Spiegal Interview with Thaksin

I read in the Bangkok post he will come back as Santa Claus.

No joke his sister will change the rules in Thailand and he is welkom.

Furthermore, the military should cease meddling in politics, and give up trying to influence voters to vote their way. Despite the best attempts of the army brass, the popularity of Yingluck continues to soar. They should give the people the chance to vote for the party/candidates of their choice.

As you must know, Thaksin will change his stripes without hesitation if there is an advantage in it for him.

I think we are all being rather hypocritical here. Of course if his sister is elected into a position where she can help her brother she will want to do so, providing the laws allow it or she changes them to do so . Now before anyone gets up screaming about that , Think . Just Think .If you were in trouble of any kind and you thought a member of your family could help you, wouldn't you , not only ask , but expect them too? From the basic wife standing up and telling a court what a brilliant husband you've been, a blatant lie of course. to the rich man paying his son's speeding fine .That's what families do . Help each other. So lets hear no more about if Yingluck gets in she will help her brother. Of course she will and all the millions that will vote for her know that, the're not stupid. Maybe that's why they will vote for her in the first place .

The majority of the people are going to vote for Yingluck and that is an endorsement of Thaksin. These + or - 65% of people like Thaksin and want him back.
That is 65 people in 100 like and want Thaksin back
The other 35% will have their already installed puppet members in the corrupt electoral commission and courts have the election results over turned and remove the elected Thaksin supporters party on some fabricated grounds and install the minority party as has been the case since Thaksin was illegally removed. Nothing new there, It has been going on for time immortal!!!
The 35% troublemakers will create unrest in Thailand because the 65% are being treated as ignorant famers with no intelligence and really shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

The whole cycle of unrest is perpetuated by a minority who will not accept the majority. Thaksin is liked by the majority and his conviction was manipulated by the minority and was questionable. The people and their families who are in power now have the same business empires and receive the same favouritism and are as corrupt as they hypocritically claim Thaksin was / is.
I believe even if Yingluck gets her brother back to Thailand the same old repetitious struggle for power will continue and he may get himself arrested in the future once the minority get back in power which will happen.

"A positive contribution"...I am sure that he could come in and correct all the 3G problems(not to mention 4G) and probably improve the Internet service in Thailand...He might put money in his pocket, but there would be improvements for the public...As opposed to the current regime that is putting money in their pockets without any upgrade to the public welfare...

jackspratt wrote:Val, what positive contribution do you believe Thaksin can make if he returns to Thailand and inevitably regains a position of power?

My view is that he will be hugely divisive, and will set the country back many years - undoing the small steps that have been made in his absence.

He can come back to Thailand any time he wants - all he needs to do is serve the prison time to which he has already been sentenced, and face the multitude of other charges which have been put in limbo during his voluntary absence.

But of course that would mean he was disqualified from standing for parliament again, and thereby prevented from again practicing his destructive megalomania and hubris.

Let the Red Shirts (and Yingluck) demonstrate that they are a legitimate political party, and not just a fan club for Thaksin.

Well Jack. I don't believe I made any predictions about his actions when he returns, just simply that if Yingluck wins it will be inevitable and of course if she is elected it will be by a majority of voters who voted for her knowing full well that she would help him . So I suppose you could almost say , a vote for her is a vote to bring back Thaksin . That's how I see it anyway .As for your point about it being divisive . Surely you can see the country is not only very much divided now but is almost polarised by that. I can't really see that Thaksins return will alter that . What I can see is , his opponents not accepting the voters choice and creating a far greater scenario to exploit that division .That will be dangerous , but that is likely to occur whether he gets back or not . It will just give further emphasis to their protests about losing if they have a fall guy to blame for their failure to attract the majority of voters .No , believe me Jack, not being able to get a beer on election day will be the least of our problems if the results go as the polls are currently predicting .

the often unspoken irony to the whole Taksin "conviction" for "corruption" was that similar charges were laid against his wife Potjaman for the land purchase.. If you Wikipedia Taksin and then his wife Potjaman you'll find that she essentially beat those charges yet her husband was convicted because as Prime Minister his wife was supposedly not allowed to participate in such a land purchase.. No evidence was ever shown that Taksin influenced the land purchase in any way shape or form and Thai government investigations demonstrated that Potjaman paid a fair price for the government bureau owned land.

Of course, Taksin can come back at any time. You can bet he'd publicize his return greatly and the government would arrest him at the airport, he'd be booked and probably out on a bail/appeal within hours.. I seriously doubt he'd do any real jail time. I can't recollect any high level Thai politician that ever served hard time.

sadly, the Thai government chose to pursue the land case against Taksin that they did. Although apparently other cases are pending, the land deal "corruption" case was and is a nothing case. Taksin certainly did many other things that for whatever reason (other "influential figures involved??) were never arraigned against him..

On amnesties.. Anything can happen..... go back and read Thai political/coup history over the last 40 years and see how many current (albeit dinosaur old) Thai military and political leaders participated in coups and other criminal acts that got amnestied.... The Thai system tends to be very forgiving and forgetful when it comes to the indiscretions of the "influential" class of people..

I can think of one positive outcome to Thaksin's return. The country will finally get 3G.

or perhaps avoid 3G altogether and go 4G!!

"you average Thaksin (sorry - Yingluck) voter in and around Issan"

Cheer up, js. Even if he returns, it probably won't be for long. Then the country can sweep the mess under the rug and pretend all's reconciled.

I, like others, have my political preferences, but also realize there's no sense in getting bent out of shape over who wins and who doesn't. As long as the election is fair (for the most part), the winning majority should be accepted. If it's not, I'm afraid the country will continue to take more backward steps than forward. In the end, your 'vote' and 'mine' don't count. Any expat living here should expect a healthy dose of chicanery....along with the routine violence that's part of the game.