virtualtraveller

Reference is made to a judicial decision that set the stage for the fall of Mr. Thaksin's party. I say to you that the perception is that the judicial decision was politically motivated and not delivered in a neutral manner. The judiciary must be above politics and I do not believe that was the case here.

Sorry, but there's a lot of people who would disagree with this. It's easy enough in the circumstances to call the verdicts against Thaksin and the PPP etc politically motivated but I believe this judiciary is a lot more balanced than predecessors in recent years, besides which they are under enormous pressure to appear to make a fair decision and to this end they went to considerable lengths to deliberate on the evidence and took hours to read the verdict and justify it to the people. As far as I know, no human rights organisations or international observers came out to criticise these verdicts. However, we are in a country were everything is 'influenced' one way or another which means that when a powerful and popular person like Thaksin fails to gain a favourable verdict it comes as a shock to many, who subsequently don't want to recognise the outcome, and call it 'politically motivated'. The only thing political about it, is that Thaksin and the PPP no longer enjoyed favouritism from the judiciary or immunity, so there was political fallout from the decision.

At the heart of this entire crisis is the fact that no one in Thailand has the humility to accept justice, and it's a shame that those who are now falling foul are citing double standards and political interference to try and justify their exoneration. Yes, there are plenty of others that deserve to have justice to served to them (coup organisers and all) but we really should not accept that wrongdoers deserve forgiveness because they've been singled out. It's a shameful part of Thailand.

The poor rule of law in this country (from dodgy police right up to politicians trying weedle their way out of accountability) is Thailand's greatest weakness. PM Abhisit is correct that this is a paramount preceedent that needs to be set. I'd sooner have a country run according to these principals than one run by an 'economic advisor with a dishonest record', my life in Thailand is surrounded by numerous instances where poor law enforcement and corruption make my environment dangerous, unfair, uncomfortable or costly.

You can say that the country was in a more stable and prospering state before the coup, regardless of Thaksin having his 'hand in the cookie jar', but it's not sustainable and contributes to the very dissatisfaction that the reds are whining about now. To say that we should go back to the pre 2006 position because everything was more stable and prosperous then (essentially the main argument of the reds) really is Thailand's downfall in the long term. Ultimately Thaksin and his ilk (including much of the police force sadly) are contemptuous of law enforcement, because it means they have to be more accountable. This is the main crux of the standoff.

For once Thailand is standing up to its crooked leaders and holding them accountable, and a lot of those leaders don't like it and are fighting back. And their only hope of winning is to somehow use the 'popular vote' to gain a mandate to roll back the judicial milestones of the last 3 years. Unfortunately, the fact that a coup was necessary in the first place to derail a juggernaut that was making a mockery of justice, means that they don't entirely hold the moral high ground. Perhaps if the coup leaders were put on trial and given token 2 year sentences, then the red shirts main criticism of illegitimacy would be gone.

I disagree with the several opinions above that this present govt was 'put in power' by the military and the PAD. This is just the sort of blatant mistruths that are bandied around so dangerously at present. Let's be clear, after the coup there was an election and Thaksin's men got into power. The military/elite/whoever accepted it as democracy and we got on with life. There were no red shirt mumblings any longer about coup, rough justice for Thaksin and 'mandarin class interference' etc etc., The PPP had a hand in creating the current crisis by getting caught cheating and ultimately being disbanded (albeit this occurred through a heavy handed electoral fraud law). The PAD DID NOT force the collapse of the last govt, the judiciary did, through a thoroughly deliberated verdict. PM Somchai could have avoid this by dissolving the house before, it was their prerogative, but they chose not to and the splintered PPP failed to form a new coalition. If the military/elite worked behind the scenes to persuade Newin to cross the floor they were not acting any differently to the usual horse trading that goes on in such circumstances and Thaksin would have done exactly the same thing. The present govt is legitimately and legally formed, especially if you consider that the people of Buri Ram and surrounds put their faith in Newin rather than Thaksin. They should at least be given a change (12-18 months) to perform, then be judged, afterall you can't keep changing govts every 6 months because you're out of power and want back in.

When Thaksin's money is finally taken away (which I believe Thaksin and everyone else sees as a foregone conclusion) then he'll go for broke. He know's the govt is on shakey grounds, he and his reds (like many Thais) have a false sense of ambition, and think they can turn the country into a state of anarchy.

The only way they can win is if the govt screws up in dealing with the situation. This could well happen if the police (who are generally red sympathisers ) bungle the law and order. Let there be a repeat of April riots, where the city gets trashed and the army has to be brought it, the reds lose more credibility, the army are seen as a necessary saviour, and the vast majority who are in the middle of all this see how devastating it is for Thailand, trying to save Thaksin's ass.

The govt will gain cred by surviving this, if they plan well. This warning from Suthep is not idle chatter, I'm quite sure it's based on accurate intelligence, afterall the red's plans are hardly a secret, and army are probably keeping a very tight eye on this lot because they're going to have to clean up the mess. In any case, if the reds fail to bring down this govt it will still demonstrate to the country the urgent need for a new election (preferably before the change of guard in the army during the annual retirements in Sept). An 'unfriendly' army is the one effective thing getting in Thaksin's way for making a comeback. Ultimately, his last gasp option is to tear up the 2008 constitution, and for that he needs a coup.

Another scenario, is that Thaksin will create this chaos and hurt the country as a bargaining tool for his assets. Behind the scenes it might strengthen his hand in negotiating for some or all of it to be given back, but of course this isn't going to happen if he's going to use it all to finance vote and loyalty buying, so we're all stuck between a rock and hard place.

Sigh! This could all be so much easier if Takki had the good grace to realise he blew it and to retire quietly in Cambodia with his billions.

Usual frustration with inconsistent broadband in Thailand. Recently Maxnet rebranded themselves as 3BB (same old incompetent service, lots of new billboards), if you want to know why all of a sudden your emails don't go off from Outlook, it's because they have once again changed the smtp setting. This is the second time these monkey's have had to abandon their brand (formerly TT&T), because it presumably has such a negative image, each time they do so it appear they change the server web address but forget to tell everyone.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PUBLIC, I HEREBY ANNOUNCE, ON BEHALF OF 3BB (WHO DON' T SEEM TO BOTHERED TO PUBLISH IT THEMSELVES) THE NEW SMTP IS;

smtp.3bb.in.th

You can ditch tttmaxnet.com. Even the technician didn't know, he thought it was 3BB.in.th which didn't work either.

Usually in most other countries none of this would be an issue because ISPs generally accept your own mail server's smtp (e.g. smtp.yourdomain.com), but for some reason (possibly firewall spyware) you have to use theirs, which keeps changing without notice.

It also means that when using wifi in an internet cafe the smtp might be different due to different ISP and so you need to have them all set up in your outlook/express, they are

smtp.totisp.com or smtp-adsl.totonline.net

smtp.trueinternet.co.th or mail.trueinternet.co.th

mail.cathinet.com

These of course could also change, and it's really difficult finding the solution on their site (3bb don't even have an English language site yet!).

I use two ISPs simultaneously, since none are reliable to run an internet business with 90% up time.

"After consulting with my lawyer, I plan to sue Anudit for Bt30 million in damage because he is MP who should be held accountable for his remarks," she said.

She said Anudit maliciously tried to tarnish her reputation and that of her family. She insisted Korn did not invoke his ministerial privilege to upgrade air tickets for the family.

Too right, everyone has just about had enough of the Puea Thai' sleazy tactics, all these false allegations, half truths and pure fictions are really getting too much. How can we take them seriously as an opposition when they keep coming up with rubbish like this. Sue him, and Jatuporn, hopefully they will wind their necks in.

Like I hinted in another post;

1. Elections in 2010, Puea Thai wins, but coalition govt members refuse to support any parliamentary means to whitewash Thaksin.

2. Only remaining option; tear up the 2007 charter, therefore: plan a 'soft coup'

3. Govt meekly rolls aside as army loyal to Thaksin pull off a neo-coup, re-installing 1997 coup and immediately calling a fresh election with 30 days

It's not that far fetched in Thai politics, think about it? And Anupong is second guessing Thaksin on this one. Afterall, if you have get away with one coup, then you can get away with another!

Thailand becomes the laughing stock of...

Someone should 'take out' Jatuporn. No really, in Thaksin's day a guy like this would have had multiple multi-million baht law suits slapped on him for libel, and would have pipped down by now. Yeah, let the whole thing go to court, when he's failed to convince us all that 'get rid of' (probably the word 'ting' in Thai) does not mean kill someone, he should be fined for contempt of court and parliament, perhaps stripped of his MP status, better still banished to Dubai, and have his tongue cut out for good measure.

This <deleted> is everything Thailand doesn't want to be in the future, he's the archetypical dodgy, mouthy, unintelligent, deceptive politician we're trying to discourage. He serves to be a songteaw driver, no more.

This is disingenuous, you don't necessarily have to take drugs to deal them. You don't have even be staff to deal them, surely it's the patrons that should be tested. Hey, why not put plain clothes police on the dance floor trying to score drugs, isn't that the easiest way to weed out the dealers, then you don't have to scare all the tourists and patrons away and ruin business with random urine tests. Well, I suppose that piss off the club owners who pay off the police and in turn are paid off by the dealers. Sometimes I think these high publicity stunts from the police are just there to show they are doing something, without them having to upset the gravy train.

You forgot to add 'Police' to the beginning of this topic title, puts it all in perspective. Until Thailand gets a 'Police watchdog' this isn't going to get any better, and frankly no government wants to risk pissing off this strong political ally.

Corruption is the oil that lubricates things in this country, imagine how inefficient immigration or the land department etc would be without the motivation of gratuity.

Yes, yes, the 'white' elephant in the room that no one can discuss, yet is likely to be the single most momentous event of the era. I deliberately left it out though it's worth mentioning that lots of what is going on right now is jockeying so that the right group is in control when the inevitable happens. How can you protest when you're wearing the wrong colour shirt for 12 months.

There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we never get to hear, I'm guessing;

1. The so called 'elite' keeping him out offered a deal to unseize his money if he agreed to leave the country and never return

2. Deal was off the table when they realised Thaksin couldn't be trusted to keep his side, and was able to interfere even from Dubai

3. The so called pre-conditions are all typical opening gambits in Asian bargaining

4. The 'elite' will almost certainly now rule against Thaksin in the Asset Seizure as a way of tightening the screws (ie you continue to create problems, we won't give you a bean back for your war chest)

5. Although all the assets will be seized, they ought to rightfully return the amount that his before he came to power, but this will be used as a bargaining chip to make him back off, the more he quietens down, the more of his money he gets back, he'll end up getting a significant portion over the years as his influence wains and the risk of him having a large war chest subsides

Thaksin is a high stakes kind of guy, all or nothing gambler, he could have got his money back by now if he agreed to disappear but he's deluded by popularity and firmly believes that one way or another he will win and regain it all, perhaps greed sullies our senses

Why not have a referendum on the constitution, one that asks the following;

1. Keep 2008 constitution and amend

2. Return to 1997 constitution after amendments

See how Takki Shinegra likes that one eh!

What really annoys me, is the sheer disingenuous arguments and dumbed down reasoning that is usually presented by the Thaksin camp (or opposition to current govt), LaoPo included.

Their argument is all too simple: return to the 1997 constitution, it was the people's constitution, it was torn up by an unlawful coup. Sorry, but it's not that simple, the 1997 constitution was the best rendition up to that point (against a backdrop of military rule and no constitution), the 2007 constitution was based largely on it, plugging holes, but introducing some heavy handed conditions that ought to be removed. By abandoning it you are going against the wishes of 60% of the country who approved it, we cannot go backwards, just like we cannot reverse the coup, we had democratic elections and now we must move forward. If we accept a return to the past then why not revert to the original 1932 charter!

It's impossible to make this argument without mentioning Thaksin, afterall, he's the only major player wanting a return to the 1997 one, Peau Thai (who are the real lawful opposition with the right to engage in law making and political activity) at first supported amending the 2007 charter, they only had an about face when Thaksin told them to. Why? Because a return to the 1997 constitution remains his last legal avenue for repealing the corruption verdict and a possible verdict against him in the assets seizure. Besides, the way I understand it, regardless which version you use, it does not change the law, it might open up a wedge of appeal for Thaksin's case but it will not automatically exonerate him.

At least Abhisit has shown some sincerity in trying to amend the 2007 charter and offering to do the right thing and dissolve the house, but Puea Thai (aka Thaksin) are stonewalling him. Thaksin is a dreamer, imagining that we'll all accept an unconditional return to the 1997 charter, house dissolution and him walking free and returning to power without any recourse to justice whatsoever. Sure, lock up the coup makers, I'll support that, but the day Thaksin is excused from justice is the day we should take to the streets by the millions demanding that every criminal ever convicted in Thailand ought to be set free.

Please, Takki, don't insult my intelligence, the 30% of this country that pay the taxes and bother to keep themselves informed see through your devious argument.

2010-2012 political predictions

In the near unbelievable world of Thai politics, I’m going to have a bit of fun and try to predict a course of events foe 2010 and beyond, here goes;

1. Jan: Dems survive a censure/no confidence debate in, but come under further pressure to contain huge protests from Red Shirts, leading up to Assets Seizure verdict

2. Feb: Red shirt protests escalate after Thaksin loses assets verdict trial, more phone ins (this time from Poi Pet), ISA has to be revived, Army clears red shirts off the streets

3. Feb: Jatuporn announces that dozens have been killed, the story dies without any substantiating evidence

4. Feb: Tourism slumps on unrest, UDD loses face but not support

5. April: Economy picks up but govt rocked by more scandals involving BJT party, protests more frequent

6. July: After holding out lamely, Abhisit calls fresh elections for October, meanwhile Thaksin indicted on two more corruption charges

7. October: Puea Thai wins most votes in election but less than 40% overall, BJT takes a pounding, Dems hold ground, smaller parties pick up MPs, Gen Sonthi’s new party gets less than 10

8. November: still no govt formed due to horse trading, eventually Puea Thai form govt with all smaller parties in coalition including BJT, on condition that 2007 charter is amended for reconciliation only

9. December – Feb: rapid replacement of high ranking government personnel, halt to corruption trials against Thaksin, changes to replacement for Anupong as Army chief

10. Mar 2011: economy picked up, limited PAD protests as Thaksin tells eveyone he will soon be coming home from Cambodia

11. May 2011: rapid attempts by Puea Thai to revoke 2007 charter and replace it with 1997 fails after coalition partners refuse to support it. Appeals and legal challenges move

swiftly forward through the court challenging the Assets Seizure.

12. June 2011: Thaksin flies home dramatically, police make a half hearted attempt to arrest him but give up after a mob of 100,000 red shirts protect him at the airport, he’s whisked away to an unknown destination and lies low.

13. July 2011: Massive PAD protests, govt invokes ISA, army dither on acting but are forced to after public criticism for double standards

14. August 2011: after a second attempt at revoking the 2007 charter fails and with Thaksin’s corruption charges coming to court, Puea Thai finish up with a 6 month exercise in repositioning loyalties in the Army.

15. Sept 2011: After weeks of open rumours, the Govt is ‘caught off guard’ by a lightening surgical coup by a faction supposedly loyal to Thaksin and the generals who joined Puea Thai back in 2009, the 2007 charter is torn up, and a temporary junta is formed, promising (within a day) that power will be returned to the people by 2012. National Anarchy is cited as reason for the coup.

16. October 2012: The junta re-instates the 1997 charter, announcing that all bans and verdicts resulting during the 2007 consitution period are null and void. Elections announced for December.

17. December 2012: Puea Thai wins by a landslide as opposition boycotts the election, a Shinawatra sibling is installed as new PM, with Thaksin having made widespread appearances (coming out of hiding).

18. December 2012: Massive street rally in Bangkok from PAD and other supporters, Red Shirts rally on opposite side of town, Govt invokes ISA, gets army to put down protests, they blunder and people die, chaos erupts, another tourist season ruined.

19. February 2013: With the laws reset and a more friendly judiciary Thaksin challenges his various Asset Seizure in court, gets his money back.

20. April 2013: Facing down massive civil disobedience and street battles between Reds and Yellow Shirts, PM dissolves house and sets up interim administration hoping things will calm down and suggests a govt of national unity.

You're all wrong, what it really said was 'plan to eliminating lying Jatuporn', only it back fired because Jatuporn, can never report a single thing without lying about it. Where do they find these politicians in this country? Really!

It's all fairly obvious, can't you see:

WE DO HAVE 3G in Thailand, TOT have launched it, the auctions for the competitors will not happen for years (it will all fall by the wayside after the next election) and our dear old state company will enjoy a monopoly for years to come. Wasn't that the plan all along.

Or, Thaksin will come marching in on his big white Cambodian horse and solve the whole puzzle within weeks, or days even, and take all the credit, it's been scripted from the start!

Let me clarify a few things here that are just plainly incorrect, I work in the web publishing industry and have experience with Google's Site Attack Prompts, and web access in general.

1. The warning shown above has got nothing to do with Thailand blocking anything, it is now routinely displayed by new generation browsers based on an extensive database of sites that google has found to contain unusual 'bits' (scripts, links, trojans, malware etc) on the website's server/folder.

2. This warning is actually overkill and seems to pop up often even when the site in question really is harmless, it's been happening for about 6 months now and quite annoying, I've got one of these reported on a domain I own that redirects to another site, in other words nothing at all is hosted, and the eventual landing site is deemed clean by Google, somehow they've picked up that the redirect domain hosted something dodgy.

3. Several times I've had this pop up on sites of mine, discovering that there has been an intrusion to our server and some harmless malware uploaded. You have to remove it, then reapply to google to index you on the 'safe' list.

4. About 2 weeks I noticed that sites hosted in the US were inaccessible, including all mine and many others since California is the world hosting hub, it was out for an entire day, and continues to be slow or drop out now and then, this is due an issue with the undersea cables between Thailand and West Coast US, and since there are several cables and other companies involved between here Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii, Midway etc it is likely that data gets re-routed through a different cable set, perhaps a mismanagement error at CAT upon arrival - my experience with Thai management of broadband suggests this as most likely.

5. If a site is blocked here, it usually shows the Royal Thai Police warning, which is a white box of about 5 lines. This comes and goes depending on who is (illegally) enforcing the ban.

6. About 6 months ago the expensive (500m baht) firewall was probably installed and turned on, because web access became slower and bizarre things were happening, such as red 'blocked by the Thai Police' sentence was randomly appearing in the middle of text on pages, but vanishing when the page was refreshed, suggesting the software was not working properly in filtering.

7. I use both TOT and Maxnet internet and my observation is that there has been a marked improvement in reliability and speed in the past 4 weeks, and though a page might still take a few seconds to load up (usually you see a blank screen for about 2 secs then everything appears instantaneously), it seems to behave as if the data is transmitted then held up somewhere momentarily while being parsed (filter inspected).

It will all come out in the wash when the case against the airline from US litigators comes to trial (in the US), damning evidence which will result in multi million dollar payouts, bankrupting the airline and still the authorities here will be pretending nothing was wrong. It's like the current case against the Greens for bribing the TAT governor, they've been found guilty and still there's been no move at all in Thailand to indict Jutamas - TIT (have to agree a bit with Hun Sen about our justice system, though it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black).

Search BP for: 'Official forgot to relist protecttheking site'

Yes, I doubt they would buy it back, just start all over again with the great big Thai PR machine, pointing everyone at the new domain, all the same, in the web world this little blunder has just gifted someone an enormous windfall. After a year of getting everyone to visit protecttheking.net , this domain is extremely valuable, it would be months, years before the thousands of people stopped accidentally visiting this site, even if a small percentage click on the ads on the site, the new owner makes a fortune, all for a $10 registration fee. Lots of people make money like this snapping up expired domains. The guy who now owns it should have ads in Thai for mobile phones or similar on this site, it also has a huge value for Google's PageRank, so he can sell outbound links on it.

Of course, if this very important site had been entrusted to someone who knows what they are doing, none of this would be happening.

You've got to love this;

Link to Bangkok Post removed

Turns out the website wasn't hacked, the domain name expired and a quick thinking opportunist in Liverpool snapped it up, took advantage of the huge traffic and slapped a loan affiliate on to it. It would be funny if it didn't involve the Crown, I wonder if they'll go after the new owner of the domain for LM?

This is so typical Thailand, forgetting to renew the domain, it reminds me why my internet business thrives here, the competition is fast asleep (perhaps web dev and publishing should be listed as one of those industries where 'Thais are not ready to compete'.)

This guy will want $100,000 for it, fairs fair I suppose.

It's consistent with the general lack of understanding of the value of the net and websites here, which is why broadband is generally below par, only 2% of the country use high speed internet and 3G might arrive next decade. How many times have you seen a website of a major Thai organisation that doesn't work, or you click the flag for English, you get the homepage in English but beyond that it's back to Thai. Did anyone ever see the website of the Night Safari when it first opened (a 12 year old could have done better) or the site for the new million dollar Chiang Mai aquarium (under construction).

Yikes,

if it makes it across the busy canal road it might show up in my back garden, in which case you're all invited to a BBQ at my place mates!

I can confirm that in interview in a local Chiang Mai paper with the head of immigration this year revealed by his own admission that they had 'processed' 18,000 visa applications during the previous 12 months. Let's assume that the majority of those applying would find some way or other to remain in Thailand, add to that the fact that many residents here exist on Non Imm visas which get renewed every 3 months without being properly processed into a 1 year visa, and I would guestimate that Chiang Mai has about 25,000 foreign residents at any one time (excluding Burmese). There's more expats in Chiang Mai than you think, specifically missionaries and NGOs, but this would include the entire province. Remember, there are also 7 international schools here, and a great deal of retirees.

Someone recently told me there were as many as 100,000 foreigners scattered across Isarn, if this is true then that would account for up to 40,000 visas processed in Udon Thani perhaps.

I wouldn't use the official stats as a gauge since so many foreigners here still reside using Non-Imm visas or even tourist visas which they simply renew without properly upgrading to a 1 year visa.

I'd be interested to know which city has more expats, Chiang Mai, Pattaya or Phuket.

Now it all becomes clear, the delays to auctioning 3G licences for everyone else is simply a ruse to give TOT a head start with this, typical Thailand monopolistic business model. I've seen this coming for some months now.

My guess is that within 6 months it will all be so over subscribed that you'll never have a chance to download even 100mb of data a month, does that mean they'll sell 99 baht packages?

I'm not totally familiar with the way a publicly held company is sold but to me the strongest circumstantial evidence that Thaksin still controlled Shin was in the sale. Though he had supposedly off-loaded all ownership to various parties, they all miraculously concurred to make the sale possible, as the controlling share entity.

Anyway, arguing that the burden of proof is on the defendant is irrelevant here since the details of the various share sales that have emerged show beyond doubt that the ownership change was not real, given the vast discrepancies in the amounts paid - for example how Potjaman, 'cheated' her son out of 3billion during the transaction of shares. If you were to question her and him in the dock before a jury, they would be fumbling for a convincing answer.

Personally, if he is found guilty, I think they should give him back the amount the company was worth before he became prime minister, plus a realistic growth in value, and seize the rest, that way there won't be a backlash or charges of 'political motivation'. It will give him a war chest to bribe his supporters but ultimately proves beyond doubt that he's a criminal and not fit for politics here.

And yes, Thaksin doing a runner on a meagre two year sentence was the ultimate admission of guilt on a large scale; he simply would never get out of jail because new charges and convictions would come to bear before the previous term of sentence was up.

Sadly, none of this would have been necessary for Thaksin, or Thailand, if the man's judgement had been less arrogant and he had realised early on that the game was up and his best option would be to cut a quiet deal to fade away with his millions, and nip the whole thing in the bud. Frankly, I think they could go on for years throwing the rule book at this guy, and though he might manage to weedle his way out of some, given the legal loopholes etc., he's going to spend the next decade phoning his lawyers from Dubai, unless of course....

I don't see how a fall in the govt at the 11th hour will derail the court judgement against him, first there wouldn't be enough time for his cronies to regain power through an election or parliamentary vote before the verdict and even if and when they came back to power they wouldn't easily be able to influence the court at this late stage, since all the hearings and evidence gathering has finished.

It's more about timing for an election since the longer the Dem coalition holds out the more the economy will recover and with each desperate attempt to force them out, Thaksin is losing more and more credibility. They've got the momentum going now with the Cambodia crisis and want to create a last ditch attempt at forcing the govt to slip up (perhaps some military bloodshed to quell the riots). Remember these are conniving but not entirely sane or clever people involved (UDD, Puea Thai), just listen to some of their crazy rhetoric and accusations.

If he survives the Asset Seizure, then a PT govt would be able to work on somehow creating a re-trial for Thaksin, but I believe that a marginal decision will rule against him, considering how much havoc he's created for the country. Just imagine what sort of havoc he could create if you gave him back 2 billion US$. Perhaps they hope that behind the scenes they can cut a deal with him, whereby he gets his money back eventually when he's proven he can stay out of politics and fade away.

He can fight on and on, drag the country down as a bargaining tool but frankly I think one man taking on a whole system that has the courts and ethical advantage is just too big a mountain to climb. Ultimately he needs not only to somehow weed his way out of convictions but then face down a very dissatisfied country if justice is ultimately stymied.

What it might come down to his an outright civil confrontation between two halves of the country to the point that everyone loses, and ultimate Thailand has to ask itself do we put an individual or the country first. And I don't think Thaksin really wants to see that far down the line.

Abhisit's govt are falling for this latest Thaksin publicity stunt hook, line and sinker. By making a big effort to help the suspect they are turning him into a high profile accused spy, when he's clearly nothing more than a political porn to help keep this whole issue with Cambodia in the news. They should completely ignore it publicly, while privately assisting. The Cambodian judicial code isn't worth the paper it's written on, to find him guilty they will have to produce trumped up 'evidence' which will further prove to ASEAN leaders that Hun Sen and his country are a poor cousin of justice. Eventually when they've gained whatever political capital they can out of it, a quiet released might be arranged.

If the govt try hard to get him freed, they'll fail, and Thaksin or Chalivat will gain all the credit for miraculously arranging his pardon, can't we all see through this game from the start, it's a typical cynical attempt by Thaksin, Hun Sen and Puea Thai to gain more cheap publicity.