• 
• 

Published on September 11, 2007

 Last week, out of the blue, he declared that seeking amnesty for the banned 111 executives of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party was on top of his political agenda.

True to style, Samak didn't even have to consult the new party's executive board before making his stand public. Nevertheless, it shouldn't come as a surprise that several of its key figures, including some who were once his ideological foes, immediately rallied around his proposal, citing the need for national reconciliation.

And to be sure, don't expect any dissenting voices from the PPP rank and file, even if they believe Samak's initiative (let's assume for a minute that he is not taking a cue from anyone) is self-serving and has the potential to create a backlash. Like Thaksin Shinawatra, Samak brooks no criticism.

The 111 disenfranchised Thai Rak Thai executives, including Thaksin, were banished to the political wilderness after the Constitutional Tribunal banned them from active politics for five years and dissolved the former ruling party. The tribunal found them guilty of colluding to commit fraud in the 2006 snap election, which was boycotted by the opposition parties and whose result was subsequently nullified.

Several of them, either by choice or under pressure, have broken away to form new parties, taking with them substantial numbers of once pro-Thaksin veteran MPs. Some generals in the Council for National Council are known to have had a hand in forcing the break-up of the once mighty political machine that ruled Thailand for six years; the aim being to deny Thaksin a potential springboard for a political comeback.

Far from washing his hands of politics as he has repeatedly claimed, Thaksin has obviously been pulling strings from his exile in London. By his own admission, Samak is just another one of Thaksin's political puppets - albeit one with an oversized ego. When Samak said he was going to seek amnesty for the former Thai Rak Thai executives, we could almost hear Thaksin speaking himself.

The PPP leader makes no qualms about cherishing his status as "Thaksin's political nominee", defending the former prime minister in every aspect. Samak was hand-picked by Thaksin largely because both share a common loathing for the junta and have made known their disgust with its mentor General Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council.

Samak's amnesty overture, therefore, is unmistakably an opening salvo in the proxy war against the military junta. Its underlying message is that Thaksin is far from being politically finished and is, more than ever, ready to challenge the generals who purged him from power last September. It is also meant to assure Thak Rak Thai loyalists - and those who might be wavering - that their political paymaster is not forsaking them.

Despite the hammering they have received since last year's coup, the Thai Rak Thai remnants who are regrouping under the PPP banner still have a large following in the North and Northeast, where they are expected to dominate the December election. A strong showing at the polls will only reinforce Thaksin's influence. It will show the junta has tried with little success to dispel concerns about a new round of political confrontation.

So Samak's amnesty proposal is more than a matter of seeking justice for those 111 aggrieved politicians. It's an undisguised attempt at politically reinstating the whole Thai Rak Thai leadership and ultimately paving the way for Thaksin to return to power.

But it makes no sense for the PPP leader to refer to the amnesty granted to the so-called "Young Turk" soldiers involved in an aborted coup attempt against the Prem government in 1981 to justify his current call for a pardon. He claimed that the rebel soldiers committed a far more serious crime and yet were eventually allowed to go scot-free. What Samak neglected to say is that the rebels openly showed their remorse and asked for forgiveness before they were pardoned. And that's where the difference lies.

Despite all the damage Thaksin did to the country during his six years in power, we haven't heard a single former TRT executive utter a single word of remorse for being partner to those crimes. None of them said a word in the face of massive corruption and rampant abuse of power. Worse still, several of them were involved in the plundering of the country as subsequent probes by the Assets Examination Committee have shown.

None of the former Thai Rak Thai executives has come out to condemn their ex-colleagues who were responsible for committing fraud in the 2006 election. They stood by them all the way despite the overwhelming evidence against them. And had the fraud not been uncovered, everyone in the ruling party would have benefited.

Samak is clearly not seeking national reconciliation. He is acting on behalf of his political boss to make sure that the December election will bring about anything but political peace and calm.

Thepchai Yong