by MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Feb 27, 2010 (IPS) – Even as they were prepared for the worst, supporters of ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra conducted an eleventh-hour ritual in his home province this week, hoping for a miracle in Friday’s court verdict on the fate of his seized assets.
The ceremony outside a small hotel got underway just as the sun approached noon above this Thai northern city ringed by hills. The mix of prayers and pleas on Thursday, Feb. 25, had an offering to the spirits that included nine steamed pigs’ heads, 19 steamed chickens, 19 boiled ducks and 500 eggs.
“We prayed to get the support of the spirits in a country where there is injustice and double standards,” said Petcharawat Wattanapongsirikul, the owner of the 58-room hotel that has become the headquarters in this region for the red shirt-wearing members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), an anti-government protest movement whose political patron is Thaksin.
But by late Friday night, any hope among the UDD here of the sacrificial pigs coming to the rescue of the fugitive Thai politician was erased by the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in an unprecedented, controversial case in this South-east Asian kingdom.
In a ruling followed widely across the country and read out over seven hours Friday, the judges found Thaksin, who was a billionaire before being elected prime minister, guilty of abusing his power in office from 2001 through mid-2006 by introducing favourable polices that benefited his family-owned telecommunications empire.
The court’s judgement that the Shinawatras had enriched themselves through Thaksin’s abuse of power and blatant conflicts of interest marked the first time that Thai courts have delivered such a verdict against the holder of the highest political office in the country.
Among Thaksin’s faults was his penchant for issuing executive decrees that earned the company he founded, Shin Corp, tax breaks and consequently denied substantial revenue to the state’s coffers. Thaksin’s habit of shaping his company’s interest while serving as the premier through a network of nominees chosen from among his family was a breach of the public officer holders’ law, the court noted.
Inter Press Service for more