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Published on July 29, 2007

Yes. This is about the pro-Thaksin rally organisers and street hecklers who resorted to violence and rioting last week, resulting in injuries to nearly 200 policemen guarding the residence of General Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council, and chief target of the militants.

The prize for their victory is days in captivity. The eight core leaders in jail, joining six other lesser-known protesters, might be sobered up by a spell in the hostile environment of the Bangkok Remand Prison.

Except for Veera Musigapong, the others have never experienced any time inside a prison. It might be an abrupt and unexpected change, after the surprise of one night behind bars at Sam Sen Police Station before being transferred to the prison Friday.

Oddly enough, the pro-Thaksin militants spent July 26 fighting for freedom while Thaksin celebrated his 59th birthday in political exile in London. The wine and champagne might not have run smoothly down throats.

The loss of freedom of his political minions served as a birthday gift for Thaksin, a kind of unwanted reward for the disgraced politician's long struggle to regain political power and billions in assets frozen by the Assets Examination Committee.

The hard-core leadership of the pro-Thaksin militant groups comprised nine members. But Jaran Dittha-apichai knew well that life behind the high walls is extremely unpleasant and could go on for a long time. So his instinct for survival led him to offer an excuse to seek bail, which was granted by the court on Friday.

But the eight others, including a retired judge, have to endure loss of freedom, disgrace, discomfort and other kinds of suffering, not to mention the opportunity to organise more rallies for Thaksin to get even with those who toppled him from power.

It was their misplaced bravado and loose talk that they would not seek bail that truly blocked any attempt to regain freedom through legal technicalities. The presiding judge was hardly impressed by their arguments.

There is a clear difference between being seen as heroes of democracy, as the jailbirds perceive themselves, and common criminals as a result of their senseless acts of violence last week. Certainly they are not regarded as freedom fighters by people with sane minds.

Rather, they are regarded with considerable revulsion and disgust as paid hecklers who pursue political trouble to destabilise the Surayud government and especially the Council for National Security, the military junta that ousted Thaksin with battle tanks and troops last September.

Never mind sharp-tongued Veera and his cohorts, the man least expected to be among the hard-core protesters is 69-year old former judge Manit Jitchanklab, who became a Thai Rak Thai fan. He even took the microphone many times to attack what he sees as undemocratic government. During his career on the bench he must have sent scores, if not more, to face the hardships of prison. It's odd that he should experience the same predicament and face the harsh environment of prison.

Manit will go down in history as the only Thai judge in modern times who has had to spend some time in prison. Luckily, those he had sentenced to imprisonment in the jail that is his temporary residence might have already served their time and left. It is not a maximum-security prison, or for prisoners serving lengthy sentences or on death row.

Veera and his cohorts who hope to become heroes of democratic struggle must be really disappointed and possibly even deeply worried about whether their time in prison could be extended over many years ahead.

They know that serious criminal charges are being compiled with much vigour by the police, who have bitter memories of being the targets of the violence last week, not to mention the hardship of guarding and preventing violence at earlier rallies.

What these protest leaders are seeking from the public, and probably from the world community, is the understanding that they are political martyrs fighting for democracy against a military dictatorship. They are surely not close to Nelson Mandela, who spent more than 25 years in jail. And they certainly will not tell how much money they have, and from which sources.

What Veera and his jailbird friends should understand is that the fight for money and the fight for public good are entirely different. They have not been cast in a good light but more as a nuisance every evening, amid physical discomfort and public dislike, just for money from the paymaster in political exile in London.

The paymaster is struggling no less than Veera and his prison chums. Thaksin recently commissioned a group of Chinese ghost writers to write cock-and-bull stories about his hardships following the coup. He launched the website truethaksin.com to tell the world all the goodies about himself in his own usual style - true lies and half-truths.

It is "true Thaksin", with or without the dotcom. A lot of Thai people have already been enlightened about what he had done. The same sentiment might be forming in England, after his public utterance that his country of choice for political asylum was China because he is an ethnic Chinese.

It is a big wonder. The Brits are probably too polite to throw out somebody so ungrateful and disgraced. Or maybe it is not worth the trouble to mess with someone of such character.

Sopon Onkgara