The Yingluck government's controversial plan to seek a royal pardon for ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra might have been just a political game to test the mood and strength of his political opponents.
As the draft royal pardon drew angry responses from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and other anti-Thaksin groups last week, the self-exiled billionaire wrote a letter from Dubai stating that he did not want to benefit from the draft decree for royal pardons for convicts on the occasion of His Majesty the King's 84th birthday on Dec 5.
''I am ready to sacrifice my own happiness even though I have not received justice for five years,'' wrote Thaksin, who was sentenced by the Supreme Court in 2008 to two years in jail for abusing his authority as prime minister to help his wife buy a state-owned plot of land in Bangkok in 2003.
Many people are still wondering why the ruling Pheu Thai Party decided to be deliberately provocative when it knew that the proposed royal pardon would stir up the PAD and other anti-Thaksin groups?
The party stands to lose more than gain by pulling such a stupid stunt. But this is no ordinary political game; the move was apparently designed to draw public sympathy for the deposed prime minister.
Through his hand-written letter, Thaksin managed to project himself as a person willing to sacrifice for the greater good of the country.
He also wrote that as His Majesty the King was ill, nobody should do anything to cause the King worry. And with the Yingluck government now having withdrawn its amnesty plan, Thaksin will be seen as a peacemaker who helped save the country from a new round of political conflict.
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