Stiff opposition to royal pardon for Thaksin

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Stiff opposition to royal pardon for Thaksin

Published: 29/06/2009 at 12:20 PM
Online news: Opinion

As Thaksin steps up his calls for his supporters to bring him home from his self-imposed exile, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship is mobilising the red-shirt people to support a petition for a royal pardon for their exiled fugitive.

The Puea Thai party’s back-to-back by-election victories in Sakhon Nakhon last Sunday and in Si Sa Ket yesterday have emboldened the party and its red-shirt supporters, and hardened their resolve to bring their ''dear leader'' Thaksin Shinawatra home safe and sound.

A petition seeking a royal pardon for their patron is being drafted and should be completed this week, according to Jatuporn Promphan, a Puea Thai MP and co-leader of the UDD.

Puea Thai MP for Khon Kaen, Chatuporn Charoenchua, said as soon as he had a copy of the petition he would open his house in Kranuan district so Thaksin's followers could sign it. He predicted he would get half a million signatures of for a royal pardon in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen alone.

Samut Prakan MP Pracha Prasopdee of Puea Thai claimed that many people in his province had also shown enthusiasm to sign the petition. Since prisoners on death row could ask for a royal pardon, he didn’t see anything wrong with Thaksin doing likewise.

Former supreme commander Gen Chaisit Shinawatra, a relative of Thaksin, also jumped on the royal pardon bandwagon, with a warning to the government not to try to block the efforts of the former premier’s supporters.

Thaksin was sentenced in absentia by the Supreme Court's Division for Holders of Political Positions to two years imprisonment for abuse of authority in connection with the acquisition of a large block of state land at auction by his then wife Khunying Potjaman in the Ratchadapisek area.

In concert with his supporters’ attempts to seek a royal pardon on his behalf, the ex-premier has stepped up his appeals for his followeer to help bring him home through his phone-ins to rallies staged by the UDD, including the latest one held Saturday night at Sanam Luang. He said he didn’t want to die alone in the desert un Dubai and wanted to come home to help deal with the ailing economy.

But there's certain to be stiff resistance from the Democrats, the People’s Alliance for Democracy and other fair-minded people. Chirmsak Pinthong, a former senator and a strong critic of Thaksin, noted that the attempt to seek a royal pardon for the exiled former premier was unprecedented and very improper.

By tradition only a convict who has partially served his term of imprisonment has the right to ask for royal pardon. But Thaksin ran away before his conviction was even pronounced by the court. Also, a petition for a royal pardon has to be submitted by the prisoner alone, and not by other people as is the case with Thaksin, and this was seen as putting improper pressure on His Majesty the King, he added.

Thaksin has always criticised against the justice system of discriminating against him and against the privy council, privy president Prem Tinsulanonda in particular, for being instrumental against his downfall and all the misfortunes befalling him. Thus, a royal pardon for him will be seen as a blow to the judiciary's credibility. There is no question that Thaksin is the most popular leader this country has ever had. But that does not mean he would be treated exceptionally. Instead, he should be treated under the same law as we all are.

Mr Chirmsak said the bid for a royal pardon could be a part and parcel of the so-called Taksin 2 plan by the red-shirts to overthrow the Democrat-led government and to reinstall Thaksin in power.

Whether the Taksin 2 plot actually exists or is it just a fabrication to discredit the UDD and Thaksin is by no means clear. But what is disturbing is that the red-shirt movement, apparently given a big shot in the arm by the two by-election victories in Sakhon Nakhon and Si Sa Ket, is back in force to challenge the Democrat-led government.

Saturday night's rally at Sanam Luang drew about ten thousand demonstrators and the UDD has planned three more rallies in Bangkok, with the next at the Victory Monument, then the army HQ and the last at Government House.

The UDD will also step up its demands, beginning with a call for House dissolution then for the expulsion of the government.

Tthe government has yet to react to this renewed threat. Hopefully, it will not be in the same weak and totally inefficient way it dealt with the red-shirt protesters during the Songkran festival. Any repeat would leave the government in real trouble.

Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor of the Bangkok Post

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Writer: Veera Prateepchaikul

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chavalit

Discussion 10 : 30/06/2009 at 12:29 AM10
This author is not using very intelligent arguments to discredit the petition.

A petition is a petition. It can be done for pretty much anything, especially in Thailand where the law is so ambiguous. Are you trying to tell us that there's really a law surrounding these pardons. Of course not.

Let the people place a petition if they want. It really is none of your business. It's between the people and HM the King. Nobody is asking you to sign it.

I don't like your phrase "fair minded Democrats". You know as well as anyone that the political system hasn't been fair at all over the past some years and there's no fair minded politicians in a country as split as it is now. Just your bias again.
sicken

Discussion 9 : 29/06/2009 at 08:37 PM9
trying to hold loose sand in their small palms and getting more loose rocks to support?
sicken

Discussion 8 : 29/06/2009 at 08:33 PM8
trying to hold loose sand in their small palms and getting more loose rocks to support?
Sog

Discussion 7 : 29/06/2009 at 04:38 PM7
AHHHH -- now we get to the root of the issue. Corrupt people approve of corruption so they knowingly elect corrupt politicians.

THEN they expect uncorrupted legal protection under the same legal system that they corrupt.

How about changing the scenario. Honest law abiding citizens elect only honest law abiding politicians and expect protection under the legal systems which they honestly support !

No 2 ways about it; you sow corruption -- you reap corruption. Can't sort out contamination!
bill

Discussion 6 : 29/06/2009 at 04:21 PM6
84.5% thinks it's OK to have a corrupt government providing everything works to the advantage of Thailand. I just give up believing that Thailand can ever move forward when such a huge naive majority think it's OK. It just shows that the majority of Thai people suffer from a lack of education and have no idea what democracy means.
Smiles and good natured Thai people must teach that corruption is evil and certainly against the teaching of a truly sincere and honest man, Buddha.
Bill W

Discussion 5 : 29/06/2009 at 04:08 PM5
Right on Bubba!
Thaksin was removed from power because the big boys were getting scared. He was too good at business and making everyone look bad..EVERYONE! So he had to go. Yes, he might have been corrupt, but to what extent? Is he anymore corrupt than the politicians and administrators who get "gifts" to "help" people or the misdirected Yellow shirt thugs who tried to make others look bad by closing the airports and causing chaos throughout Thailand. No the poor are not stupid!! They know what is going on. It is the elite of this country that still think government is run by power and fear the way it was decades ago. Well they are wrong. The 2006 coop proved that. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but...
anna

Discussion 4 : 29/06/2009 at 03:42 PM4
I see nothing wrong by bring Mr. Thaksin back home so he can run this country. Just remember once whose bring country out of debt, I think he can do again with business mind which he had utilized well in the past for Thai People. I can recalled prior of coup 2006, the Thai people were more happy then, and everyone can afford to eat a good mell, but now thing are getting tough, before buying thing, everyone is careful. In USA Democrate is supposedly for the poor and middle class people, but in Thailand, democrate is for rich people. It is complete converted! To my believe up to date, the judgement against him is purely prejudices against his status... I think medias have much do with his guilty verdict as well.
Kit

Discussion 3 : 29/06/2009 at 03:38 PM3
Relatively corrupt;"no angel" -- something in between? ?

Everyone who deals in corruption is standing on shifting sand.

That's why the BP poll findings are so dismaying;"84.5 per cent viewed that corruption in businesses would not be unusual and 51.2 per cent said they would tolerate a corrupted government if it can improve the country and their well-being."

Loyalty to corrupt individuals in any walk of like, corrupts society. Those who approve of corruption are themselves corrupt.

Is 84% of the Thai population corrupt? Change, one at a time. Don't be corrupted by voting for corruption.
Morten Korsvold

Discussion 2 : 29/06/2009 at 02:51 PM2
I am trying to follow the "Thaksin case", but it seems to get more and more complicetde.
1. How can him (Thaksin) be interested in a pardon for his crime when he truly want to have a republic (not monarchy)?
2. Is he really paying big money for people to rally for him?
Would be very interesting to get an honest answer to these questions.
Bubba

Discussion 1 : 29/06/2009 at 02:00 PM1
This is an acceptable process. The government was illegally overthrown in September 2006 and then, courts set up by the government installed by the military convicted Taksin "according to plan".

I am not even saying the man is innocent, certainly not a Ghandi. But, the whole intervention by the military and then the elections rigged to guarantee their people would be in power backfired. Then they backed the PAD thugs and brought down TWO governments in succession.

Times have changed and even poor "uneducated" people have seen more than they were previously allowed to see.

What the current government could not bring about at the polls, even backed by powerful institutions, they finally achieved using stealth and parliamentary vote buying of turncoats they previously attacked as rotten and crooked politicians.

The poor are not TAHT stupid and see what has been going on and still is going on.

The current government followed along the path laid out by the PAD and echoed by the pro PAD media in trying to paint the overthrown PM as "Taksin the convicted criminal ex PM on the run" and continuously trying to belittle him and inculcate the population with the idea only Taksin was a skurk.

But acting in the same manner as those politicians they wish to keep out of politics is the downfall of the current government. And ignoring the poor and siding with the powerful and wealthy has only exacerbated the situation.

Taksin as I said is no saint, but neither is he particularly more corrupt than almost all other Thai politicians. Thailand IS corrupt at almost all levels of society. And the poor know this well enough every time they are forced to pay bribes or see the rich get away with criminal behavior by paying off the right people.

Why should they now support a corrupt government that prefers to forget them? WHy should they forget Taksin who, however bad he may have been at least did something to help the poor?

This is not the same world it was before and people are more informed than ever, even in the Thai countryside. You can no longer pull the wool over the eyes of the uneducated poor and lead them along by the nose with slogans and hollow beliefs.

Every time a farmer sees his daughter go to work at the age of 12 or 13 and lose her education, every time the wife goes to the hospital and cannot afford treatment, every time they have to scrounge for enough money to buy a new school uniform for the kids they remember the one man that at least gave them something: hope.

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Stiff opposition to royal pardon for Thaksin