Seeing the more or less official launch of an Anti Thai Junta organization by Thaksin cronies, it leaves you wondering as to why this may happen seeing the present behavior of the Thai people is supportive of the Junta. The Thai people are clearly happier now after the Coup because of ending the ongoing damage being caused by the freshly ousted Pro-Thaksin Government. However if you understand the personalities of these cronies, you can understand the motivation behind this so called anti-Junta organization.
The two people that seem to be the masterminds of this Anti-Junta organization are Charupong Ruangsuwan and Jakrapob Penkair. Both of these men have a bit of a history that is worth a mention as it provides understanding and motivation for creating the organization.
Jakrapob Penkair can be best remembered for three things. The first was when Thailand won the Gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics for woman’s weightlifting , he took the medal from the Olympic athlete more or less for himself. The athlete gave him the medal to show off for a while because he was the Government spokesperson, not knowing he planned to keep it saying it belonged to Thailand. The fact of the matter is the Olympic medals belong to the Olympic athletes that won them. Only the pride that a Thai national won the gold belongs to Thailand. So after some very bad press for Jakrapob, he begrudgingly returned the medal to it’s rightful owner.
The second thing was when the September 2006 Coup was staged Jakrapob was given the Title of Thaksin’s fastest crony by Connecting the Dots as he could get out of Thailand in an extreme hurry when things turned south. Despite his mouth and violent behavior towards others, he displayed the classic behavior of a bully, and that is to run as fast as he can. That bully behavior was also tied to the Olympic medal incident in that the Olympic athlete did not want to give up her medal to Jakrapob.
The Third thing was some comments made at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in August 2007 that were very clearly in violation of Thailand’s Lèse-majesté laws. Many times violation of the Lèse-majesté laws are subtle and subject to interpretation. However in the case of Jakrapob letting his mouth run in an unscripted speech, there was no doubt or need for interpretation as it was clear as day.
Charupong Ruangsuwan is a different story in that he has an ego nearly as big as Thaksin’s ego. With an ego that big, he only plays by his own rules. So needless to say when the Junta called him in for a chat, he more or less implied to stick it where the sun never shines and left Thailand as well. Without the need to elaborate and seeing he was at the top of the Pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party (PTP), the septic tank metaphor seems to apply in that all the biggest pieces tend to float to the top.
So with this knowledge you can see that these men are just supporting their egos. Both are beyond arms reach of the Junta, and both are interested in punishing the Junta for even daring to imply they had to follow rules. That is why their movement seems so out of touch with the real world. They only see themselves and look to harm anyone who has taken from them. This is despite that the negatives of Thaksin’s PTP Government clearly outweigh any perceived positives.
