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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)
http://www.atimes. com/atimes/ Southeast_ Asia/LB27Ae02. html
Financial karma for Thailand's Thaksin
By Shawn W Crispin
BANGKOK - What one hand of the Thai state gave in privileged telecommunications concessions, the other has taken away on charges of policy corruption and the accumulation of unusual wealth. In a highly anticipated Supreme Court verdict on Friday, a nine-judge panel ruled to seize US$1.4 billion (46.4 billion baht) worth of former prime minister and telecom concessionaire Thaksin Shinawatra's and his family's assets.
The court found that Thaksin and his ex-wife Pojaman na Pombejra concealed their assets in violation of laws that bar politicians and their spouses from owning shares in private companies while in office. Judges also ruled that Thaksin abused his power as premier by implementing policies that directly benefited his private companies, including the now Singapore-owned Shin Corp, Advanced Info Services and Thaicom, then known as Shin Satellite.
Thaksin's defense had maintained that the charges were politicized, coming in the aftermath of the 2006 military coup that toppled his government, and he challenged the legitimacy of the military-appointed Asset Examination Committee that originally built the case against him. His lawyers also argued that there were no legal grounds to seize all of Thaksin's and his family's assets because much of the funds were earned before he took public office in February 2001.
A potential $2.3 billion (76.6 billion baht) worth of frozen assets were in question in the trial. It was not immediately clear from the decision if the Finance Ministry's revenue department would be empowered by the verdict to seize another 36 billion baht it has ordered frozen from Thaksin's two children, Panthongtae and Pinthongta. The ministry has claimed the two owe at least 12 billion baht in back taxes from the 2006 sale of Shin Corp to Singapore's Temasek.
The landmark ruling represents the biggest state seizure of a deposed Asian leader's assets since the 1986 fall of the notoriously corrupt dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. The more complicated case against Thaksin represents the second corruption conviction against him since his government was toppled in 2006. He fled into exile in August 2008 just days before being sentenced to two years in prison for his role in an irregular Bangkok land deal involving his government and ex-wife.
The court-ordered seizure of Thaksin's assets is in line with the gathering trend towards the "judicialization" of Thai politics, an apparently royally endorsed concept where high courts and judges assume the role the monarchy has traditionally played in mediating the country's complex and often heated political disputes. Observers noted that King Bhumibol Adulyadej symbolically addressed groups of judges on two occasions in recent weeks, urging them to adjudicate with "righteousness" the cases they handle. By Thai law, the monarchy is above politics.
The widely revered monarch made a similar address in the lead-up to a Constitutional Tribune decision in May 2007 that resulted in the legal dissolution of Thaksin's former ruling Thai Rak Thai party and banned 111 of the its top executives - including Thaksin - from politics for five years. After a period of ill-health that has confined Bhumibol to hospital since last September 19, the 82-year-old monarch has resumed certain ceremonial roles in the weeks leading up to Friday's decision.
While conservative interests have looked towards the courts to play a larger role in checking and balancing politicians and officials ahead of the eventual royal succession, Thaksin's red shirt-wearing United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) protest group supporters have challenged the impartiality of recent verdicts that they perceive have disproportionately gone against them, including the court-ordered dissolution of two Thaksin-aligned, democratically elected political parties since 2007.
It is not immediately clear whether the landmark verdict will lead to more or less political instability. Acting government spokesman Panitan Watanayagorn predicted in an interview before the verdict that the country's political situation would improve after the ruling. He noted that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva planned to focus less on domestic politics and more on neglected foreign policy, including planned trips to Australia, India and Russia, after the verdict.
On the other side of the political divide, the ruling will likely fuel the Thaksin-aligned UDD's rally call against what it has claimed are double standards in Thai society. UDD protest leaders retreated from earlier plans to stage mass rallies meant to pressure the government ahead of the ruling, but have now vowed to bring one million Thaksin supporters from the provinces to Bangkok in mid-March to topple Abhisit's government and force new elections.
Some analysts wonder whether the seizure of Thaksin's substantial assets will impact on the UDD's future ability to orchestrate and finance future large scale protests. Thaksin has consistently denied that he bankrolls the UDD, but the group's leaders and supporters clearly march to his orders, including his call from exile last April for his supporters to rise up in a "revolution" and overthrow Abhisit's government.
Because many here believe that future stability is dependent on Thaksin's access to funds, the level of his off-shore holdings is a matter of wild speculation in the local media. Thaksin said in a recent interview with the Times of London that he still has between $100-$200 million in assets off-shore. Diplomats tracking the situation note that he clearly has enough funds to make recent investments in lotteries in Fiji and Uganda and gold mines in Swaziland and Papua New Guinea, among other high risk ventures.
Other political analysts wonder whether the seizure of his billions and intensified efforts to extradite him from the United Arab Emirates will push the exiled former premier towards brinksmanship, including a possible expansion of the conflict from Bangkok into the northeastern rural provinces where his support is known to run strongest. They point to recent threats made by rogue retired and current military elements in Thaksin's camp who have called for the creation of a "people's army" and veiled threats to assassinate judges and officials involved in the handling of his assets case.
Underlining the emerging fragmentation of Thaksin's camp, the UDD issued a statement refuting those claims, saying it has "renounced our previous call to arms" and "categorically denies any involvement" in a recent grenade attack on army headquarters and a C-4-laden explosive found in front of the Supreme Court weeks before Friday's verdict. It's unclear which group now has the former premier's ear, but historically Thaksin has played political factions in his camp off one another in divide and rule fashion.
The government has pre-emptively responded to the threats by mobilizing joint civilian and security force teams across 38 provinces, including in Bangkok, and the erecting of new security cameras in areas of the national capital, including this week in front of the Supreme Court. To guard against a chaotic repeat of last April's breakdown in law and order, government spokesman Panitan said that security forces are prepared to deploy new "layering" techniques to prevent peaceful protests from spiraling into violent riots.
The seizure of $ 1.4 billion Thaksin's Thailand-based assets will spur new guessing games about exactly how much he may have socked away off-shore and his future willingness to funnel those funds into new bouts of instability. One government insider speculated that Thaksin's declining fortunes were already evident before Friday's verdict, witnessed in what he viewed as his "third class" private jet, decidedly "middle class" dwellings in Dubai and wardrobe shift from Armani to less refined business suits.
Others believe the image-conscious Thaksin has purposefully downgraded his on-camera presentation to evoke sympathy among his rural supporters and that he is keeping his financial powder dry to press his case for a royal pardon after the eventual succession from Bhumibol to his heir apparent son, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn. While Thaksin is no doubt financially down with the seizure, it's not clear yet that he's politically out.
Shawn W Crispin is Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor.
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