• 
• 

Jakrapob Penkair resigned as PM's Office Minister yesterday, bringing his rapid political rise to an end. There had been growing pressure on him to step down ever since the Democrat Party played up his speech delivered at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand in August of last year. His speech, in which he attacked the patronage system, allegedly bordered on offending the monarchy. Initially, Jakrapob insisted that he had done nothing wrong and that he had respect for the monarchy. He simply criticised Privy Council President General Prem Tinsulanonda as an individual and not in his chief capacity as adviser to His Majesty the King.

Even Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, came to agree that Jakrapob was dispensable. The People Power Party's hierarchy told him to resign, but Jakrapob resisted. He said that he would instead take a seven-day leave from office before pondering his next move. Finally, the only way to force him to step down was to charge him with lese majeste. The police concluded that there were sufficient grounds to charge Jakrapob with lese majeste. A summons will be sent to him next week to face the lese majeste charges against him.

That did it. Jakrapob had no way out other than to cave in. He resigned in disgrace. Yesterday, he announced that he never had any intention to resign, but that he had to step down in order to save Samak, for whom he said he had much respect, and the government.

One by one, Thaksin's top lieutenants are falling.

Jakrapob used to be a favourite of Thaksin. He led an infantry troop to fight against the coup leaders. He also rallied anti-coup supporters in front of General Prem's residence. Bricks and bottles were hurled at Prem's residence, causing damage to his property during the rally last year. After the People Power Party won the election in December 2007, he was appointed to the position of PM's Office Minister in charge of the government's broadcast media.

But his rise did not last long. The speech he gave at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand last year came back to haunt him. He delivered that speech before he took office, though he had a very prominent role; he went to prison on charges of damaging General Prem's property.

Although Jakrapob tried to defend himself by saying that his words had been mistranslated, another of his speeches - this one delivered in Thai in Los Angeles on November 10 - focusing on similar topics left him with no room to defend the motives behind his remarks.

Yongyuth Tiyapairat, the former House Speaker, faced a similar fate to that of Jakrapob. The MP from Chiang Rai played a key role in going after Thaksin's political opponents. He was rewarded with the House Speaker job after the election. But his celebrations were short-lived. The Election Commission alleged that he had been involved in vote-buying. Yongyuth had to resign to save the institution. Again, Yongyuth was dispensable.

Both Yongyuth and Jakrapob will have a tough time defending themselves in the judicial process. The case against Jakrapob is highly politicised and the lese majeste charge has at times been abused to serve political purposes. But Jakrapob's fall from grace is the result of his own doing and there is little public sympathy for him.