Dear Dr. Thaksin,
It has been some time since we last spoke, but I felt the urge to write to you having seen your ‘open letter’ to your ‘friends’ in the international media, dated October 22nd, 2008.
Given the fact that you chose not to face the various criminal and corruption charges against you in Thailand, and given that you are in the process of seeking asylum in the UK,I can understand why you wrote what you did. It’s a shame though, since, once again, you feel compelled to harm the country of your birth in order to protect and promote your own personal interests.
It would have been so much better had you been more honest in your assessment of your predicament. Specifically related to the land procurement case in which you were found guilty of conflict of interest, we would have been interested to hear why it was that your legal team was caught and convicted of blatant attempts to bribe court officials.
Furthermore, you are fully aware that the law you broke was the highest law of the land, being an infringement in a key article in the Constitution designed to penalize acts considered criminal on the part of those who hold political office. Indeed, it was a breach of both the 1997 constitution you love as well as the current 2007 constitution that was accepted in a nationwide referendum.
You referred to the ruling against Khun Samak, your chosen heir, and portray the case as a ruling against the fact that he cooked on TV when you know full well that the actual crime was his breach of the Constitution barring those in office from holding paid employment.
Your definition of ‘facts’ leaves a lot to be desired and I worry that you actually believe what you are saying.
It is precisely because it is so difficult the world over to actually catch clever politicians with their hands in the till that we have laws against conflicts of interests – it is a reflection of our society’s desire for good governance, not dissimilar to codes of conducts in most leading corporations in the private sector.
It may be true that there are the so-called elites who don’t like you, but I can assure you that there are plenty of grass-root members of the Thai population who are also not too keen on having leaders who cheat.
You got away early in your political career with an ‘honest mistake’ when you failed to properly disclose your assets, but how many more of these ‘honest’ mistakes do you think the Thai people should allow you? You are once again charged with hiding assets even now, not least the money you used to buy Manchester City. After all, you no longer even try to pretend that it was not your own money that was used to buy the football club, even though you never disclosed, as was legally required, that you ever had any money overseas.
I won’t go into details about your wife being convicted of tax fraud and the fact that the government you support is still doing everything they can to distort the course of justice here in Thailand. Frankly, if you really wanted to present facts, you should provide these details yourself. You are right in saying that all Thais are concerned about the direction the country is taking, but I believe that the situation would be much improved if you were to leave us alone to clean up the mess you left us in.
Korn Chatikavanij
Member of Parliament
