office; he was on a visit to Trang Province.
Instead, Vice-Governor Sommai Preechasilpa received the protest letter and said she would pass it on to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The letter, in part, stated, “Deputy PM Plodprasop must be expelled from the Cabinet because his speech was ravaging to Phuket people’s hearts and it showed that he lacks maturity. Phuket contributes B188 trillion a year to the country’s economy, so the government should use [the taxes from that] to enhance the potential of Phuket.
“It is a fact that former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva approved the budget for the Convention Centre in Chiang Mai and it was completed while he was in office – unlike what Mr Plodprasop said. Yet the Convention Centre that Phuket was supposed to have was cancelled by Yingluck’s Cabinet.”
From Provincial Hall, the marchers went on to the nearby Revenue Department, with Mr Rewat exhorting them, “Today, show them that we are a non-violent protest.” With Mr Plodprasop’s contentious words being played through loudspeakers non-stop, the crowd cheered and chanted, “Get out Plodprasop.”
At the Revenue Department, Mr Rewat declared, “Phuket must pay taxes – it’s not that we won’t, but we have to know that tax from us is used in a transparent way.
“For a long time Phuket has had very little back from the Government. Once the taxes are in the hands of government, we want to know how it is decided what taxes will come to us in the form of budgets,” Mr Rewat said.
Phuket City Police Superintendent Col Sermpan Sirikong said, “Today the protest went well. There was no violence, and police officers cooperated with the protest organisers from the start to ensure that as few non-protesters as possible were irritated by the march.
“This is people’s right under the constitution; you can [protest publicly] as long as you don’t harm other people.”