It did not take very long at all for Thaksin to start to show his new direction for his next attack. As predicted Thaksin’s fastest crony is in the middle of it.
Jakrapob Penkair has apparently set up media interviews from his hiding place where ever that is. It is too early to see what direction it will take, but it looks like the media may be a tool, and Jakrapob may be the new mouth. If that is the case it is because Thaksin has done himself a load of damage with very easy to spot lies to the major media services like the BBC and CNN. If the media is a tool, then tarnishing and hurting Thailand is still on the menu.
Also what is going on now has nothing to do with Thai politics, this is now war. To look to hurt Thailand has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with war. Based on Jakrapob’s comments in other interviews, this is not a protest in the sense of a democratic protest, it is a deliberate attempt to rout the government to replace it with a Thaksin government again. It is also these not to well thought out comments that will empower the government to deal with the red shirts. In short Jakrapob has told the world they are not a protest group, but a group seeking to unseat the government, and that still amounts to treason.
Quoting the Nation;
Jakrapob busy setting up a base
Jakrapob Penkair, who went into hiding after an arrest warrant was issued against him, told the Straits Times that he was “in the midst of setting up a base” from which to run the red-shirt movement.
Speaking from an “undisclosed location”, Jakrapob said: “This is a place to work from, where people can brainstorm, follow the situation and analyse it closely.”
The 42-year-old is the only red-shirt leader to have escaped arrest for allegedly instigating disorder in the country. He disappeared on April 13, the day before other red-shirt leaders brought the protest to a halt.
The protest was brought to an end after protesters created chaos by burning buses and tyres as well as clashing with Bangkok residents.
In the interview with the Singapore-based newspaper, Jakrapob said the assassination attempt on Sondhi Limthongkul, a key leader of the royalist People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), was an indication that “they” were trying to topple the leadership of both the red and yellow shirts.
“They are trying to gain control now,” he said, without identifying who “they” were.
The newspaper said this was the first contact Jakrapob had made with foreign media, though he was said to have lined up interviews with wire agencies yesterday.
Jakrapob told the daily that the red shirts had spent the past couple of years educating people, and that the movement had entered the “action” phase.
“I believe people are now deciding whether peaceful means serve them best. We are not encouraging violence, but we have to admit that people have been repeatedly disappointed,” he said.
“Legal standards have been clearly unfair and unjust. I am not saying there will be violence in the days ahead. But the remaining opportunities for a peaceful solution are decreasing every day.
“We still talk about a peaceful way in which people can get their rights back. But people have the right to defend themselves against aggression,” he explained.
When asked to comment on the charges and arrest warrant against him, he said: “The whole system is distorted, there’s no justice awaiting me or any of us.”