21 February 2016•Update: 21 February 2016
By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has compared Thailand under junta rule to Myanmar pre-political reforms, suggesting that while Myanmar is moving forwards, Thailand is moving towards democratic dictatorship.
In a rare interview with two international newspapers Sunday, Thaksin Shinawatra -- who has been living in exile since 2008 -- lashed out at a draft charter written by a military-appointed committee after a 2014 coup against the elected government of his sister Yingluck.
“It is a charade to show the world that Thailand is returning to democracy,” he told the Asian Wall Street Journal.
“But in reality, it would be like Myanmar before its political reforms. There would be a prime minister, but the real power would be in some politburo above him and the economy would suffer,” he said. “No other government would want to touch Thailand.”
Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon who became a politician in the 1990s, served as prime minister from 2001 until he was overthrown in a coup in Sept. 2006.
His leadership was marred by corruption scandals and abuses against human rights, but his populist policies were widely popular in the kingdom’s rural provinces.
He left Thailand in 2008 before being sentenced a few months later to two years in prison on charges of taking advantage of his position to help his then wife in a land deal.
Since then, he has been a thorn in the side of the powerful military establishment.
In Sunday’s interview in Singapore, also published by the Financial Times, Thaksin poured scorn on the junta’s current record, saying it could build “no trust and no confidence”.
The former premier particularly expressed concern about the first version of a draft charter released last month by a junta-appointed committee of legal experts.
“I do care about how to move the country forward and this constitution is a waste of time and a waste of manpower,” he said.
“It is unacceptable to everyone except the junta. If this constitution is implemented, then Thailand will be taking a step backwards,” he added.
The draft charter allows for a non-elected prime minister to lead the country and to install a non-elected senate.
The military government also proposed this week that a clause be inserted permitting the junta to extend its power for “3 to 5 years” after the elections planned for the end of 2017.
Assuring that he was not “looking for revenge”, Thaksin called for talks with the generals to end the political crisis.
“I offer any kind of discussion or talk. I am ready,” he told the Times.
But given Thaksin’s scathing comments -- he said, for instance, that “no one respects a country with a junta regime in the 21st century” and that “any regime that does not respect the people will not last long” -- an acceptance of the offer by junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha -- known for his hot-tempered responses -- is doubtful.
In May 2015, Thaksin had infuriated Thailand’s military rulers by telling a public seminar in Seoul that he was “not impressed by the performance of the junta”.
In the following months, the generals had his Thai passport revoked.
The Shinawatra political clan has been on a media offensive over the last few weeks, with Thaksin’s younger sister, former premier Yingluck, speaking to foreign correspondents at her Bangkok house in the first press conferences of their kind since her government was overthrown 19 months ago.
In her Feb. 12 interview, she had mostly commented on an ongoing criminal case against her in relation to a rice-subsidies scheme that accumulated $15.8 billion dollars of losses during her term between June 2011 and May 2014.
“The investigation committee said that at the policy level, there was no wrong. They said that the people who implemented the policy did not do any wrong. So how the person who ordered the policy could be wrong?” she asked.
If found guilty, she could face a maximum jail term of 10 years.
