The article below is by Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a member of the socialist Turn Left Thailand group. He was forced to leave Thailand after being charged under Thailand's anti-democratic lese majesty (insulting the monarch) laws. Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who despite his corrupt record still enjoys support from much of Thailand's poor, was overthrown in a 2006 coup by royalist army officers. For more information, visit Wdpress.blog.co.uk.
I don't shed any tears about former PM Thaksin Shinawatra's billions being seized by order of the Thai Supreme Court on February 26.
The billions of ill-gotten gains in the hands of the entire Thai rich: the politicians in the current government, the generals, businesspeople and the entire royal family and their hangers-on should be seized.
The rich do not have the right to accumulate wealth on the backs of the majority of hard-working Thais.
No public figures — not the king, generals or politicians — should hold shares or have special interests in business. This always leads to corruption.
Just think about the corrupt benefits that politicians around former US president George W. Bush enjoyed as a result of the illegal war in Iraq.
So if Thaksin gained from the policies of his government (and that has to be proved in a real court, not a Thai kangaroo court), then he is no different from Bush or the other business-oriented politicians in the West.
Conservative politicians, who shackle trade union rights and force spending cuts and job losses on the public because of what their mates in the banks did, are also acting in their own interests.
If guilty, should they be punished?
Yes! All of them.
But is it OK to stage a military coup against them so that another faction of the corrupt rich take power?
There is one difference between the corruption of politicians and that of kings and generals. In a democracy, we can throw the politicians out at election time.
This is an even better standard of public scrutiny than leaving it to biased judges.
The kings and generals are not subject to such public scrutiny, however. So, let's get rid of all private business interests and tax the rich until they are no longer richer than the general public.
And let's have all public positions subject to election and instant recall.
King Pumipon has just left hospital for his palace. In my view, it was timed to try to turn the public interest and media away from the Thaksin case and promote the king instead. The February 27 bombs outside Bangkok Bank were also the work of those wishing to libel the [red shirts [the anti-coup democracy movement].
Pumipon has deteriorations in his brain function, like most elderly people, and his hospital stay was genuine. His pneumonia and fevers were likely the result of infections from not being able to swallow food properly.
He cannot sit up straight or walk properly even now. His speech is even more slurred and incoherent than before.
As such, he has become a more useful tool of the army and the conservatives.
He was "urged" to be seen to talk to the Supreme Court judges, so that the conservatives could pretend that the king "ordered" their verdict. He was "asked" to leave hospital on a day when it would suit the conservatives.
He was photographed in September 2006 at the time of the coup with the junta generals.
But who was telling who what to do?
There are of course a number of questions about Pumipon's hospital stay. Who paid for it? He is the richest man in Thailand. Did he pay out of his own pocket? Why did he stay so long?
Remember that the conservative royalists kept saying that poor villagers went to the doctor "more than was necessary" after Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party's scheme that made health care more affordable for the poor was introduced?
Was Pumipon in hospital at the expense of the nation for longer than was necessary? He left hospital with his dog leading the way. Is it against health regulations to allow a dog into a public hospital? Or is the dog "semi-divine" too?
If they can seize Thaksin's wealth, then I say seize it all! The palaces, the shares, the diamonds — all the ill-gotten gains!