It has been a bad few days for Thaksin Shinawatra no doubt. After grossly misreading the Thai people who unlike him still feel the law is something to be obeyed and punishment needs to be properly handed out, Thaksin experienced a reality check that he does not like. Even trying a bait and switch tactic with an amnesty bill was shot down wholesale by the Thai Senate. So there is little doubt the Thaksin favoring Department of Special Investigation(DSI) is looking to target the leaders of the rally that united the Thai people overnight against the amnesty bill.
If you look at this in that groups of people are a single collective person, it becomes easier to understand and predict reactions if you have in anyway explored psychology and more specifically criminal profiling. The primary players are Thaksin Shinawatra who listens to nobody except himself, The Pheu Thai Party (PTP) who is essentially a virtual Thaksin, The Democratic Party who seeks to apply western standards to Thai politics, and most recently the DSI who seems to be playing the roll of Kenneth Star in the investigation of then President Clinton of the USA, with the difference the DSI seem to go after frivolous cases.
So as you take note of news headlines you start to see how desperate the DSI is to find charges to bring against the Democrats and that it is so obviously an angry reaction that the Let Thaksin off the hook amnesty bill was stopped cold. It is real easy to see that this is a threat with intent from Thaksin saying don’t you dare do it again. All you need do is look back to the months before the 2006 coup to see the same behavior. The only difference is in 2006 Thai blood was spilled on the street, and now it is burn your wallet down in the court approach. Both are classic Thaksin behaviors when he is challenged.
There is an amusing side to this and that too is classic Thaksin in that he only cares about himself. When you compare what the democrats are doing to the siege and burning of Bangkok and parts of Thailand that were done by the Red Shirts, there is no comparison. Yet the DSI looks to bring the same charges on the Democrats, that itself builds a stronger case against the Red Shirts when their day in court finally comes. But seeing that many of the Red Shirts opposed the amnesty bill, this too may be Thaksin’s way of forcing them to comply with his wishes.
But no matter how you slice this pie, Thaksin came out the loser of this round and he is angry about it and he looks to punish anyone and everyone who denied him is prize. This is classic Thaksin and just more evidence that he has always been only for himself. Also Thais that were mostly passive have now taken sides against Thaksin because he completely is ignoring the ethical and moral concepts of right and wrong, and that now has the potential of having a negative effect on their lives.
