The political deadlock in Thailand and the legal situation of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra continue to ease steadily, with the precision of clockwork or a changing of the guard. This Friday, King Vajiralongkorn has forgiven almost all the sentence that weighed on the tycoon, reducing it from eight years in prison to one. This has been published by the Royal Gazette, almost at the same time that the list of ministers of the new government of Srettha Thavisin also arrived at the palace for approval.
Thaksin Shinawatra landed in Bangkok two Tuesdays ago in his own jet, after fifteen years living abroad as a fugitive. His delivery, as was to be expected, was not due to sudden nostalgia, but to a pact at the highest level and practically coincided with the day and time that a member of his party, the aforementioned Thavisin, was voted as the new Prime Minister of Thailand. A vote that required the affirmative vote of the 250 senators handpicked by the military.
The monarch justifies the measure by the age of the former president, 74 years old, and by the health problems he alleges. Thaksin, who had been sentenced in absentia to three and five years in prison, in different cases of prevarication, was received at the airport by his two daughters and his son. He only had time to prostrate himself before a photograph of King Vajiralongkorn, also known as Rama X. Thereupon he was sent to jail by order of the Supreme Court. But it is not certain that he ended up behind bars, since hours later he was escorted to the Police Hospital, where he has remained in custody ever since.
The royal order states that Thaksin admitted his guilt for the crimes for which he was convicted and that, upon his release, he will be able to “use his knowledge, skills and experience to serve and benefit the nation, society and its people.”
The order, issued a day after it was announced that the former president had formally requested a royal pardon, is signed by Vajiralongkorn and the still acting prime minister Prayut Chan-ocha. This is the same general who claimed the head of government nine years ago, leading a coup against Thaksin’s sister, Yongluck Sinawatra, who continues to live in exile.
Although the cases of prevarication and abuse of power against Thaksin have a real basis, they are seen as a political reckoning by his many supporters among the working classes of Bangkok and the densely populated north and northeast of the country.
The authorities deny favorable treatment to Thaksin, who occupies a private room in the Police Hospital. But the exculpation pact continues on its way. The prime minister-elect, Srettha, hastened to have his picture taken warmly shaking hands with General Prayut, “a man who deserves respect.”
The pact benefits granted to the former prime minister are a sign of reconciliation with the pro-monarchist and pro-military elite with which he has been at loggerheads for the past 17 years, which often manifested itself in the rivalry in the streets between pro “red shirts” -Thaksin and the conservative “yellow shirts”.
Thaksin is a businessman from Chiang Mai, in the north, who was soon seen as a threat by Bangkok’s bureaucratic and military elite, armored after the long reign of Rama IX.
His return to Thailand last week coincided with the election as prime minister of Srettha Thavisin, the candidate of Pheu Thai, the latest incarnation of the Shinawatra-controlled party.
Pheu Thai, which came second in the last May elections, first allied itself with the winning formation, Avanzar, which was betting on a pro-democratic and anti-military coalition headed by the young Pita Limjaroenrat who was unable to form a government due to the veto of the Senate protected by the military.
To break the blockade, the Pheu Thai sponsored by Thaksin formed another coalition with ten other parties, including two led by generals, including Prayut himself, who never believed that the polls would be so ungrateful. An alliance of convenience that has caused discomfort among both young voters and former “red shirts” (the fervent supporters of Thaksin who always outnumbered but not outnumbered the fervently monarchist “yellow shirts”).
The succession of events would show that only this pact could provide the necessary mutual guarantees to lift the vetoes of the old guard. Thailand will once again be ruled by a civilian – a Sino-Thai businessman – instead of a tie-wearing general. Many of those who believed they had won the election last May are waiting to find out if the change goes beyond that and the legal situation of the telecommunications magnate and former owner of Manchester City, Thaksin Shinawatra.
