Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Press Freedom

THAILAND: Thaksin’s Friends Defy Junta, Hold Rallies

Ron Corben

BANGKOK, Apr 4 2007 (IPS) - Thailand’s military-installed government and supporters of deposed leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, are engaged in games of political chess centred on freedom of speech and political gatherings ahead of elections planned in December.

A series of rallies called by the banned, satellite-based People’s Television (PTV) are beginning to draw small crowds. PTV is backed by former senior members of Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) Party. Speakers at one of the rallies last week railed against the junta, the Council for National Security (CNS), led by Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin.

Lashing out against the media in the late afternoon heat of a Thai summer day was ‘Anna’ – “a Catholic name,” she says in a matter of fact manner. “You know the radio, the television, the newspaper, make a mistake, make wrong, never right. They write the wrong, they make a mistake to the people,” said Anna, 60, in broken English, giving no second name.

Several of the corruption cases the junta alleges Thaksin was involved in are now being brought before the courts. “I hear something bad, they complain, and condemn Thaksin. But PTV broadcasting is good. They want to show (what is) right,” Anna said.

In March prosecutors framed charges of tax evasion against Thaksin’s wife and moved to implicate his children. Thaksin’s family, in January 2006, benefited by selling 49 percent stake in the telecom firm Shin Corp for 1.9 billion US dollars to Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, but steered around paying taxes on the deal.

But, so far, the junta has not been able to directly charge Thaksin himself of corruption, the main reason cited by the army for ousting him from power.

Like many others, at the rallies, Anna has great faith in the former leader and is spurred by hopes of a return of Thaksin’s populist economic policies that boosted incomes for the urban and rural poor. But they have largely been curtailed under the new government with the result that the Thai economy is seeing a slowing down.

“Prime Minister Thaksin was ‘dee maak’, – very good. People, the ordinary people were very happy, we had work. Thaksin was the very best. The ordinary people loved Thaksin a lot. (Now) everything fails a lot. The people are poor and there is a lot of drugs around,” she says.

“You know we are sad right now, we’re unhappy. People so sad, jobless … finances, everything. I’m so sad. We need our prime minister Thaksin come back. And we don’t know how long (before he returns), but we hope, our people hope,” she said. Thaksin, who was ousted while out of the country, is yet to return home.

Other anti-government groups attended and prominent among them was the ‘Saturday Voice Against Dictators’. Spokesman for the group Suchart Nak Bang Sai said the rally’s main purpose was to raise awareness among the general public.

“We’re trying to educate the Thai people and give them the news. The other side of the side – the correct side as we see it – because there have been blackouts since the (coup on) Sep.19 last year. There’s been a news blackout throughout the country,” Suchart said.

“The majority of the Thai people don’t know what’s true and what’s not. They only get to hear what the government wants them to hear. So we’re trying to educate them and give them the news,” he told IPS.

But the group is also drawing public attention through a campaign to submit a petition to Thailand’s revered monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The group wants Prem Tinsulanonda, a senior member of the king’s privy council, to step down. They allege that the former prime minister and retired general was the mastermind behind the September coup and accuse him of ‘’taking advantage of his position”.

The attacks on Prem first occurred at a rally in late March. This led to interim prime minister Surayud Chulanont – a former member of the privy council himself – and Gen. Sonthi both denying that Prem had any role in the coup. “I know full well that when I was privy councillor (Prem) was not involved and didn’t know what was to happen,” Surayud told ‘The Nation’ newspaper.

PTV organisers have distanced themselves from the signature campaign, but groups such as Saturday Voice hope to attract 100,000 signatures before submitting them to the king.

On Wednesday the information and communications technology ministry warned it would shut down any websites seen to be violating orders announced by the CNS on Sep. 19.

And late last month, the firebrand media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul was handed a two-year prison term for criminal defamation charges brought against him by former minister Phumtham Wechayachai.

Sondhi’s talk shows were hugely popular in the run-up to the military coup and he faces a string of defamation suits filed against him by Thaksin and his political associates. But it was the ruling military junta that finally took his talk show off the air, after he criticised its financial and economic policies on it, last month.

CNS spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd was reported by the ‘Bangkok Post’ as saying the signature campaign against Prem was “inappropriate”. Sansern accused the “old power clique” – meaning supporters of Thaksin – of being behind the campaign.