Chalerm slams Abhisit govt for pardon plea delay
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung and red-shirt leaders yesterday accused the previous government of intentionally dragging its feet on an appeal by the red shirts seeking a royal pardon for fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Chalerm dismissed as rumour media reports that the current government planned to discuss whether to seek a royal pardon for Thaksin.
"There is no discussion. This is a rumour. The government has not done anything about this matter," he said.
The deputy premier said the previous Democrat-led administration had shelved the petition by millions of red shirts seeking a royal pardon for Thaksin. "Don't think that people don't know what you did," he said.
He said the previous government failed to give an early recommendation to the Royal Household Bureau on what to do about the red shirts' petition.
The government instead ordered verification of the people taking part in the signature campaign. Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday she was not aware of plans by any member of the Shinawatra family to seek a royal pardon for Thaksin on His Majesty the King's birthday on December 5.
"We have not talked about this and it is not government policy. I am a member of this family, too," she said, in response to a media report.
Yingluck is the youngest of Thaksin's siblings.
The red-shirt movement's chairwoman, Thida Thawornseth, yesterday said that the previous government had "detained" the red shirts' petition for two years without referring it to the Royal Household Bureau.
"They violated the royal power by making their own decision on the matter. It's not their business and they had no power to do so," she said.
Spokesman for the movement, Worawut Wichaidit, said that without the current "people's government", the red- shirts' petition "may have been imprisoned forever".
Veerakan Musigapong, former chairman of the red-shirt movement, said the red shirts were not pressuring the government to seek royal amnesty for Thaksin. In response to concerns that the issue could revive political conflict and draw opposition from people disagreeing with the amnesty, he said the red shirts have the right to do so.
He also said there was a case for arguing that a person granted a royal pardon did not have to serve his term first, as had been suggested by Thaksin's critics. However, he declined to identify the source.
Justice Minister Pracha Promnok yesterday appointed a 10-member committee to look into the petition for Thaksin's amnesty.
The panel is headed by Assistant Professor Wuthisak Lapcharoe-nsap, rector of Ramkhamhaeng University.
The panel's mission is to gather facts and details regarding the petition and relevant laws, as well as to determine whether it is in accordance with the law and whether royal pardon should be sought.
