NawaMan's Blog

No Thaksin for me

I really don’t understand those who support Thaksin (Ex-PM of Thailand). He is a corrupt politician, a liar and many other things we can call him (if only I have those English vocabularies in my head). To me, he is also selfish and a traitor as we call it in Thailand “คนขายชาติ” (a person who sell his own country).

But, for a moment, let assume that he is not corrupt. Let assume that he has good intentions, his policy is REALLY good for the country (I am talking about in the sustainable way and not just to gain population). (By the way, I don’t believe that at all). Let keep the accusations against him out of the picture and see only the facts we can check and evidents produced by respectable source. I still cannot take him as a PM.

Let’s see ..

- He sold his company stock without paying tax (73 Billion Baht (about 2 Billion $USD)).
It is a fact, he said that himself many time. He just claims that the law has a hole to allow this to happen. This is very clear – What legal does not means it’s right – especially when you are a PM. Not long ago, PM of Canada Paul Martin, sell his shipping ship without paying Tax. I don’t see Canadian were happy about that. Why should they (Canadian)? Everyone pays tax. Tax is a fact of life that no one can escape (just like death). So why should we (Thai)?
Also, the selling is done just a few days after his government pass a law to change the cab of foreign holding in telecommunication business from 25% to 49%. This cab is there for a reason. Personal and National security come to mind since the government, military and regular people will use the company’s satellite in the service provide to them. Many of those are long term.

- He encouraged the killing of more than 2700 people in his drug war (
Timeline of Thailand’s “War on Drugs”> http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/07/07/thaila9014.htm and more http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/06/thailand060903.htm, http://thailand.ahrchk.net/mainfile.php/2003art/8/?alt=english)
Is it OK for a PM to give a “License to Kill” even if those are drug-trafficking suspects? What happen to “innocent until proven guilty”. Number of cases have proven that not all of those are drug-trafficking suspects. What about the nine-year-old boy? Is he?
He claims that MANY of those are killed by the drug mafia as a prevention from police tracking to them. I don’t doubt that but let me ask …
- How about the rest? (approximately 1100 of those killed are not related to drug)
- If you really know that, where is the killers and the mafia. Arrest them. Not just claim.

- He gave 4 billion-baht soft loan (3% interest) to the government of Myanmar.
Yeah, Thailand is so rich that we can effort to give such a loan (which account for roughly 0.3% of the national budget!!!) let alone give to the country like Myanmar. It’s very likely that we will never see that money again (as it return to the country of Thailand (not a company in Thailand)). Let see. What happens if the military government of Myanmar is gone … like GONE. Will the new (hopefully) democratic government of Myanmar pay for that?
OK, the accusation goes that his condition is for the Myanmar government to buy telecommunication equipments and services from his Shin company. Let for a moment, forget that (or assume that it is untrue). If this is still a right thing for a PM to do, in your opinion?
Does it really matter that he gave such loan with purely good intention? When the loan is given to a corrupted neighboring government and flew right back to his company pocket as the satellite named IPStar is rent form that government and many more things were bought. I don’t see any good in that. I really don’t.
And the loan is given to Myanmar for God sake, where are those “I am all for human right” people?

Only these three issues should be more than enough to consider him unsuitable to be a PM even when we don’t consider if he really have a bad intention for all those. There are many more topics but I only choose these three that have a very clear facts to support.

There are something in his policy that produces good effects to Thailand and Thai people. However, most of them, in my opinion, does not work in a long term only for a short term relief (e.g., low interest loan to farmers). Some of them are done without a proper (or even an attempt to do so) management or appropriate infrastructure which results in an inefficient use of money (e.g., OTOP and 30 baht health care). I can assume that those problems are honest mistake. I can also lower my bar and pretend to say that those are very useful and have a real result (even though that is not exactly what I think). Still, the above three issues are much more than enough to counter that good things he may have done. The credit should be given to where is due – the punishment should also be given to those who deserve.

Afterall, he deserves to be investigated and punished if found guilty. The fact that he is popular does not mean that he can do no wrong. The fact that he is elected as a PM does not mean that he can do whatever he wanted without consequences.

Moreover, the fact that he jumped the bail shows that he cannot effort the investigation. His claim that he has been threaten against his life holds no water considering that his own party is in the government. He was in Thailand for more than 6 months fighting the case without an even a single case of assasination attempt. He is free to go everywhere including joining the cabinet meeting (as his sponsored “Palang Prachachon Party” is now in power). We hear him say that he was mistreated and the case against him was unfairly processed but we don’t hear what exactly evidences that are fault or what exact sentences that are untrue … not once. We only hear the vogue claims of unfairness and a lunch box with 2 Million Baht that was offered by his lawyers to one of the judges (the lawyers are now in jail).

To conclude, I really cannot see how can someone in Thailand genuinely support him. I just cannot.

Sorry for the unorganized and bad English. I wrote this as an explosion of my concern for my country future with a very limited amount of time I have.

NawaMan