After months of dithering, leaders of Thailand's ruling junta have decided they finally have enough evidence against Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted as prime minister last September, and have stepped up efforts to convict him.
It is a path fraught with danger. Once again, only the delicate heart of the ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who will be 80 in December, may keep Thailand from tearing itself apart. On the one side are the old vested interests, bureaucrats, military, and those close to the throne, who like their privileges and don't want to lose them; on the other side are the pushy nouveau riche who believe it is their right to gain ever more wealth. Caught in the middle are the millions of ordinary Thais.
Thaksin's lawyer denied last week that the deposed leader planned to set up a government in exile - a day later, Thaksin broadcast by video from exile in London a challenging speech to 10,000 cheering supporters in the Thai capital. He said he would return to Thailand to fight the charges against him and 'protect his dignity', but would not re-enter politics, itself an intensely political declaration. 'I wouldn't mind if it was just me they were persecuting, but my wife and children have become victims, which I did not expect to happen,' he said.
In the past few weeks, Thailand's Constitutional Tribunal disbanded Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party and banned him from politics for five years, along with 110 other party members, having found them guilty of election fraud. Then, the country's Assets Scrutiny Committee ordered the freezing of 52.88 billion baht (HK$12.9 billion) in assets in 21 bank accounts belonging to Thaksin, his wife and children. Now, Thai prosecutors have filed corruption charges against him.
The trouble is that few Thais any longer believe any of their leaders, except the king. If you actually examine the judgment against Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai, it is more carefully argued and stands up better to scrutiny than the 2001 verdict of the predecessor Constitutional Court, when Thaksin was acquitted of deliberately concealing his assets. He had claimed he made an 'honest mistake' in placing his assets with his drivers and servants.
The assertions of the assets committee again throw light on the 2001 case and offer examples of some of the ways that Thaksin allegedly used his family, so that if anyone is to blame for dragging his wife and children into the case, it is the man himself.
He, in fact, claimed that he had transferred all his business interests to his children before entering politics in 2001. But the committee claims that he kept secret nominee accounts overseas to keep his cash and stocks in several institutions.
