หลัง"ทักษิณ" ให้สัมภาษณ์ ผ่านน.ส.พ."เจแปน ไทมส์" ตีพิมพ์เป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ปฎิเสธข้อกล่าวหาล้มระบอบกษัตริย์ และระบุได้ทำหนังสือขออภัยโทษจากในหลวง เชื่อม็อบเสื้อแดงจะเลิกต่อสู้ ปรากฏว่า "ณัฐวุฒิ ใสยเกื้อ" ออกมาปฏิเสธว่า "ทักษิณ"ไม่เคยยื่นถวายฏีกาขอพระราชทานอภัยโทษ ตามที่เป็นข่าว มาอ่านคำสัมภาษณ์ฉบับเต็มๆ เป็นภาษาอังกฤษว่ามีความหมายอย่างไร ?
"แม้ว"ยันไม่เคยขออภัยโทษแค่ถวายรายงานโบ้ยสื่อนอกมั่ว
นายณัฐวุฒิ ใสยเกื้อ อดีตโฆษกประจำสำนักนายกรัฐมนตรี แกนนำแนวร่วมประชาธิปไตยขับไล่เผด็จการแห่งชาติ(นปช.) และคณะทำงานฝ่ายการเมืองพรรคเพื่อไทย แถลงยืนยันว่า พ.ต.ท.ทักษิณ ชินวัตร อดีตนายกรัฐมนตรีไม่เคยยื่นถวายฎีกาเพื่อขอพระราชทานอภัยโทษจำนวน 3 ฉบับตามที่ปรากฎเป็นข่าวไปก่อนหน้านี้ ซึ่งพ.ต.ท.ทักษิณ ในฐานะคนไทยใต้ร่มพระบารมีเคยถวายการรับใช้ และเมื่อเกิดปัญหาทางการเมือง จนทำให้ต้องเดินทางไปต่างประเทศพ.ต.ท.ทักษิณ ได้ดำเนินการเพียงถวายรายงานข้อเท็จจริงทางการเมืองในประเด็นต่างๆอาทิ ความขัดแย้งทางการเมือง และคดีความของตัวเองไปรวมทั้งสิ้น 3 ฉบับเท่านั้น ซึ่งช่วงเวลาที่ถวายรายงานนั้นเป็นระยะเวลาก่อนที่ศาลฎีกาแผนกคดีอาญา ของผู้ดำรตำแหน่งทางการเมืองจะตัดสินคดีที่ดินรัชดา
Thaksin hopes his achievements will earn pardon from Thai king
By CAROLE DAHDAH BUTEL
Special to The Japan Times
DUBAI — Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hopes for one thing these days as he spends his life on the run evading arrest on corruption charges: getting a pardon from his king.
"It is up to his majesty and his generosity," Thaksin said in an exclusive interview with The Japan Times. "I have been serving according to my loyalty and respect for his majesty. They say I want to be president and change the constitutional monarchy. This is false — I never had that kind of ambition. My opponents shifted power in their favor by saying I was not loyal to his majesty."
But it is unclear whether Thaksin, 59, will get a royal pardon for the sake of national reconciliation. In Thailand′s volatile political climate, there is a rift between Thaksin′s constituents, the rural poor, known as the "red shirts," and the urban elite, the "yellow shirts" backed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva′s political party, the People′s Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
There has been no significant violence so far. During the February ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, south of Bangkok, the red shirts backed down, avoiding conflict. "I did not want to create any headache for the monarch," the former prime minister said, noting that the king was also staying in his Hua Hin summer palace at that time.
Since the bloodless September 2006 military coup that led to his ouster from power, Thaksin, a native of Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand, has been in self-imposed exile.
He was convicted in October 2008 and sentenced in absentia to two years in prison on corruption charges. His financial assets in Thailand for the sale of his stake in the Shin Corp. to Singapore′s Temasek Holding Co. have been frozen.
Considered a fugitive from justice, the Thai government wants to extradite him at any cost. On March 2, Thaksin turned down an invitation to speak at a lunch at the Foreign Correspondents′ Club in Hong Kong after Abhisit threatened to ask Beijing to return him.
"I could have gone, but I choose not to because the Thai government is overreacting and is so nervous about what I am going to say," he said. "I don′t want to cause any problems between China and Thailand."
He is now expected to address the gathering via video conference on Thursday.
In addition, a number of countries — including Britain and Japan — will not grant him a visa. His diplomatic passport has been revoked. He recently divorced his wife and some of his political allies have deserted him.
But Thaksin appears to take it all in stride and attributes his woes to "bad karma." He is adamant about his innocence and says he was framed by detractors eager to seize power "whatever the consequences for the country." "I am a religious person and believe in the good things," Thaksin said. "What has happened to me is clearly unfortunate and unexpected. This must be bad karma from a past life; I must have done something."
Thaksin was first elected into office after his party, Thai Rak Thai, swept national polls in 2001 and again by a majority vote in 2005, a feat unheard of in Thai politics.
His popularity can be largely attributed to his political and economic agenda, which was geared toward the rural poor and became known as "Thaksinomics."
Thaksin′s management style of running the country as a business brought political stability, while the Thai economy grew. His populist policies, however, did not agree with the military, the bureaucrats and the urban elite.
"They felt threatened by my popularity," Thaksin said. "I had a strong leadership and stayed too long in office while the Democrats kept losing ground. Now they keep provoking me, bullying me politically."
In the past months, there have been conflicting reports about his return to politics. Thaksin himself says he is keen to serve his country again and is confident he would win the popular vote.
"I have to go back, I have an obligation to my supporters and their morale," he said. "If there was an election today, I would certainly win."
But unless he is granted a pardon, returning to Thailand now is not a viable option.
"If the country is still under the military junta dictatorship, and the people think this dictatorship is good for the country, then I cannot go back," he said. "I cannot defend myself and get justice because I am now presumed guilty . . . and my political opponents back the committee investigating me. Thailand now lacks the rule of law in the frame of proper democracy."
In his travels, the former prime minister spends his time meeting friends and political allies while still seeking business opportunities.
Since his ouster, the economic situation in Thailand has worsened. Last month, Abhisit unveiled a $3.3 billion stimulus package to boost the country′s economy. The PAD appears to have adopted the Thaksinomics brand by reaching out to the poor.
"When I was in power, the PAD attacked my policies," Thaksin said. "Now they are recycling them by changing the policies′ names. The copycat will not succeed. My purposes were to create jobs and income and then people could spend."
He is referring to the 2,000 baht ($55) cash handout that the government proposed in its stimulus package. "This money will be spent right away. No one will invest it. They need to learn a lot more, Abhisit is still young."
He said the core of the problem is that the current government has no clue as to the philosophy behind his policies.
"We need structural changes, it is not just about reviving consumption," he said. "We cannot be an export-led growth country like in the past and rely on U.S. consumption anymore. The Asian leaders have to get together and understand that Asia will become the globe′s engine, replacing the consumption rate growth of the U.S. and Europe. Thailand has to put itself in that process. We need new ideas to implement strategies and see qualitative change."
In the past three decades, he said, the best and the brightest minds in Thailand had been shipped to the financial sectors while research and development had been neglected.
"We need a creative economy," he said. "Forty-five years ago, we competed with Japan, and we lost. About 40 years ago, we competed with Taiwan. Thirty years ago, we competed with Singapore and Malaysia. Now we are competing with Vietnam. We keep losing because we have weak politics and short-lived governments with no policy continuity."
Thaksin predicts more problems for the Thai economy including a high unemployment rate and rising farm prices.
"They (the PAD) better concentrate on Thai′s economy and affairs instead of me," he said. "The more they harass me, the more support I get. I don′t want to annoy anybody. I compare myself to the domestic dog that can be easily tamed and always tamed. Don′t believe the fox and the wolf can be tamed!"
Thaksin would like to see the different parties "bury their hatchets and come together forgiving everything."
And he yearns to return to his country but for that he needs the blessing of the king, who is widely revered and respected in Thailand.
"I wrote him three letters already because I believe in his majesty′s kindness and wisdom," he said. "If I get a pardon, I know my supporters would be happy and we would not need to fight back anymore and prove anything."
He said he knows it may take some time before this happens but insists that he is willing to wait as long as it take to clear his name.
"In Thailand we say, ′Sometimes you have to bite your tongue, then quietly swallow you own blood,′ " he explained. "I am patient and I can wait."
The Thai government has been trying to track his every move, but he insists he is not actually in hiding — which leads one to inquire after his current home address.
"I am in and out. I never stay in one place for too long and as long as I am fit I can travel," he said. "You can look for me, I am everywhere!"
