After passing laws intended aimed at Thaksin, Democrats now find the laws may be used against them, writes Asia Sentinel’s Richard S. Elrich

Thailand’s military-backed government, which endured weeks of chaos from tens of thousands of Red Shirt protesters in April and May, now faces possible collapse from possible court action because of corruption cases involving illegal campaign donations and raising the distinct possibility of a vacuum at the top of the country’s uneasy political pyramid.

The Democrat Party and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appear to be caught in the coils of laws passed in 2007 to keep the fugitive former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra and top members of his political cabal out of office. 

Abhisit , who took office in December of 2008 by what democracy advocates charge was a process rigged to perpetuate the Bangkok elite in power, said he hopes he and the Democrats will escape termination if found guilty by Thailand’s powerful Constitutional Court, which received the corruption cases from aggressive prosecutors in the Office of the Attorney-General. Abhisit was not the party leader when the alleged violations took place.

“We will respect, and follow, the decision of the court,” the soft-spoken prime minister said. The charges involve allegations of illegal donations worth more than US$8 million in 2005 from a major cement corporation, TPI Polene, to the Democrats, and other allegations that the party misused a grant worth about US$900,000 from the Election Commission’s political development fund.

Illegal donations and the misuse of the commission’s money violate the Political Party Act, which ironically was orchestrated in 2007 by the 2006 coup-installed junta to punish Thaksin and 100 of his party’s executives. If found guilty in either case, the prime minister and other Democrat Party executives reportedly hope to convince the court to agree to a loophole based on the illegality of retroactive punishment – although they earlier advocated that retroactive punishment was permitted to get at Thaksin and his supporters.

When the alleged offences were committed by the Democrats in 2005, conviction for corruption by a political party’s top executives, or the misuse of funds, could result in the party’s liquidation under a 1998 Political Party Act. But in 2007, that punishment for both offenses was expanded to include banning the guilty political party’s top executives from government office for five years.

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