Ousted Thai Leader Haunts Junta

[TotallyOz]

BANGKOK, Thailand, Aug. 14 — “Thaksin, Where Are You?”

 

It is Thailand’s latest political puzzler — the title of a strange little book about the former prime minister that may or may not be what it seems.

 

Thaksin Shinawatra is in London, his home since he was ousted in a coup last September; he is watching and, perhaps, waiting for his moment to return, as the generals who are now in power lead his country through an exhausting series of watershed moments.

 

Next Sunday, in the latest of these, Thailand will vote on a new constitution that would pave the way for an election, tentatively set for November.

 

Meanwhile, a Thai court today issued arrest warrants for Mr. Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, after the couple failed to appear in the court to face corruption charges involving a land sale.

 

The warrants mean that the couple would be taken into custody if they returned to Thailand, but their lawyer said today that they have no plans now to do so.

 

The court said it would consider extradition proceedings if they do not appear by Sept. 25. Legal experts said such proceedings would probably be long and complex.

 

London is where a young Thai writer says she wheedled and wept until Mr. Thaksin granted her seven hours of interviews for a chatty book about his life and moods that she says could have been called “Lonely Thaksin.”

 

The book was published in Bangkok this month, and it has infuriated the ruling generals, who seem to think they see Mr. Thaksin’s stealthy hand everywhere, including in this seemingly inoffensive portrait of a mild-mannered political retiree.

 

If the book really was the writer’s independent enterprise, Mr. Thaksin got very lucky. It portrays him just as he might have portrayed himself if he had orchestrated the whole thing.

 

“Although he tries to remain light-hearted, deep down in his eyes, I feel his hidden pain,” writes the author, Sunisa Lertpakawat, 32.

 

It is Mr. Thaksin through the looking glass, the improbably unadventurous life of a powerful man, a chimera who still haunts the junta.

 

The book is studded with charming, glossy family photos of Mr. Thaksin practicing his golf swing, shopping in a supermarket, feeding his son birthday cake, riding a bicycle, buying a pizza, looking at fish in an aquarium, smiling at the seaside.

 

“You are interviewing a poor guy today,” says the telecommunications tycoon who has just spent $162 million to buy the British soccer club Manchester City and thousands of dollars more to throw a party for 8,000 of its fans in a city square.

 

“I have some money in my savings accounts, but,” he pauses, according to the book. “By the way, I think I can manage it.”

 

One twist to the story is that the author is a lieutenant in the army, working as a reporter for an army-run television station. She said she produced the book on her own time, secretly, anticipating trouble. And she got it.

 

As soon as they found out, her commanders halted distribution of the book after its first run of 4,000 copies and yanked her from her job.

 

Her offense, technically, was extending a three-day leave to 21 days, and she has since preemptively tendered her resignation.

 

The coup leader, Sonthi Boonyaratglin, personally ordered an investigation and, according to Lt. Sunisa, called her in for a one-on-one talking to.

 

“You-know-who is the hand behind this publication,” one official told a Thai newspaper, treating it almost as a matter of national security.

 

The generals have reacted this way to the Thaksin phantom before. They have tried to suppress news about him by, for example, ordering television stations not to run interviews with him. At one point, they stopped talking on their cellular telephones for fear he might be listening in.

 

“A bunch of panicky people,” The Nation newspaper called them, dancing to Mr. Thaksin’s tune “every time he feels like getting up to a little mischief.”

 

In an interview, Lt. Sunisa insisted that she acted on her own and that she had not been in touch with Mr. Thaksin since her return from London. She said the photographs were given to her at no cost by Mr. Thaksin’s son, Panthongtae, who is a photographer and whom she interviewed separately for four hours at a Thai restaurant in London.

 

Lt. Sunisa, who has a bachelor’s degree in political science, is a puzzle to those who have met her, appearing naïve and calculating at the same time.

 

Click here for the remaining story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/world/as...nyt&emc=rss

[fedssocr]

what a strange little article. It comes across as fairly sympathetic to him until the end when it talks about his lifestyle and special haircuts.

[Guest luvthai]

As long as Thanskin lives he will be a thorn in the side of the juanta. There will always be unrest while Thanskin continues to manipulate his cronies from his offices in the UK.