The convicted Fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra is starting his next push with two phone calls to supporters in 2 days. Based on what Thaksin said, nothing much has changed.
It has been fortunate for many Thais not to hear their King being dragged into political fighting. That became noticeably absent after the April riots were put down and Thaksin went into hiding. But now Thaksin is starting to emerge again, so you can also put 2 and 2 together as to what will happen on that front.
Aside from the usual statements totally opposite the truth, Thaksin is once again painting himself as the man that can save Thailand. Attacking the government with “The Democrat Party has failed to resolve the country’s economic problem because it has no capability and has to share benefit among partners in the coalition government.” Connecting the Dots found this statement to be amusing at first glance. Elected officials are servants of the people and put the country before themselves. This statement comes across as dividing the booty, but then again what else could you expect from Thaksin who is driven by greed and power.
Thaksin also cited the 2007 Constitution as one of the reasons he could not come back to Thailand.
Apparently Thaksin is looking to exploit the growing friction between the democrats and their coalition partners hoping they will defect back to him. The statement that the number of red shirts has doubled in the last 2 months is unsubstantiated, and coming from Thaksin, it more that likely is the opposite. There has been no coverage in the news to support such a claim.
Also the tone and content of what Thaksin says is still directed to the lesser educated Thais, as clearly it does not take much to see much if not all of what is said is smoke and mirrors.
The timing for this is no doubt tied to the elections that will take place on June 21 in the heart of Thaksin country. Thaksin must show he is still out there. So the hopes this will be in the media are part of the plan. There is also a big red shirt rally planned in the next week or so along with Thaksin’s birthday. Clearly this will all be tied together in some way. How much bite it will have will depend largely on the June 21 election results.
