Govt refuses comment on "Thaksin amnesty"

As floods continue to wreak havoc on Thailand, has the Yingluck government sneaked in a plan to bring Thaksin Shinawatra home?

Government leaders remained tight-lipped Wednesday morning over widespread Thai media reports that the Yingluck administration has added extra changes to this year’s annual amnesty to mark HM the King’s birthday that would benefit Thaksin Shinawatra.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, who chaired Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, from which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was conspicuously absence, waved off reporters, saying he would address the issue when he is at Parliament Wednesday afternoon.

Media reports said that during a high-confidential Cabinet forum Tuesday limited to only a handful numbers of ministers and officials, it was decided that people convicted of corruption would be entitled to receive this year amnesty. 

Last year’s royal decree that released prisoners to mark the monarch’s birthday excluded people convicted of drug trade and corruption.

Yingluck spent Monday night in Singburi, citing travel difficulties at night and did not come to the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, assigning Chalerm, who she had tasked with looking into political amnesty, to chair the Cabinet meeting. 

Democrat MPs taunted that as a thinly-veiled move to give her "dependability" at a time of raging flood crisis.

Yingluck late Tuesday denied knowledge of what happened at the Cabinet meeting, asking reporters to ask Chalerm directly. Chalerm refused to comment. 

Government spokesperson Titima Chaisaeng also said she had no idea what went on during the secretive meeting that followed the normal weekly Cabinet meeting.

Whether Yingluck’s denial, well recorded by the Thai media, will come back to haunt her remains to be seen. She had vowed never to work for any particular group or person. 

To miss a Cabinet meeting that would enable her to keep up on flood relief efforts would be politically acceptable if there was no hidden agenda at that Cabinet meeting. 

But if that meeting was spent on discussing plans for her big brother Thaksin, the prime minister could face a big political backlash.

However, it remains to be seen if the media reports are true, and whether the proclaimed changes to the annual amnesty would include another key point that would fully benefit Thaksin. 

The fact that Thaksin has yet to serve a day in prison has prompted question how he would be "released". If this year’s conditions benefit fugitives, it will be a considerable change from Thai legal and royal traditions.