THAKSIN RETURN

Red shirts are 'withing rights' to petition King

Published on August 9, 2009

A Royal petition is a legitimate and permissible option that supporters of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra

are entitled to in order to bring him back to Thailand, Thaksin's lawyer Pichit Chuenban said yesterday.

The move came after mounting opposition to the signature campaign conducted by Thaksin's supporters.

Pichit said that what Thaksin's supporters were doing was not unprecedented because during the Prem administration in 1988, 99 academics including King Prajadhipok's Institute secretary-general Dr Borwornsak Uwanno, Dr Chirmsak Pinthong and Dr Thongthong Chandrangsu petitioned his Majesty the King citing political upheaval and the lack of unity among Thais, blaming government leaders for failure in their administration.

"What Borwornsak did is called a political petition, is it not? What Thaksin's supporters are filing is not a political petition, because they are suffering from economic and political distress and they have the right to seek Royal clemency to alleviate their plight. They are not just seeking a Royal pardon for Thaksin,'' he said.

Pichit was reacting against a second statement by Dr Borwornsak that opposed the move by Thaksin's supporters to petition the King.

He also accused Borworksak of citing laws and regulations that had been scrapped long ago in opposing the petition. Phichit insisted that the content of the present petition was a complaint by the people with the objective of bringing unity and national reconciliation.

However, Chirmsak, one of the petitioners in 1988, said yesterday that that petition had been aimed at persuading Prem to step down as an unelected prime minister and that no Royal pardon had been sought for anyone at that time.

Speaking to religious and local leaders at Parliament, Borwornsak said the red shirts' petition had brought division to society and was destructive of Thai culture because the petitioners had an ulterior motive in citing a massive number of people behind the move.

He told the leaders to help bring peace to society and not let a group of people cite the achievement of one person to compared with His Majesty the King, who had worked hard for 63 years for his subjects.

"You are our only hope, because we cannot see hope in the government leaders,'' he told them.

Meanwhile Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of Thaksin, presided over the opening of the Pheu Thai Party's Nakhon Ratchasima branch with 300 red shirts gathered in a show of support.

During the ceremony, Thaksin phoned in to his supporters saying he was getting fit so that he could bring prosperity and development to the country when he returned.

He thanked them for seeking Royal clemency for him, saying they had given him hope of returning home.

Pheu Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said his party was seeking to file a complaint with the Administrative Court on Tuesday accusing the government of human-rights violations, subverting Royal power and breaking the law by instructing the Interior Ministry to solicit signatures from the people to block the move by the red shirts to petition the King.

He dismissed an accusation that the red-shirt petition was illegal, saying that Prime Minister Abhist Vejjajiva had in his time petitioned the King for a royally appointed PM.

-- The Nation 2009/09/08

"The move came after mounting opposition....." This statement does not reflect reality.

It implies as if there is an upswelling of public opposition, when in fact it is a Government orchestrated campaign.

I discussed all the things they are doing in my thread of yesterday, entitled "The recantation campaign", still available on this board.

An additional thing that came to my attention this morning that I didn't mention in the "recantation" thread, was that local municipality officials were offering 50 baht per signature in some communities. This is not just a drive-by swipe, but evidentiary fact. I know some on this board have tried to charge with absolutely no foundation, evidence or credibility, that somehow there was money involved with 5.4 million signatories.

And keep in mind, the Govt. doesn't need a whole lot of signatures, in order to trumpet division in the country, and give a face-saving way to reject this 'citizen's supplication'.

Whether people 'buy into' the notion that a small number of signatories equate to 5.4M as evidence of major divisions in the country is yet to be seen.

Good for you Webfact to place a non-agenized-media article here. Such balance is nice to see.

Edited August 9, 200916 yr by Ferwert

-- The Nation 2009/09/08

Good for you Webfact to place a non-agenized-media article here. Such balance is nice to see.

Nice to hear you praising...

-- The Nation 2009-08-09

Ferwert only sees red-biased or red-positive news-posts as balanced? Really? What a surprise.