Reading in the news about an alleged assassination plot of Thaksin Shinawatra is not truly surprising. In fact it is a daily reality Thaksin must face if he ever were to set foot in Thailand again. Painting a picture that he is loved, and efforts to bring him home by his supporters ignores the fact that every person that does not like Thaksin has entertained the thought of killing him at one point or another.
Few people in Thailand have ever reached the level of Thaksin Shinawatra when it comes to love or hate. For the most part, people fall in one of the 256 shades of gray. But when it comes to Thaksin Shinawatra, it is either black or white as he has successfully repeatedly angered people with his arrogant self serving attitude that has driven a significant wedge in the society of Thailand.
After Thaksin was removed from power by a coup in 2006, there was a sense of rejoice. However that was quickly followed by a series of bombs that were politically linked. Together with the coup, the bombs and other signs of unrest that were all linked to Thaksin in one way or the other, people started to conclude Thaksin simply will not give up. Even before the coup, Thai psychiatrists had already diagnosed Thaksin as being psychotic. As they years went by and repeatedly seeing Thaksin in the news, bore and more people concluded that if Thaksin could not stop on his own, somebody would have to do it for him. To say that in other words, virtual signatures were being added daily to Thaksin’s death warrant.
Thai people did not forget the unneeded hardships Thailand went through as a result of Thaksin’s persistence for throwing him out. Thaksin looked to punish Thailand, and the fact of the matter, he actually managed to pull it off.
Even now that a pro Thaksin government is in place, talks of changing the Constitution to facilitate Thaksin’s whitewashing allowing him to return, levels of corruption that only Thaksin could manage are now plaguing Thailand. Even a new wave of political violence is starting to brew with a recent anti Thaksin / pro Monarchy rally. The Thai people did not forget that Thaksin tried to position himself above the King, and by doing so added virtual signatures by the droves to his death warrant.
Thaksin has so polarized Thailand that political positions being pro or anti Thaksin have even crept into couples courting and dating.
So there is little if any wonder why there are assassination attempts aimed at Thaksin. Even coming in close proximity to Thailand in a border town has a significant risk. The one big mistake Thaksin had and still has is that he can actually come back to Thailand. Balance of cause and effect, karma, or whatever you wish to call it will eventually catch up to Thaksin and the last nail in his coffin will be literally driven in as a result of his single minded behavior.
