The postponement of a fund-raising dinner to be hosted by People’s Democratic Reform Committee head man Suthep Thaugsuban, originally scheduled for today, has disappointed a select group of fans looking forward to a little “reunion”.
Suthep Thaugsuban with his wife Srisakul Promphan. No chat, just rest and recuperation.
It would have been the first public address by Mr Suthep, the former Democrat Party secretary-general, since the coup on May 22.
Mr Suthep suggested on his Facebook page that the event, which was to be held at the Pacific Club in Bangkok, might be ill-timed, given that martial law is still largely in effect.
He explained if he had gone ahead with the dinner talk, the event might have been politicised and used as a pretext to ignite unrest, which would have spoiled the spirit of reconciliation being forged by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
Proceeds from the dinner would have gone into the PDRC’s fund set up to provide financial aid to the PDRC protesters injured in the six-month-long protest in Bangkok and other provinces, which has now ended.
Despite the indefinite postponement of the dinner, Mr Suthep promised to find other ways to raise funds.
The talk had not been intended to be a mass event. Seventy participants had paid 10,000 baht each for the sold out session.
The event had stoked the interest of many PDRC supporters who are holding on to their memories of the rallies they joined.
From the beginning, the idea of holding the dinner talk did not appear to sit well with the NCPO, which was reportedly planning to ask Mr Suthep to put it off. The coup makers figured it was not the best idea to be organising any kind of party that might hold political significance at a time when reconciliation efforts are going full steam ahead.
Some political observers theorised that seeking the PDRC’s cooperation to put the party on hold may be a difficult balancing act. The last thing the NCPO wants is to be seen to be subduing the political conflict but ignoring a gathering of people that could potentially strike a nerve and touch off political sensitivities again.
But the suspension of the talk seems to have given Mr Suthep something of a reprieve.
The PDRC leader has undergone surgery on his right shoulder to treat a chronic problem which has been bothering him since January.
During the anti-government protests, Mr Suthep led walkabouts almost every day, meetings thousands of supporters along the way who were eager to shake his hand. On stage, he also swung his arms a lot, and that caused further harm to his shoulders.
Thousands of handshakes and constantly being pulled aside by supporters for roadside photo opportunities eventually took a toll on Mr Suthep’s right arm. He complained of persistent pain and doctors paid him a visit at the rally site at the Pathumwan intersection.
He was injected many times with steroids to ease the pain, with doctors needing to ensure they did not administer too much. Eventually they decided to stop the steroids in February, even though Mr Suthep continued his strenuous protest activities. Both of his hands and arms were pushed to the limit with the added task of signing T-shirts and books.
A source in the rally who tagged along with Mr Suthep during his protest walkabouts recalled how a team of close aides tried to keep people from grabbing Mr Suthep by the hand and aggravating his injuries.
Mr Suthep said he was recuperating well from the surgery, with his wife Srisakul Promphan by his side.
Keeping a lid on things
Never in the prosecution office’s 121-year history has an attorney-general been unseated by a coup maker. So the removal of Athapol Yaisawang this week has caused quite a stir.
When the nightly coup announcement came on television on Tuesday, viewers had expected it would be another call for yet more people to report to the military government.
Instead, a list of names was read out, among them Mr Athapol’s, of people who had been ordered to vacate their senior posts in various agencies.
Athapol: Audacious removal
That essentially marked Mr Athapol’s last day in office.
For the highest-ranking prosecutor to be booted out of office in a coup is certainly no light matter. Not even the most domineering civilian government in the past had dethroned an attorney-general. So the removal of Mr Athapol has been described by some political experts as very audacious.
Barely a year in office, Mr Athapol’s removal had many searching for answers as to why he was unable to not escape the junta’s axe.
Mr Athapol was named attorney-general in an overwhelming vote in a plenary assembly of prosecutors nationwide. His election was subsequently endorsed by the Senate.
But to Democrat Party supporters, he started his stint in office on the wrong foot. Soon after his appointment, he approved the indictment of former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban. Mr Abhisit is the Democrat leader and Mr Suthep the former Democrat secretary-general and now chief of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).
The two men were indicted for having authorised the operation to contain the red-shirt protesters in Bangkok in 2010, in which more than 90 protesters died.
A source with knowledge of the issue said Mr Athapol went ahead with the indictments despite words of caution from some quarters who thought the investigation summary of the case prepared and presented to the Attorney-General's Office by the Department of Special Investigation was a bit weak. It might well enable Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep to mount an easy defence in court as decisions made by the two men during the height of the protests four years ago were legally covered by the emergency decree declared at the time.
Also, unlike the PDRC protest staged against the Yingluck Shinawatra government, which was dispersed a few days before the May 22 coup, the 2010 protest had carried on without a court ruling that would have confirmed it was being conducted peacefully.
The Abhisit-Suthep indictment on Oct 28 last year came as the Yingluck government was being battered by the amnesty bill crisis, which gave birth to the fast-expanding PDRC at the time.
Mr Athapol was target of allegations that Mr Abhisit, and especially Mr Suthep, were being indicted so they would feel inclined to accept the blanket amnesty and become beneficiaries of the bill. This would have subdued the PDRC which was campaigning hard against the Yingluck administration for having rushed the bitterly controversial bill through parliament in the wee hours of the morning.
A highly placed source in the judiciary said Mr Athapol’s removal by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) could have something to do with the ongoing criminal probe by the National Anti-Corruption Commission into a number of Yingluck cabinet ministers over the rice-pledging scheme, among other graft-related complaints being investigated by other agencies.
The fear was that anyone holding a key post in the justice system who might retain connections with the previous government could leak information about the probe. It is a risk the NCPO apparently does not want to take.
A look over the shoulder
The axe fell on a number of senior officials this week as the military junta ordered lightning transfers.
One of those shunted to an inactive post at the Prime Minister’s Office was the House of Representatives’ secretary-general Suwichak Nakwatcharachai.
He stands accused by anti-government protesters of favouring the Yingluck Shinawatra government.
In particular, Mr Suwichak’s transfer appears to answer a call by a former Democrat Party MP for the military to take action against him.
Former Democrat MP for Samut Songkhram Rangsima Rodrassamee petitioned the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to investigate House budget spending by Mr Suwichak.
She accused him of over-spending and abusing the budget and asked the NCPO to punish him to set an example to others.
Ms Rangsima said after the House dissolution on Dec 9, the 35 House committees still had a combined 600 million baht for use in study trips remaining.
She claimed Mr Suwichak transferred the funds to use in launching a project to improve the capabilities of officials of the House secretariat. For that project, a total of 2,245 officials will go on study trips to Asean countries.
So far, Mr Suwichak has approved funds of 11.68 million baht to cover the cost of trips to Indonesia by 211 officials, or about 1.94 million baht per group, Ms Rangsima said.
She asked the NCPO to look into the matter, and also claimed that there were more complaints from House officials about unnecessary spending of funds since Mr Suwichak had been the House secretary-general over the past three years.
For example, about 15 million baht was spent on 200 wall-mounted clocks costing 75,000 baht each. Several furniture sets cost more than 1 million baht each, and about five million baht was spent on renovating the press centre.
Another 100 million baht was spent on building a House "war room" and a police station in the parliament’s compound.
This is despite the fact that the construction of a new parliament is under way, Ms Rangsima said.
She questioned if the procurement projects complied with PM’s Office regulations.
"The NCPO must take decisive action. If the NCPO promises to crack down on corruption, it must make an example [of Mr Suwichak] for others," she said
"If civil servants refuse to serve corrupt politicians, those politicians will find it hard to cheat."
Mr Suwichak insisted the funds for study trips were part of a project to develop the House secretariat personnel, which had been planned ahead.
The secretariat will open an Asean centre so it was necessary to send personnel on foreign trips to study the cultures of the Asean countries, he said.
Mr Suwichak denied delaying study trips planned for coming weeks because irregularities related to the project were exposed.
Pol Gen Adul Saengsingkaew, the NCPO’s deputy chief, instructed the House secretariat to suspend the project until the NCPO could check it, Mr Suwichak said.
He said the funds were not drawn from the leftover allowances or salaries of MPs.
He said about two billion baht is still available and is ready for use to support the affairs of a national legislative assembly and a national reform council, which will be established as part of the NCPO's reform road map.
"Ms Rangsima should verify the information first. I understand she wanted me to lose my job ... currently, there is no parliament so my power is equal to that of a minister. I do not believe the NCPO will intervene. There is no need for me to clear the air with Ms Rangsima," Mr Suwichak said before his removal.