Asian Sentinel Via New Mandala: Thaksin's Party is Over, The Royalists and Military Crashed It

The Thai Rak Thai party’s dissolution completes the military power grab.

Asia Sentinel

It was billed as "Judgment Day" in Bangkok, but Wednesday's decision by a military-installed court to dissolve ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's party and ban its executives from political activity for five years was in the works well before the army seized power last September.

The main goal of the coup-makers, of course, was to cut the legs off Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai, the party he founded in 1998 as a personal vehicle to carry him to the premiership. TRT stormed to power with a win in the 2001 general election and became the only party in Thai history to complete a full term in office.

The Constitutional Tribunal's decision to dissolve the party — finally revealed after the judges read the ruling for an excruciating nine hours — was just one part of the plan to remove Thaksin from the political scene. The rest of the job belongs to those drafting the new constitution, which aims to limit the powers of the executive and expand the role of non-elected senators and judges to ensure that a reincarnation of Thaksin doesn't rise from the ashes.

While Thaksin can justly be blamed for interfering with independent constitutional bodies during his tenure, the rulers that replaced him have gone even further by overthrowing an elected government, manipulating the justice system, rewriting the constitution, sending soldiers to television stations and enforcing ex post facto laws. Now they've wiped Thaksin's party off the map and banned 111 of the Party’s executive members from running in an election for five years — the harshest possible punishment. Although the blatantly political decision has profound ramifications for the Thai political landscape, it was simply the culmination of a series of rulings over the past year that skirted or completely ignored the law.

Continued

I thought this was an excellent synopsis of what happened. I don't think Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai were victims, but this story really explains that politics behind the party dissolution case.

Personally, I want to move on. But many people feel burned. I believe in non-violent political expression. However, if the comments at the end of this story are an indicator, many Thais are less than satisfied with the outcome of the case, and if the majority continue to get screwed by the elites, it may come down to violence because there may nothing left to do.

The coup cycle needs to stop. I am really starting to get scared that we may descend into a nihilistic abyss that we may never be able to recover from.

Party Dissolution Day: Thai Rak Thai Found Guilty, Ordered Disbanded

Thai Rak Thai ordered disbanded

BangkokPost.com

The Constitution Tribunal judges wound up a day-long reading of their verdict in the political parties case late on Wednesday night, ordering the powerful Thai Rak Thai Party of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra dissolved for election cheating - and banning 111 top members from political life for five years.

The nine judges also found two Thai Rak Thai executive committee members guilty of illegally hiring small parties in the April, 2006, election - Gen Thammarak Issarangkura na Ayudhya and Pongsak Raktapongpaisarn.

The order disbanding Thai Rak Thai contrasted with the earlier decision to allow the Democrat Party and its executives to continue in politics.

Thai Rak Thai leader Chaturon Chaisaeng, who took over after Mr Thaksin went into self-exile after last year's coup, sat on the edge of his seat during most of a late-night verdict, which ended not long before midnight.

Judges said that disbanding a political party was a serious matter.

Thai Rak Thai won elections in 2001 and 2005, they said, and had 14 million members. Ordering the party dissolved would cause economic problems.

But the verdict laid much of the blame for shaky Thai Rak Thai political deals on the back of founder and then-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, still in foreign exile. The judges said Mr Thaksin had used the party for his own benefit, and Thai Rak Thai had no political ideology beyond its leader's ambitions.

The immediate fate of Thai Rak Thai, the country's most popular party, was not known.

But Mr Chaturon and other executives could immediately apply to form a "new" party, perhaps even using the Thai Rak Thai name.

Worries of violence after the verdict had long faded by the time the announcement against the party was made. But even at the height of public interest on Wednesday afternoon, no more than a few hundred peaceful supporters of both parties were gathered in three spots in Bangkok - at the court and at the two parties' headquarters.

The government had amassed a security force of 13,000, none of whom was needed to keep order.

A huge media corps of 700 outnumbered all political supporters from all factions.


The court has spoken.


A few things disturb me, however.

1. The court was picked by the junta.

2. The court made political speeches that had nothing to do with the law itself.

3. Like the coup, the court punishes every member of Thai Rak Thai and every voter without showing culpability in the crimes.

4. Because of the coup, many won't accept this verdict as fair and legitimate. There will be many who will say that the junta wanted Thai Rak Thai destroyed, so it was destroyed. This is why I argue all the time that political questions should be decided only within a constitutional framework. Since this decision was undertaken under the auspices of a military junta that came to power in order to destroy Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai, there will always be doubt.

5. Personally, I think there was an obvious criminal conspiracy by Thai Rak Thai executives to get past the 20% mark because of the boycott last year. The Democrats knew they couldn't win a legitimate election, so they boycotted. Thai Rak Thai knew that it wouldn't be able to convene parliament because of the boycott, so it hired parties to contest it. On this note, I blame both parties for working outside the constitutional framework for their own political gain. Some will say that it was Thaksin's fault for holding a snap election.

In the final analysis, this will probably end the short-lived Thai Rak Thai era. Those politicians who were smart enough to slither away when they saw the writing on the wall will rise up to eat at the public trough another day.

The one good thing that will come out of this is that I no longer have to hear about conspiracy theories about Thaksin's undercurrents and imminent comeback. Without a political party vehicle, the chances of Thaksin come back are improbable.

The nail looks like it is firmly in the coffin of Thaksin's political career.

On the other hand, The Nation and other Thaksin haters will now attribute every bad thing that happens to Thailand from now on as a move by Thaksin to resist the court's verdict. Of course, this excuse will be used to squash the voices of political dissenters, regardless if they are related to Thaksin or not.

Party Dissolution Day: The Democrats

The Tribunal clears Democrat and Taikorn from hiring small party and wrongly accusing TRT

The Nation

The Constitutional Tribunal cleared two senior Democrat members of accusations that they involved in hiring smaller parties to contest in the April 2 election.


They were party spokesman Sathit Wongnongtoey and party's secretary general Suthep Thueksubhan.

Attorney General office had accused both of involving in the hiring of Prachathippatai Kaona party to run in Phuket in the April election.

However the Tribunal said that after examining the evidence, they found that both did not involve in the accused acts. Both also did not pay money to the smaller party to contest in the election

The Tribunal also said Taikorn Palasuwan, did not hire Wattawit Tantipirom, leader of Better Life Party to wrongly accuse Thai Rak Thai. What Taikorn did was merely seeking evidence.

Democrat not guilty of using "Thaksin Regime" in campaign

The Nation


The Constitutional Tribunal rules as groundless that allegations against Democrat Party's party leader and executive members that they used a clause, "Thaksin Regime" in their campaigns to convince people not to join in the April 2 election.


The tribunal said Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva did not create the clause, "Thaksin Regime," but it has been used by academicians and media for long time.

Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had actually created his unique style of administration and caused divisions among the public.

Therefore, Democrat party did not wrongly accuse Thai Rak Thai and Thaksin by using the clause. The tribunal delivered the verdict on the first accusation after reading the verdict since 2pm.

Well, it looks like the Democrats will get off. I always thought the case against them was weak.


The defamation charges are stupid and silly. I don't agree with the notion of boycotting an election, but I don't see how advocating a boycott is a threat to anybody.


When HMTK said that the court should explain the facts of the case, I didn't think he meant literally read the facts of cases for hours and hours.