Opposing Thaksin by supporting the monarchy

When the pressure mounts from the so-called pro-Thaksin side of politics, the other side, represented by PAD and the Democrat Party gets excited. They attack Thaksin and demand loyalty and trumpet the monarchy as their symbol of anti-Thaksinism. The election victories have Puea Thai have set the cat amongst the pigeons again.

The Bangkok Post (3 July 2009: “PM, senators denounce petition for royal pardon for Thaksin”) is a useful example of panic amongst royalists and their supporters.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is reported to have “condemned as inapproriate the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship’s (UDD) campaign to collect a million signatures of support for a petition requesting royal clemency for fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.”

Why? Because, apparently, the “UDD leaders and their red-shirt supporters should not try to bring the royal institution into politics.” Abhisit parrots a number of arguments that have been made about royal clemency, but the point seems to be that the UDD keeps poking a political finger at the monarchy. Surely it is a bit late to claim that the monarchy is above politics?

Other anti-Thaksin people have dusted off their yellow shirts, with “Former member of the defunct Assets Scrutiny Committee (ASC) Kaewsun Atibhodhi and his twin brother Kwansuang, a former senator, also took the red-shirt movement to task on Friday for its ”improper” petition. They demanded at a press conference that the red-shirt group stop disturbing the royal family and drop its plan to gather a million signatures in support of a pardon.”

Kaewsun “said he would use left over donations from his failed bid for the Bangkok governorship to place advertisements in newspapers informing readers about the red-shirts’ action and explaining why it would not bear fruit because it was in violation of the constitution.” He reportedly “insisted his opposition to the petition was not a love-hate issue between him and Thaksin. Rather, it was about the royal institution, which was the core of the nation.”

Now here’s the rub: “The red-shirt leaders should not be acting this way. They knew how people who sign their names would feel towards the royal institution if His Majesty the King did not grant a pardon to Thaksin…”. And people appear to have been lining up to sign the petition.

A group of 40 senators that also condemned the UDD campaign also saw the political implications, “saying it would further divide the country. Appointed senator Prasarn Marukaphitak said it would split the country in two — those who love His Majesty the King against those who love Thaksin.” He is reported to have urged but perhaps it was a warning that “the general public to think carefully before signing their names.”