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A more 'humane' Thailand
promised
By Marwaan
Macan-Markar
BANGKOK - As he begins his
second four-year term in office, Thai Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is displaying his
flair for magic by transforming himself into a
leader who cares about human rights.
The
business tycoon turned politician assured the Thai
public on Wednesday night, in his first speech
after his post as prime minister was endorsed by
this Southeast Asian country's monarch, King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, that he would advance the
principles of political and civil liberties during
his administration's second term.
"I will
uphold human rights in this country," said
Thaksin, who also singled out the troubling issue
of disappearances as an aspect that will receive
the government's attention in its quest to promote
human rights and democracy in Thailand.
To
achieve that aim, however, the Thaksin
administration will need to listen to its critics
with more willingness, change the tone of the
stormy relationship it had with the press during
its first term and be more sympathetic to
non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The
image of Thaksin as a human-rights champion marks
a dramatic shift from the more familiar figure
that had evolved during his first term - that of a
prime minister who had displayed streaks of
authoritarianism. That image seems all the more
remarkable due to the unprecedented political
power Thaksin currently enjoys. His Thai Rak Thai
(Thais Love Thai) party became the first in this
country's history to form a government without
having to depend on coalitions after winning 377
seats out of a 500-member parliament at the
February 6 general election.
That
political triumph bettered an already impressive
feat he had achieved at the 2001 general
elections, when his party won with a thumping
majority that enabled Thaksin to become the first
elected prime minister to complete a full term in
office.
Wednesday's ceremony in Bangkok
also marked another moment in history for Thaksin,
since none of the 22 prime ministers before him
had enjoyed consecutive terms in office.
The prime minister's current political
standing gives him absolute power, as the
opposition in parliament lacks the numbers to
bring motions and initiate debates critical of him
and his cabinet ministers, a situation that is
worrying to many.
According to a human
rights report released this month by the US State
Department, human rights in Thailand have suffered
during the past year. In the report, the country's
security forces were accused of using "excessive
force" and "connected to numerous extrajudicial,
arbitrary, and unlawful killings".
Thaksin's iron-fisted policy to crush a
growing insurgency in the country's southern
provinces, where close to 600 people have been
killed since January 2004, was also singled out by
the report as contributing to the country's
deteriorating human-rights condition.
It
added to the troubling developments that Thai
human-rights groups have highlighted in previous
years. They range from the government's attempts
to silence critical voices in the press, pressure
brought on senior bureaucrats who disagreed with
Thaksin's policies and the administration's
dismissive stance towards NGOs.
In the
weeks since the February election, some of the
government's trenchant critics in academia have
spoken out against the danger of a more
politically powerful Thaksin. They have warned the
Thai public that the prime minister may prove to
be more abusive than one of this country's
notorious military dictators from the 1960s, Field
Marshal Sarit Thanarat.
Thaksin, it
appears, wants to prove such critics wrong. But as
Thai human-rights activists point out, the prime
minister's new image will be judged not by the
words that led to its rise, but by the actions
that follow. Already two formidable tests loom in
his path: his stance toward the disappearance of
Somchai Neelaphaijit, a human-rights lawyer from
the country's Muslim minority, and his position on
the three army generals held responsible for the
deaths in military custody of 78 Muslim protesters
in the south.
This month marks a year
since Somchai was abducted in Bangkok. At the
time, the lawyer had been spearheading efforts to
expose the injustice faced by members of
Thailand's Muslim minority in the country's
southern provinces. Among the issues he had
highlighted was torture in police custody.
For human-rights groups here, Somchai's
disappearance has not only come to symbolize the
culture of disappearances that spread during
Thaksin's first term but also the leniency
displayed by Thai authorities toward policemen
linked to such disappearances.
A similar
tone of leniency was conveyed this week over the
three army generals found guilty in the deaths of
the Muslim protesters in the southern town of Tak
Bai last October. General Prawit Wongsuwan, the
army commander, said the generals will not face
punishment but be transferred from their positions
in the army hierarchy.
"The statement of
the Thai commander-in-chief is offensive. It
offends the ideal of equality before the law, and
it offends the fundamentals of the rule of law and
human rights," the Hong Kong-based Asian Human
Rights Commission said in a statement released on
Thursday.
"When large-scale killings under
the command of senior officers are treated as mere
trifles, the security forces and society alike are
sent a message that they live by different
standards," the regional rights lobby added.
These two issues will serve as a benchmark
to judge Thaksin's change of heart about human
rights, Sunai Phasuk, the Thai researcher for the
global rights lobby Human Rights Watch, told Inter
Press Service. "If he is serious, he will have to
call for justice."
The days ahead will be
a challenge for Thaksin, added Sunai. "From now on
he will be held accountable to his promises on
human rights by Thais and the international
community."
Yet few Thai rights activists
are prepared to hazard a guess about the longevity
of Thaksin's new image. The reason: he has the
habit of delivering on some of his pledges, such
as the programs in his first term to help the
urban and rural poor who voted him back into
power.
(Inter Press Service) |
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