Sidelines: Thaksin surely has a new sinister game in play

By Sopon Onkgara

Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted and disgraced prime minister of Thailand, might have something either nasty or sinister up his sleeve again.

He will be busy meeting with newspaper columnists from Thailand who are golf buffs and senior members of the Thai Rak Thai Party in Hong Kong or Shenzhen either this weekend or early next week.

If something really nasty is set into action, it means that Thailand will face another unsettling situation in addition to the paid mobs that have created noise and traffic havoc almost daily in Bangkok. It might mean a new strategy of moving for further activities to fool gullible rural people into participating in this long cause.

Thaksin's younger brother, Payap, left on a flight last Friday morning to Singapore with five other Shinawatra clan members. He might have smelled something unpleasant related to a possible freezing of his assets and that of his siblings, because he has been relatively safe from the current investigations into the alleged complicated corrupt practices and financial shenanigans of Thaksin, now known as Mr Sinatra.

It's funny that Thaksin should have picked "Sinatra" as his new name. It just might have been an attempt to demonstrate to the world that he too had something to do with Mafia-type activities, just like his namesake Frank Sinatra did during his early days in Las Vegas.

If the current plan remains unchanged, Thaksin is supposed to preside over a meeting of the Professional Golf Association of Thailand in Hong Kong and get in a round of golf with chummy columnists on his payroll to cause more damage to Thailand.

Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan and Suriya Jungrungreangkit are due to leave for Hong Kong on Tuesday to meet with Thaksin. It is quite surprising that Suriya has recovered from the serious illness for which he sought medical treatment in the US recently and which gave him a reason to avoid having to give testimony to corruption investigators.

Maybe the colour of the greens are enticing him out of his sick bed so soon. Investigators should send somebody to monitor whether he moves around the airport lounge with reasonable agility, as someone would when lining up a putt on the fairway.

It is not known whether Khunying Pojaman is still bed-ridden at Raffles Hospital in Singapore, which was the reason she gave last week in order to avoid providing testimony to graft investigators. All Shinawatra family members are either ill or too busy to show up. Surely, having more than Bt64 billion frozen would make it difficult for someone to maintain a sane mind.

A major meeting will be held in Hong Kong this weekend or early next week either to plan a comeback or to discuss how to avoid extradition while causing more political trouble by, for example, encouraging rural villagers and paid protesters to reject the draft constitution.

Thaksin's money smells sweet to many people, judging from the number of columnists and other cash-strapped Thai Rak Thai members who wait to be sold to the highest bidder before the general election expected late this year.

Even Sven-Goran Erikkson, the former England football team manager, who has been out of a job for several months, could not resist the smell of Sinatra's questionable war chest, which was stashed abroad a long time ago without due permission from the Bank of Thailand.

Getting paid 9 million (Bt615 million) for a three-year deal as manager for Manchester City, Erikkson could do a lot while Sinatra pushes him for results and fame, while trying to avoid extradition.

Erikkson and Sinatra's lawyers should be warned about getting involved with his questionable hoard of money. England has stricter laws against money laundering than we do and they even punish those who share in the spoils.

The US has the much-dreaded Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO). England has far more complicated inspections through various agencies and RICO's counterparts there are the Money Laundering Reporting Officer, the National Criminal Intelligence Agency, and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

They would serve as big barriers keeping Sinatra's lawyers and Erikkson from laying their hands on the funds if Thai authorities have the guts to hire an English law office to fight both criminal and civil cases against Sinatra and his money hoard.

By the way, please understand, Thai people do not want Thaksin to be extradited to face the due process of the law in Thailand and the justice system here. It's not worth the trouble. Let him be a wealthy Londoner. We would prefer to see him show his smarts and the power of his money in the English high court with high-priced legal counsel.

Most of all, we want to see whether his alleged attempts to bribe judges here would be successful in England.