A whole new game for Thailand's
Thaksin By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - Thailand's former
premier Thaksin Shinawatra will stay in the
country until March 12, following his return on
Thursday from a 17-month self-exile.
Spokesman Pongthep Thepkanchana said on
Friday Thaksin has to report to the Supreme Court
on March 12 to talk to judges on how he would like
to fight corruption cases against him.
Thaksin wrote a new chapter in the
country's political history when he returned home
to a hero's welcome on Thursday.
Until
now, no elected leader, driven from power by a
military coup has been welcomed back with such an
outpouring of public feeling. Close to 2,000
people gathered outside the VIP terminal
at
Bangkok's international airport to cheer, whistle
and chant slogans, such as "'Thaksin, fight,
fight!"
Many had traveled from the north
and northeast. Both regions are home to Thailand's
rural poor, where support for Thaksin runs deep.
The significance of the moment was
apparently not lost on Thaksin, who has spent most
of his time in exile in Britain after the
country's armed forces staged Thailand's 18th
putsch in September 2006. As soon as he stepped
out from the terminal, the former premier knelt
and touched the ground with his forehead, a
gesture that has never been made by a political
leader in a public setting.
Thaksin's
triumphant return was the third act in a political
drama that has not been witnessed in this
Southeast Asian country since it became a
constitutional monarchy in 1932. The first was the
triumph of the pro-Thaksin People's Power Party
(PPP) at last December's general elections. The
second was the PPP forming the new coalition
government to succeed a military-appointed regime.
"Thaksin is the first elected prime
minister who was deposed from power and who has
come back with politically active support and with
the party in power backing him," says Thanet
Aphornsuvan, associate professor of history at
Thammasat University, based in Bangkok. "In the
past, leaders who were ousted from power never
came back to such a triumphant reception."
"This is unprecedented," he added during
an Inter Press Service interview. "What the PPP
has achieved are also firsts, because previous
political parties that were forced out of power by
the military could never recover. We are
witnessing something new here."
Much of
that is due to the political transformation
Thailand underwent after Thaksin led his Thai Rak
Thai (Thais Love Thai - TRT) party to two thumping
election victories, in 2001 and 2005. The TRT's
platform of pro-poor polices struck a chord with
the urban and rural poor and gave rise to a strong
constituency that swore allegiance to Thaksin.
"Today's events show the meaning of
grassroots support; it is strong and here to
stay," says Thanet. "We can even say it is a
moment of democracy taking root in Thai soil."
Such an alliance between a large vote bank
of the underclass and Thaksin, a billionaire
telecommunications tycoon before becoming premier,
had not impressed the country's old moneyed elite,
the entrenched aristocrats, and sections of
Bangkok's middle class. The latter threw their
weight behind the coup, which was staged after
months of street protests in Bangkok in early
2006. The demonstrations, which won wide support
among Bangkok's middle class, were directed
against Thaksin. They called for his ouster amid
allegations of corruption, nepotism and the abuse
of power.
Efforts by the old elite to keep
Thaksin out of power continued. In mid-2007, a
special tribunal appointed by the military found
the TRT in violation of election laws during a
2006 poll. It ruled that the party be dissolved
and 111 executive members of the TRT, including
Thaksin, be banned from politics for five years.
Thaksin faces several legal battles. On
arrival he was escorted by the police to the
Supreme Court where he and his wife, Pojaman, face
corruption and conflict of interest charges over a
questionable purchase of land in the Thai capital.
He was released on bail of 8 million baht
(US$267,000).
He was then taken to the
attorney-general's office for another case,
charging him and his wife of concealing shares in
a real estate company owned by the Shinawatras. He
was freed after paying bail of 2 million baht.
And at a packed encounter with the press,
where Thaksin only read a statement, these cases
were on his mind. "I believe this is the proper
time for me to return to Thailand so as to argue
my case against all wrongful accusations made
against my family and me," he said. "Almost every
member of my family and I have been accused of
various wrongdoings without the international
standard of legal due process."
He also
admitted little interest in active politics - at
least for now. "Upon my return to Thailand, I wish
to live quietly and peacefully with my family just
like any other Thai person," he said.
Spokesman Pongthep said it is unlikely
Thaksin will serve as an economic adviser to
Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, as earlier
reported, because Thaksin "would like to focus his
energy on social work, education and sports".
Thaksin is chairman of the English Premiership
football club Manchester City.
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