Abhisit rejects Thaksin's attack on judiciary, slams 'greedy politicians'
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Democrat Party leader and former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday he agreed with Thaksin Shinawatra that Thailand's democracy is incomplete. However, he cited greedy politicians as the cause, and not a biased justice system, as cited by Th
Abhisit was responding to an address by fugitive former PM Thaksin to a red-shirt rally at Sanam Luang via Skype on Wednesday night. Thaksin strongly criticised the courts, accusing them of being unfair to him and the Pheu Thai Party, of which he is considered the de facto leader.
Abhisit said Thaksin was repeating invalid arguments when he accused the courts and attempted to discredit the previous Democrat-led government.
Addressing the red-shirt rally, Thaksin threatened to rouse the public to act against the Constitutional Court if it continued to interfere in the power of the executive and legislative branches. The demonstration was held to commemorate the third anniversary of the April 2010 crackdown on red-shirt protesters.
Thaksin said the Constitutional Court’s raising of objections to charter amendment had become a farce. “Initially, the government, MPs and senators wanted to amend the entire charter, but the Constitutional Court would not allow it. That was fine and we accepted the court’s decision, but when we wanted to amend certain articles individually, a few persons who are selfish and against democracy filed a complaint, and the court accepted it,” Thaksin said.
He said the court should not play games with this important issue.
The Constitutional Court has agreed to consider whether amending Article 68 of the charter would be unconstitutional.
Thaksin said there were three branches of power – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – and these branches should be separate and subject to checks and balances.
He said the judiciary was violating the power of the executive and legislative branches, and thus damaging the country’s credibility and the people’s confidence in the system.
“I would like to beg [Constitutional Court judges] to uphold justice and give priority to national interests, or else I will have to use people’s power to deal with the judges,” Thaksin said. “If the court violates the power of the people, the people will not be able to tolerate it and people’s representatives will not tolerate it.”
Thaksin told the red shirts that the previous government led by Abhisit did not come to power through democratic means.
He said the Abhisit government’s rise to power was enabled by the Constitutional Court and by those who wield power from behind the scenes. He said Abhisit was not accepted in the West, which is why he was not invited by Western governments to visit their countries.
Thaksin said the Supreme Court had also made unfair rulings against him and his party, prompting judges in lower courts to look down upon and laugh at the Supreme Court judges.
He said unfair rulings by the Supreme Court had made reconciliation impossible.
Thaksin said it was okay if he could not return to Thailand as long as the country has a fair system. “The country has been battered severely enough. It’s not good for Thais to kill Thais. It’s not good to use troops to kill people and to use people to fight troops,” Thaksin said.
Abhisit responded to this comment by saying he considered a madman to be someone who cannot get enough wealth, refuses to admit this, and sacrifices his supporters’ lives to achieve his goals.
