The Taming of Thaksin?

Fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra says "I have been alleged of not being loyal to His Majesty the king, but actually I am very loyal. I am a domestic dog that can be tamed any time."

Mr. Thaksin says he is not worried about Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's threats to extradite him to Bangkok.

DUBAI – Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has made few public statements since his conviction in absentia on corruption charges by a Thai court last October. So his scheduled speech last week at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong was widely anticipated. But when the current prime minister threatened to try to have him extradited from Hong Kong, Mr. Thaksin canceled his visit. The REVIEW caught up with him in Dubai over the weekend for an hour-long interview at his office. Mr. Thaksin shared his views on Thailand, some of which were repeated at his rescheduled Foreign Correspondents Club talk—which took place today in Hong Kong.

Mr. Thaksin predicts that he could return to Thailand by the end of this year. A reconciliation between his followers and those of the present government must happen soon, he says, for the sake of the country’s stability. In a plea to the Thai people, he reiterated his allegiance to King Bhumibol Adulyadej: “I have been alleged of not being loyal to His Majesty the king, but actually I am very loyal. I a ma domestic dog that can be tamed any time,” he said. “I’m tame already and I can be tamed again.”

Mr. Thaksin says he doesn’t “respect the process” that led to his sentencing to two years in prison for conflict of interest in relation to a land-purchase deal involving his ex-wife. He says—and the Thai government denies—that the charges against him were “clearly politically motivated.” He adds that he is waiting patiently for the right time to return to Thailand. But first there needs to be some form of reconciliation. “We need to bury the hatchet,” he says. Reconciliation could take place “by this year,” he says. “We cannot afford to wait any longer because of the economic situation, [and] the division of Thai society.”

Mr. Thaksin has been a fugitive since late 2008, when he fled the country before the prison sentence was handed down. Since then he has been a regular visitor to China, Hong Kong, Dubai and, until recently, the United Kingdom. In November, the U.K. revoked his visa. Mr. Thaksin said he hasn’t reapplied for a British visa. “I don’t have any plans to go to the U.K. so I have not reapplied yet. So I don’t know what it’s going to be if I were to reapply,” he said.

Mr. Thaksin says he has been offered and accepted passports from other countries that he declined to name. “Probably I better not mention the names of those countries, but I have several documents,” he says, adding that he always travels on his Thai passport. It’s a standard passport, not a diplomatic one, he adds.

Mr. Thaksin is not fazed by the efforts of current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to extradite him back to Bangkok: “No, I never worry,” he says, adding that Mr. Abhisit is talking up the extradition issue “for political purposes.” “He just wants to embarrass me,” he says. Extradition “is a long process, and there must be some requirements to meet the extradition rules.” Mr. Abhisit said last week that his government would use "every means we can" to extradite Mr.Thaksin. In an interview with the REVIEW in January, he said that Mr. Thaksin “should at least come back and respect the decision of the court.”

To pave the way to reconciliation, Mr. Thaksin believes the question ofhis loyalty to the king must first be addressed. The “root cause” ofthe current political division in Thailand, he says, is because “I was getting more popularity with the people, and I am alleged [to be not] loyal to the king. . . . Actually I am very loyal to His Majesty. If that has been turned back, that I am loyal to the king, so all things will be changed.”

 “We probably have to go back to square one … that is, there shouldn’tbe any case against each other politically anymore. And from now after we do the reconciliation, if anyone did something wrong it must be [handled] according to the rule of law.”

How to wipe the slate clean? Mr. Thaksin does not call for a royal pardon. Instead, he says, Parliament could pass “a law for reconciliation” that “must be approved by His Majesty.” The law could contain an amnesty for politicians accused or convicted of wrong-doing.

Mr. Thaksin believes that the world financial crisis has made the need for reconciliation even more urgent: “I think the country is at stake. If you think that you want to leave the country like this for long, that will damage the whole country and the people living in the country. So for me, I can wait, I just keep myself physically fit, then I can wait.”

Thailand’s recovery could be delayed if investors are unnerved by political instability, Mr. Thaksin warns. “Stability is a prerequisite for prosperity. Without stability you cannot prosper.”

Mr. Abhisit and his team lack a visionary plan to revive the economy, the former prime minister says. “Asia will be the engine of growth in post-subprime world,” he says. “We have to have a strategy of where Asia is heading for and where Thailand will be part of it.”  (Mr. Abhisit discussed his blueprint for reviving the Thai economy in a January 2009 interview with FEER.com here.)

Mr. Thaksin appeals to Thais to overcome political infighting for the sake of the nation: “We are riding on the same boat that is the Thailand country. If we are fighting each other, the boat will sink. The boat will never arrive to shore. So, instead of fighting, we join him [the king] and sail the boat to the shore, so everybody’s safe. I think we have to turn together.”

He also appeals to Thais’ love of the king: “If you don’t love each other,” he says, “love His Majesty. His Majesty has been working hard for the people. He is quite old. He needs some kind of moral support from his own citizens. If the citizens of His Majesty [are] fighting, it’s not good for the country. Everyone … in Thailand should come together. So all the forces will be able to join hands and [the] country’s reconciliation will happen.”

Mr. Murphy is deputy editor of the REVIEW.