The news that Thaksin Shinawatra is to receive today an honorary degree in political science from Tokyo University seems to have unnerved the military junta running Thailand, coming as it does just a few days after Singapore was taken to task for doing something untoward during Thaksin's visit there. Today's headlines speak of "Japan warned on Thaksin visit."
A group of Thai students held a rally at the Singapore embassy in Bangkok yesterday protesting what they called "Singapore's interference in Thailand's internal affairs." It's difficult to tell from the newspaper accounts just what "interference" in Thai affairs they seem to think occurred in Singapore.
Unfortunately, the junta and many Thais don't seem to realize that the rest of the world, especially those countries which purport to support democractic development, still view Thaksin Shinawatra as a duly elected Prime Minister, who was illegally and unconstitutionally deposed by a group of unelected officials in Bangkok.
It's bad enough that many Thais don't want to recognize the reality that the coup was totally illegal under their own Constitution. Now, they want to try and export that illegality by having other countries clamp a lid on the freedom of their roaming former leader to speak on political matters as he travels the globe - travels which until two weeks ago, the junta actually aided by allowing his dipolomatic passport to go unrevoked.
One hopes that this junta government may soon discover that the way to end the threats they perceive in Thaksin is to deal with him promptly and expeditiously in legal proceedings.
If he was guilty of corruption, then forget this nonsense of having diplomatic rows with other countries who allow him to visit or speak, and get on with the business of proving him guilty. Once that's done, extradite him back to Thailand to stand trial for criminal activity, convict him, disqualify him from holding public or political office and be done with him.
Then, everyone can get on with the process of democracy - if that's what this is really about.
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Exporting the Coup
Started by Hedda, Jan 19 2007 10:19 AM
1 reply to this topic
