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'Time to scrap party-dissolution rule'
Chularat Saengpassa,
Pongphon Sarnsamak
The Nation
Veteran Phoomtham Vejchayachai to file petition to axe severe ban on execs
BANGKKOK:-- Penalties under the Political Act which prescribe the dissolution of parties and the revocation of their executives' voting rights must be revoked, according to veteran politician Phoomtham Vejchayachai, a former executive of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party who was banned from politics for five years.
A petition to this effect will be announced on Wednesday by four of the 111 former executives of Thai Rak Thai, when they are free from a five-year political ban that came with a court order to disband their twice-ruling party.
"For five years our democracy, righteousness, and law were destroyed by dissolving a political party, which had over 2 million members," he told The Nation in special interview.
"Our political rights were banned by the law that was issued after the occurrence of wrongful conduct even though we [Thai Rak Thai former executives] were not involved in what happened in the past and could not be proved [to have been involved]," the key man said.
On May 30, 2007, the post-coup Constitution Tribunal ordered Thai Rak Thai to be dissolved for electoral fraud and deprived its 111 executives, including co-founder and ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra of electoral rights for five years.
However, it is no secret that many of Thai Rak Thai's 111 have played politics behind the scenes through nominees, such as spouses, children, and other family members. Some key figures among the group retained influence behind parties legally run by politicians loyal to them.
"We will tell members of the public what we will do for the political movement in future after we are free from the five-year political ban," Phoomtham said.
"We are not too old or too young for politics. If they [Pheu Thai's executive members] still want us to help them I am sure our political expertise could resolve the country's problems."
However, he said there would be no impact on Pheu Thai Party if the 111 former TRT executives return to political work with Pheu Thai, as they would not take any position.
"We have never talked about ministerial positions in the Cabinet," he said.
Over the past five years since he was banned from political activity, Phoomtham said he learnt a lot of the similarities and differences between politics in the past and at present.
"It is a very difficult question to answer because I really did not have time to think about what the differences were in politics between the past and present time," he said.
"We still have seen the products of the 2006 coup d'etat such as laws and regulations that are still problems that need to be revised and made more democratic," he said after thinking for a while.
On the differences in society over the past five years, he said people had changed their ways of life. Many had become 'neo-middle class' using technology to communicate. Moreover, people in rural areas now could communicate with the world outside their communities. They had travelled round the world to work as migrant workers in several countries and back to their hometowns.
"They have learnt a lot about the outside world. They know a lot about people's participation to determine their destiny and respect other people's rights," he said.
"This is changing the root of our society. We are now in a transforming period."
Asked if former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra should come home, he said this was not a question he could answer.
"If we are talking about whether Thaksin should go home or not, I think there is no end point. The most important thing is we should talk about the principle. Thaksin is Thai, and has a right to go home and has rights to go anywhere. He has been in several countries over the past few years because he was treated with unfairness. Just to be clear, is the judicial system fair to him?" he said.
"I don't want society to focus too much on Thaksin. If we want our country to step forward and be accepted by the international community, we should make our country follow the right principles. It would be easy to talk to each other if you agree with me."
Reconciliation was very important for Thai society, Phoomtham said, adding that most Thais want to reconcile but the relationship must be managed in a proper way and based on fairness.
"This was a very expensive lesson for people, fought for democracy. Nearly a hundred people died during the protest in the capital [in 2010]. This expensive lesson told us to find a resolution to stop this conflict that helps the country to go forward," he said.
-- The Nation 2012-05-28
