Lee's wife Ho Ching manages the Singaporean government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings, which in January bought a 49-per-cent stake in telecom giant Shin Corp from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family.

Waving placards saying "Thailand not for sale", the protesters urged a boycott of all things Singaporean in answer to Temasek's takeover of Shin Corp. They sang the Thai national anthem before dispersing.

Posters of Singapore's top couple, defaced with red forked tongues and the message "Criminal Singapore, get out!", were fixed to barricades outside the embassy, in Bangkok's business district.

The crowd cheered as someone set fire to mock-ups of a black Singapore Airlines jet and a two-metre-tall Merlion, the mythical symbol of the island republic, which were both painted with swastikas. Caricatures of Thaksin and mobile-phone SIM cards of AIS, a flagship business of Shin, were also burned.

Shouting "Temasek, get out!", the demonstrators demanded that the Singaporean government cancel the acquisition of Shin Corp.

The Bt73.3-billion share sell-off by Thaksin's family has outraged many Thais because it was tax-free and amounted to surrendering sensitive sectors to foreign investors.

Some of the banners read: "Thai people won't allow capture by Singapore", "Who are you to control our national assets?" and "Where is the Singapore government's morals?" The protest blocked two lanes of traffic on Sathorn Road, one of the capital's busiest.

The demonstration was staged by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has been holding daily rallies demanding Thaksin's resignation for over two weeks. The organisers have recently taken their campaign to the stock exchange and the Silom Road business district.

Earlier this month, hundreds of protesters marched on the embassy for the first time to demand the Singaporean government rescind the Shin purchase.

The mission's officials told the demonstrators then that the Singaporean government had no say over Temasek's transactions even though the holding company is wholly state-owned.

"If they faced the same situation as we do now, we believe the Singaporeans would also rise up to do what we are doing," Somsak Kosaisuk, one of PAD's five "decision-makers", said yesterday.

Somsak read out an open letter to the people of Singapore. The statement said the relationship between the two countries had gone well until Temasek bought into Shin Corp and caused widespread concern among Thais.

Most of Shin's businesses involve national security, such as telecommunications and satellites, read the letter.

Somsak also accused the Singaporean government of getting involved in a contentious deal with the Thai military in renewing the leases of airbases in Udon Thani and Nakhon Ratchasima.

Piphob Dhongchai, another PAD leader, said outside the Singaporean mission that the protest was against "foreign investments that are unfair and violate national sovereignty".

"We ask the Singaporean government to review [the deal] and prevent takeovers of foreign businesses, which is modern colonialism," he said.

                                                      Home