Thai opposition anger at Thaksin pardon reports

BANGKOK—Thailand’s cabinet has reportedly endorsed a controversial royal pardon that could allow the return of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, prompting an angry response from the opposition.

Thai media reports said a draft decree for an amnesty was approved at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra missed.

Yingluck, who is Thaksin’s younger sister and widely seen as his proxy, did not deny the reports when asked at a press conference late Wednesday. Without mentioning her brother, she said such a decree was “a common process.”

The initial rumors sparked a torrent of speculation on social media websites and in the Thai press, coming at a politically sensitive time, with Yingluck facing strong criticism for her handling of Thailand’s worst flooding in decades.

The decree, which would need to be approved by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, would apply to “convicts who are at least 60 years old and are sentenced to under three years in jail,” the Bangkok Post English daily said on Wednesday.

Royal pardons are granted each year on the king’s birthday on December 5.

Thaksin, who was ousted by the army in a 2006 coup, is 62 years old and lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai to avoid a two-year prison term for corruption.

Political novice Yingluck, 44, led the Puea Thai party to election victory in July on the back of her brother’s popularity among Thailand’s rural poor.

She was absent from Tuesday’s cabinet meeting because she was visiting a flood-stricken province, reports said.

The return of Thaksin, a deeply divisive figure in Thailand, would anger his foes in the Bangkok-based elites in the military, palace and bureaucracy and could spark further turmoil after years of violent protests.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thailand expert at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said it could also further undermine Yingluck’s position.

“With the current flood crisis the opposition is trying to drive Yingluck out of power and they accuse her of working on behalf of Thaksin – the floods crisis is already about Thaksin,” he told AFP.

“If Thaksin ever comes back, I’m sure it will lead to another round of protests.”

The reported draft pardon was immediately criticized by the opposition Democrats, whose own decree last year excluded corruption convictions.

“It shows that what they have done is intended to help one person,” Democrat deputy party spokesman Sakoltee Phattiyakul told AFP, predicting the move would make for a “tense” political situation in the kingdom.

“Because even though the floods are not yet over, the cabinet still approved the decree.”

Democrat lawmaker Sirichok Sopha added that such a pardon “would be a very sad day for Thailand and the rule of law” and “split the country even more.”

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung told reporters at parliament he had chaired Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, where two topics were discussed.

“But because it was a secret meeting, with no final decisions and matters related to the king’s power, the government cannot speak,” he said.

“The government will not violate any law. I can’t give details,” he added, when asked about the decree.

After his sister’s election win, Thaksin said setting foot back in Thailand was not a priority, but he has previously expressed hopes to be at his daughter’s wedding in December.

But with Yingluck’s government weakened by the flooding crisis, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, doubted Thaksin would come back even if he were given the chance.

“I don’t think he will do it now, because the conditions are not in his favor,” he said.