ExPM Thaksin - THE interview

Thaksin Shinawatra: the full transcript of his interview with The Times

It's a long article but remarkable open given Thai's reluctance to discuss issues close to certain centres of power. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this former PM, nobody ever said Thaksin lacked guts! Fascinating stuff.

Here are a couple of extracts:

Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen compared you to Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. Is that a good comparison?

"There are some similarities there, but not really everything. The similarity is we won elections, we rule the countries. We've been ousted by the coup d'etat and we come from the people. We are democratically elected leaders and we come from the majority of the people – a big majority, not just a small majority.

She's under house arrest, I've been kicked out of the country. They know that if I am in the country it'll be worse [for them] than Aung San Suu Kyi."

"They [the enemies of Mr Thaksin] tried to kill me. They had a meeting in the house of Mr Pi [Malakul], who is close to Her Majesty… General Surayud [Chulanont, former Thai army commander, and prime minister after Thaksin was ousted by the military coup] asked General Panlop [Pinmanee] to assassinate me."

Having said all that .. a comparison to Aung San Suu Kyi! What front!

I honestly don't know what to think about this guy.

When I was in Thailand last year, all my friends were convinced he was a con man. But he's very shrewd, and can come across as very sincere. Plays the victim card well

Thought this might play out this way. Yesterday's Bangkok Post shows Lese Majeste charges have been laid against Thaksin. The Thais take ANY comments made about their Royal Family very seriously.