BANGKOK: After spending more than 15 years in self-imposed exile and then at the Police General Hospital, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra finally returned to his Western Bangkok mansion early on Sunday (Feb 18).
Though his return home was welcomed by many figures in the government and hundreds of supporters, some of his old critics are still raising questions.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, speaking to the press in Sakhon Nakhon province on Sunday, said he wished to convey his best wishes to Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra for her father being granted parole. In response to questions about the legality of Thaksin’s release, Srettha insisted that the law was followed to the letter in the granting of parole.
As for whether Thailand would have two men running the country now that the ruling Pheu Thai Party’s patriarch Thaksin has returned, Srettha said Thailand can constitutionally only have one prime minister. However, he said, Thaksin’s advice will never be rejected by anybody in his government.
Thaksin, 74, was discharged from Police General Hospital early on Sunday and according to the authorities, he was eligible for parole because he is over 70, is seriously ill and is considered to have served at least six months of his jail term.
After returning to Thailand on Aug 22 last year, Thaksin was escorted to the Bangkok Remand Prison to serve his sentence of eight years over three cases. However, that very night, the former premier was rushed to Police General Hospital for an unidentified condition. A month later, his eight-year term was reduced to one year in a royal pardon.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who also doubles as deputy premier, said that he plans to visit Thaksin at Ban Chan Song La to “kraab” (pay respect to) the former leader once he has recovered and is receiving visitors.
Anutin served as deputy commerce minister from October 2004 to March 2005 and then deputy public health minister in mid-2004 and again from 2005 to 2006 under Thaksin’s government.
Thaksin’s now-defunct Thai Rak Thai (TRT) Party had won by a landslide in 2001 and again in 2005 before being ousted from power in a military coup in 2006.
During its time in power, the TRT-led government introduced several successful policies, including the 30-baht universal healthcare scheme, the Village Fund and the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) scheme. The party’s strongholds were in the North and Northeast of Thailand.
Anutin, meanwhile, was banned from politics for five years after TRT was dissolved in the wake of the 2006 coup. Though he joined the Bhumjaithai Party in 2012 instead of other incarnations of TRT, Anutin told reporters that he still considers Thaksin his “former boss”.
A red-shirt supporter, “Uan”, who had driven from Phetchaburi province to deliver his good wishes to the former premier in person, said he had full faith in Thaksin. He also praised Thaksin for his “war on drugs”, lamenting that youngsters in his province were now “doped up” with weed and kratom.
In 2003, Thaksin launched his “war on drugs”, calling for the suppression of drug trafficking through any means. “There’s nothing under the sun the Royal Thai Police cannot do,” Thaksin declared when announcing the policy, quoting Cold War era police chief Phao Sriyanon.
A junta ordered fact-finding panel later found that more than half of those killed in this so-called war were not involved in drugs at all.
The committee’s report – which has never been made public – said that of 2,819 people killed between February and April 2003, more than 1,400 were unrelated to drug dealing or there had been no apparent reason for their killings.
Thaksin's drug war received criticism from international bodies such as the UN's Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Watch.
After three weeks of the war on drugs, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Asma Jahangir expressed "deep concerns at reports of more than 100 deaths in Thialand in connection with a crackdown on the drug trade," and called for police to limite the use of lethal force. Thaksin retorted that the UN was not his father.
Opposition party Move Forward released a statement saying the move to grant Thaksin parole raises many questions about Thailand’s justice system.
“If the government wishes to seek justice for Thaksin, it should not do so by reinforcing the systemic legal double standards in the country,” the party’s statement read.
The leader of the opposition, Chaithawat Tulathon, told reporters that while it is widely acknowledged that Thaksin was deposed in a coup and faced political persecution, the manner of his return should not lead to the establishment of a two-tier justice system.
On X (formerly Twitter), Move Forward party-list MP Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn said that if Thaksin’s parole was standard and legal, then other people in prison should also receive the same treatment.
The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, an advocacy NGO, counted persons imprisoned for political persecution at 1,947 in January.
Even though Thaksin was seen returning to his mansion in Thonburi wearing neck and arm braces, his critics remain disapproving, with many questioning his reported illness even before he departed the Police General Hospital.
On Saturday night, the Student and People’s Network for Thailand Reform, led by Pichit Chaimongkol, gathered outside the hospital to oppose Thaksin’s parole.
The group had earlier marched to the Office of the Attorney General with the People’s Centre to Protect the Monarchy and the Dharma Army to petition against Thaksin’s parole and demand he be sent to prison.
The group also called on the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) to investigate Thaksin’s condition, saying they do not believe he is really ill.
“If he were seriously ill, he wouldn’t have left immediately,” the group’s leader Pichit said. “Illness arrives suddenly, recovery does not.”
The NACC accepted the complaint on Saturday, saying it was verifying the facts and has invited the Corrections Department and Police General Hospital to provide information. - The Nation/ANN
