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THAILAND
Thaksin Verdict Leaves Judiciary’s Stamp on Politics
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Feb 27, 2010 (IPS) - Even as they were prepared for the worst, supporters of ousted former Thai
prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra conducted an eleventh-hour ritual in his
home province this week, hoping for a miracle in Friday’s court verdict on the
fate of his seized assets.
The ceremony outside a small hotel got underway just as the sun
approached noon above this Thai northern city ringed by hills. The mix of
prayers and pleas on Thursday, Feb. 25, had an offering to the spirits that
included nine steamed pigs’ heads, 19 steamed chickens, 19 boiled ducks
and 500 eggs.
"We prayed to get the support of the spirits in a country where there is
injustice and double standards," said Petcharawat Wattanapongsirikul, the
owner of the 58-room hotel that has become the headquarters in this region
for the red shirt-wearing members of the United Front for Democracy against
Dictatorship (UDD), an anti-government protest movement whose political
patron is Thaksin.
But by late Friday night, any hope among the UDD here of the sacrificial
pigs coming to the rescue of the fugitive Thai politician was erased by the
landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in an unprecedented, controversial
case in this South-east Asian kingdom.
In a ruling followed widely across the country and read out over seven
hours Friday, the judges found Thaksin, who was a billionaire before being
elected prime minister, guilty of abusing his power in office from 2001
through mid-2006 by introducing favourable polices that benefited his
family-owned telecommunications empire.
The court’s judgement that the Shinawatras had enriched themselves
through Thaksin’s abuse of power and blatant conflicts of interest marked the
first time that Thai courts have delivered such a verdict against the holder of
the highest political office in the country.
Among Thaksin’s faults was his penchant for issuing executive decrees that
earned the company he founded, Shin Corp, tax breaks and consequently
denied substantial revenue to the state’s coffers. Thaksin’s habit of shaping
his company’s interest while serving as the premier through a network of
nominees chosen from among his family was a breach of the public officer
holders’ law, the court noted.
The premier court’s ruling meant that the government could seize 1.5
billion U.S. dollars of Thaksin’s 2.3 billion dollars in assets that were frozen
during Thailand’s last military regime, which came to power in September
2006 after turfing out the twice-elected and popular Thaksin administration.
Still unsure is the fate of the remaining 800 million U.S. dollars, which the
court did not seize on account of it having been made before Thaksin was
became prime minister. For now, that amount will remain frozen till other
cases against Thaksin are resolved, according to the courts.
Thaksin, who is on the run from the law to avoid a two-year jail term for
another corruption case, responded with characteristic defiance from his base
in exile, currently believed to be Dubai. "Today I receive no justice," said
Thaksin in a broadcast relayed on a television station run by the UDD. "May
the people judge. Look back at my years of service, not as one scene of a
feature film. Look closely and you will see injustice lurking around."
Thaksin, who wore a black suit, white shirt and black tie -- the garb men
normally wear in Thailand when attending a funeral -- used his broadcast to
level criticism against the powerful clique of Bangkok-based elite he blames
for his latest misfortune. "Power rests with aristocrats, who constantly push
the button. Law enforcement runs real fast with the opposite side," he said.
Thaksin and the political party he formed, one that he subsequently backed
after the 2006 coup, hold this view because they have been at the receiving
end of a string of judgements by an emboldened Thai judiciary. He and his
supporters call this trend "double standards" because their political
opponents have not been reprimanded as harshly by the courts, they say.
"This verdict confirms the continuing role of the judiciary in resolving
political crises in the country," says Thanet Aphornsuvan, a historian at
Bangkok's Thammasat University. "The Supreme Court is being increasingly
asked to play an important role, so I was not surprised by the verdict. The
judges settled for a compromise rather than take all of Thaksin’s assets."
Yet he confirmed during an interview with IPS: "The judiciary is now so
powerful it is almost becoming another sovereign power. It is more powerful
than the legislative and executive branch of government."
Thanet once described this trend as a "judicial revolution," marking a break
from the pliant courts of previous decades that were obedient to the
executive branch of government and stayed clear of taking on politically
charged cases.
This shift is rooted in an April 2006 speech by the country’s revered
monarch, who by Thai law is above politics. At the time, King Bhumibol
Adulyadej told the judges of the administrative and supreme courts to do
their job to help resolve a political deadlock and growing anti-Thaksin
protests on the streets.
Within weeks, the constitutional court annulled the results of a controversial
parliamentary election where the party Thaksin led won sufficient seats to
create a one-party government.
That verdict was followed by more judgements against Thaksin and his
allies, including one a special tribunal appointed by the last Thai junta that
disbanded Thaksin’s political party and banned him and 110 other party
executives from politics for five years.
In 2008, Thai courts forced Thaksin ally Samak Sundaravej, who led a pro-
Thaksin party to victory at a general election, to quit as prime minister for
appearing on a cooking show for a paltry stipend, and then forced his
successor to resign following another controversial verdict.
The 82-year-old monarch, who has been in hospital since September last
year, made two important speeches to groups of judges in recent weeks. He
called for justice to be shaped by the spirit of "righteousness."
For its part, the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is sticking to
a message it had stated before Friday’s verdict. "We have no official reaction
to the court’s verdict but we are preparing for demonstrations (by Thaksin’s
supporters) that, we hope, will be according to the rule of law," Panitan
Wattanayagaorn, a government spokesman, told IPS.
Such preparations confirm that this country’s growing political divide --
pitting pro-Thaksin groups found among the country’s rural and urban poor
against Bangkok’s elite political machine – remains far from being bridged
following the highest court’s ruling against Thaksin.
Pro-Thaksin supporters like Tanasak Suwanakul are already preparing for
UDD-led anti-government rallies to swamp Bangkok from Mar. 12 onwards.
"The people who will gather in Bangkok are the low people from the north
and north-east," the Chiang Mai native said. "We are the people who voted
for Thaksin and his party because of the good policies he introduced to help
the poor. The red shirts want him back."
(END)
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