Thaksin’s arrogance may be blessing for cronies

As testimony is heard in one court case on Thaksin, a reminder is heard that can spell a hopeful sigh of relief for Thaksin cronies facing court. That simple reminder is Thaksin listens to nobody and does what he wants.

If you were in Thailand when Thaksin was Prime Minister, you would have heard frequent news accounts of Thaksin ignoring advise of others. Even the people in his inner most circle were ignored and made to look like mindless fools. Even statements from Thaksin spewed his arrogance saying he was the only smart person in Thailand and everyone else were just helpers.

So fast forward to today and selecting a hypothetical situation where one or more of Thaksin cronies faces court and the risk of a lengthy prison sentence, Thaksin’s arrogance does provide a good defense. A savvy defense lawyer could with a fair amount of success argue the point that their client was simply caught up in all of this mess and did have objections that were promptly ignored by Thaksin.

Without going deep into this because it is hypothetical and we are not selecting any case in particular, simply consider the ramifications.  Looking at similar cases from around the world, the courts have taken this factor into consideration. Even in the military where an order is given that constitutes a war crime, the soldiers that carry out the orders are weighed carefully by the court to see if they were part of the crime or a victim. There is no blanket answer to this.

So in the cases that involve Thaksin present or future, citing this fact about Thaksin not listening to any advise can provide some legal foot room to mount a successful defense. If they reluctantly followed orders or if they thrived in carrying them out will be the key factor in deciding innocence, guilt, or simply a victim.

Other examples of this were why people simply stopped associating themselves with Thaksin. The greed for wealth and power was there, but at some point the moral and ethical price was too high to pay. Simply a significant number of people do not share the total disrespect for laws, morals, ethics, and people as Thaksin does. Only dictators have the same views as Thaksin when it comes to that. So some place deep inside, their survival instinct was triggered and they simply abandoned Thaksin. In some cases soon enough, and in others too late.

So in short there is hope for Thaksin cronies who got sucked in to Thaksin’s mess. They look in there mirror and realize that they risk giving up all that they got and without reward it simply is not worth it. So by turning against Thaksin and saying that they were blind to the big picture and only saw what Thaksin wanted them to see, there is a chance they could get off and be cleared by the court of any deliberate wrong doing. After all if Thaksin follows his patterns of the past, they eventually would have been discarded like used toilet paper once they were no longer useful to Thaksin, so why not return the favor.


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