Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said yesterday that he would not resign or dissolve parliament, despite being under attack from even members of his own party.
Samak’s latest woes come from nearly 200 members of his own People’s Power Party, who are criticizing him for allowing police to put up “wanted” posters for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife throughout the country. One was even seen in the men’s toilet of a Bangkok police station.
The Supreme Court issued arrest warrants for the couple after they fled to Britain saying that they couldn’t get fair trials in Thailand in a number of cases involving alleged corruption and abuse of power.
Samak was earlier blasted by critics as a Thaksin puppet but appears recently to have steered an independent course, much to the chagrin of the toppled prime minister’s followers.
“I will not bow to the call from protesters and several other groups of people urging me to resign or dissolve the House,” Samak said in his weekly television program. “I will continue to look after this country as the prime minister.”
Samak, whose party won national elections last December, has been under pressure from almost daily street protests by the anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and himself faces several court cases involving alleged corruption, abuse of authority and conflict of interest.
On Saturday, his party members signed a letter saying Thaksin did not deserve to be treated like a criminal and that the circulation of the arrest warrant posters was “disturbing.” The group is to present the letter to Samak today.
The posters appeared on front pages of almost all Thai newspapers on Saturday and were going up at every police station and immigration checkpoint in the country.
“The police have an obligation to distribute and post the arrest warrant. If we do not do so, the police will be charged with ignoring their duty,” police Major-General Suraphol Thaunthong told reporters.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that a corruption trial against Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, could proceed even though the couple fled the country.
The malfeasance and conflict of interest charges stem from Pojaman’s 2003 purchase of a plot of land in central Bangkok from a government agency when Thaksin was the country’s prime minister.
The Supreme Court has issued arrest warrants for the couple, and Thai prosecutors are discussing the possibility of asking for Thaksin’s extradition — usually a lengthy and complicated process.
Yesterday, the anti-Thaksin alliance urged the British government to repatriate the couple, and announced it would stage a rally in front of the British Embassy in Bangkok tomorrow to press their case.
“Thaksin and his wife are criminals who escaped from the justice system to England. The PAD is urging the British government not to give them political asylum, not to let them live in England but to send them back to face trial in Thailand,’’ Sondhi Limthongkul, a key alliance leader said.
Thailand has not yet asked Britain to extradite the former leader, who so far has not been granted asylum or special treatment in Britain, where he owns several expensive properties and the Manchester City football club.
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