By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS-cum-convict on parole Thaksin Shinawatra today (Mar. 16) bluntly told those who may dislike him for whatever reason “to each their own.”
Thaksin shrugged off criticism he had merely feigned “critical illnesses” to deserve a six-month period of staying in a private ward at a hospital in lieu of being put behind bars at a prison to otherwise serve his curtailed, one-year sentence for court-convicted misconduct in office, saying “to each their own.”
Leaving his home province of Chiang Mai where he has stayed for three days for Bangkok today, the de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole maintained that he had been clinically ill but stopped short of saying what diseases or symptoms which he had had.
Without a soft splint around his neck today, Thaksin said he has recovered from his undisclosed “illnesses” but he is still suffering from a herniated disk in the neck and spine.
“I have now returned home. To each their own for those who may dislike me whatsoever,” Thaksin put it whilst talking to reporters.
Nevertheless, his critics had earlier alleged the de facto Pheu Thai boss of managing to compromise and flout the country’s judicial procedures to practically deny his jail sentence, keep himself from jail and be instead given the contentious double-standard privileges at the hospital whilst taking a pivotal part in the power play literally from his ward at Police Hospital over the jaw-dropping setup of a Pheu Thai-led coalition government, the stepping up of real estate mogul-turned-prime minister Srettha Thavisin and the allocation of cabinet portfolios among coalition partners.
Meanwhile, the 74-year-old Thaksin said he had the greatest happiness in life being reunited with his three children and seven grandchildren since he returned from 17 years of self-exile abroad last August.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss-cum-convict on parole yesterday talked over dinner with Prime Minister Srettha, pushed to rise to power by his sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, and with his brother-in-law/former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, among others at Somchai’s house in Mae Rim district of the northern province.
Several current Pheu Thai cabinet members and Pheu Thai MPs as well as Agriculture & Cooperatives Minister/Palang Pracharath secretary-general Thammanat Prompao and deputy police chief Pol. Gen. Surachate Hakparn also joined the dinner with the de facto Pheu Thai boss.
The deposed prime minister said he followed news on the media everyday whilst staying at Police Hospital and took notes so, he said, he may sooner or later give advice about many things to his successor.
Srettha told reporters he will undoubtedly solicit advice from his predecessor when it comes to the running of the country whenever opportunities arise but that Thaksin would at the moment prefer to spend much more time with his family after 17 years of absence.
In another development, former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat who visited Chiang Mai today to follow a local anti-forest fire campaign said it was not the right time for him to compare his political popularity among Chiang Mai constituents with Thaksin’s or Srettha’s.
In last year’s general election, seven out of a total of 10 constituencies of Chiang Mai had been overwhelmingly won by Pita’s party, compared to two for Thaksin’s camp and one for the Palang Pracharath.
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Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss talking to reporters in Chiang Mai. Photos: Thai Rath
Insert: Former Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat talking to forest firefighters in Chiang Mai today, Mar. 16, 2024. Photo: Thai Rath
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