BURNING ISSUE

PM, Abhisit unsheathe their legal swords

Avudh Panananda

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva individually face legal troubles that could be a turning point for either or both.

By accident or design, the government and the opposition opt to litigate in order to outwit and outlast one another. Both sides are equally committed to vengeful politics and see the legal battle as the only way to settle their old scores.

According to political commentators, Thaksin Shinawatra has singled out Abhisit as his arch-enemy who stands firm against granting amnesty for the fugitive former prime minister.

Soon after Yuthasak Sasiprapha assumed office as defence minister last year, he received an instruction from Dubai to comb for dirt on Abhisit's record in the military service.

Yuthasak reportedly refused to bend the rules to fault Abhisit. This led to him being replaced by Sukampol Suwannathat in January.

Last month Sukampol signed an order to strip Abhisit of his sub-lieutenant rank with effect retroactive from 1989. At issue is not how Abhisit got into the military service but his credentials to hold a seat in the House of Representatives.

In a countermove, Abhisit successfully petitioned for the Administrative Court to review Sukampol's mandate to invoke military rules to penalise a civilian.

The judicial review might take eight months to a year to complete. In the meantime, this has upset the Pheu Thai plan to have Abhisit removed from the scene before pushing for an amnesty and charter rewrite.

Should the government eventually force Abhisit to exit politics before the next general election, it still has no guarantee it could sway his potential successors, such as Surin Pitsuwan and MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra.

As the ruling party tries to subdue Abhisit, the Democrats are busy faulting Yingluck.

In the wake of the censure debate last week, the main opposition party yesterday filed a petition for a graft probe on the prime minister in connection with the rice pledging scheme.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and other graft-busters have been checking into the intervention to boost rice prices since 2001 after Thaksin took power.

Aside from uncovering minor irregularities, a series of graft probes failed to link political overseers and top bureaucrats to the alleged wasteful spending to enrich government supporters.

Although the Democrats re-enacted in detail how price-boosting measures turned out to be a scam, they cited no evidence to prove that the prime minister, Cabinet members or government officials had cheated to amass ill-gotten gains.

In fact, they blamed rice millers and traders for getting a bigger slice of the pie than farmers.

The grilling of Yingluck was similar to that Thaksin faced before his downfall.

But the opposition lawmakers shifted the focus from trying to implicate coalition leaders in the scam to accusing them of a lapse of duty in not keeping the rampant corruption in check.

Abhisit and his fellow Democrats made a groundbreaking move in their attempt to hold Yingluck accountable for the scam. Instead of accusing her of corruption, which is very difficult to prove, they opted for a lesser charge of lapse of duty.

What the Democrats are expecting is not prosecution for graft violations, but an NACC ruling that suspects foul play in condoning corruption, which would automatically suspend Yingluck from duty, triggering a collapse of the government.

-- The Nation 2012-12-04

"Yuthasak reportedly refused to bend the rules to fault Abhisit. This led to him being replaced by Sukampol Suwannathat in January."

You gotta be kidding Thaksin & Clone.----

Clearly this is about settling scores on both sides. But while the Pheu Thaksin regime will latch on to even the pettiest personal issue to damage their opponent, I think the Dems have picked a worthy cause in the form of "rice-gate".

It is a policy conceived solely to boost the popularity of the regime with the gullible voting masses. Rampant corruption and ruinous debt levels are all acceptable "side effects". So if the Dem's "vendetta" against the regime brings this insane policy to a halt, I'm all for it. And if Thaksin's puppets wind up under the bus in the process, all the better.

No wonder Thaksin has put his puppets in control of the NACC

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

I'm all for that. The bonus would be being a young man once again and in Thailand this time.

Where do I sign?

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

Reluctantly I must agree with your assessment of the Democrat Party's current ability to win a General election. However, the ruling party are their own worse enemy, giving power away to the Democrat Party by their own arrogance(IMHO).

Things would be so much easier if the Government could govern responsibly. They have the ability to do good without fear of obstruction. Instead they are obsessed with pulling corruption, nepotism and removing legal restraint of their activities.

Looks like history about to repeat itself (sound familiar?):

Journal of democracy October 2008, Volume 19, Number 4

The dark side to all this was the lengthening trail of corruption accusations and alleged abuses of power that Thaksin’s government was leaving behind. Critics charged the premier and his party with instituting authoritarian rule behind the cover provided by the democratic legitimacy that flows from winning elections. The Bangkok-based urban elites (comprising the car- and home-owning middle classes in and around that city of ten million), the intelligentsia and civil society groups, the old nobility, sections of the private sector, the bureaucracy and the military, soon took Thaksin to task for what they saw as misrule for the purpose of graft and aggrandizement.

Edited December 6, 201213 yr by Noistar

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

Reluctantly I must agree with your assessment of the Democrat Party's current ability to win a General election. However, the ruling party are their own worse enemy, giving power away to the Democrat Party by their own arrogance(IMHO).

Things would be so much easier if the Government could govern responsibly. They have the ability to do good without fear of obstruction. Instead they are obsessed with pulling corruption, nepotism and removing legal restraint of their activities.

Looks like history about to repeat itself (sound familiar?):

Journal of democracy October 2008, Volume 19, Number 4

The dark side to all this was the lengthening trail of corruption accusations and alleged abuses of power that Thaksin's government was leaving behind. Critics charged the premier and his party with instituting authoritarian rule behind the cover provided by the democratic legitimacy that flows from winning elections. The Bangkok-based urban elites (comprising the car- and home-owning middle classes in and around that city of ten million), the intelligentsia and civil society groups, the old nobility, sections of the private sector, the bureaucracy and the military, soon took Thaksin to task for what they saw as misrule for the purpose of graft and aggrandizement.

Excellent perspective, Noistar! And while corruption certainly continued to fester under the last Democrat lead governement, it did so mostly due to the unfortunate deals with the devil that were necessary to bring together a viable coalition.

The policies and initiatives put forward by the Democrats during their last time in office certainly did not not have that constant and unmistakable stench of corruption and self-serving populism we get from the current regime.

The problem with Mr. Abhisit and Democratic party they will never come to power through the Thai people's. Only by dirty trix and violence together PAD. And turn the time back 25 year's

The problem with that (if true .. which I don't necessarily accept) would be that 35% of the voters would never see 'their' party in government, happily there is a long tradition of coalitions-of-parties coming-to-power here despite no individual party getting an overall majority. Indeed it appears to be the 'norm' here.

And TRT/PPP/now-PTP was surely similarly formed from smaller groups, who banded-together pre-election, and are sometimes joined or abandoned by factional groups, such as Newin's or the current minor governing-coalition members, who play both sides of the political street.

One might decry the minor-parties, for abandoning their principles and joining coalitions, in order to share in the benefits of power.

But then it would be unfair to single-out the Democrats, and accuse them of "dirty trix", without similarly rejecting those who 'hold their nose' and join with Ms Yingluck and chums, wouldn't it ? No Double Standards !

One might decry violence by the PAD, who have their own in-house political-party by-the-way, but then you'd have to decry similar-or-worse actions by the Red-Shirts, who appear to be much more intimate with the PTP, wouldn't you say ?

Lastly there's a risk that, in the rush towards a Brave New World, Thailand might follow the Philippines or Indonesia into a kleptocracy, not to mention neighbouring examples like Burma or Cambodia. Not a return-to-the-past, but definitely a sideways-step to be avoided, if at all possible !

Meanwhile a little legal-jousting between AV & YS avoids/delays innocent blood on-the-cobbles.

Fortunately for thailand, and her democracy, two things,

First, the thai people have seen through all the sort of bullshit being peddled,, and given their verdict in the last democratic election, PTP government

Second, due to the heroics of a number of thai freedom fighters, the international community now knows exactly what has been going on in thailand over the years.

Paradine shifts