Masked cowardice to go on show today

Thaksin Shinawatra is set to cross yet another line today, and not even the looming threats of political violence and deepening national divide will stop him from fanning the flame. It doesn't matter if his phone-in speech, to be delivered to supporters at Rajamangala Stadium, is prudent. This long-distance address by the ousted prime minister will be a declaration of war, a desperate and a very high-stakes gamble.

Phoning in to talk to his supporters is not a crime, or so it seems, but it could make the concealment of shares, the evasion of tax and the purchase of the Ratchadapisek land plot look like mere flaws. Those were offences that he should not have committed as prime minister. Telling his supporters that those problems were not illegal and that anyone saying otherwise simply wants to destroy him is something Thaksin is not supposed to do as a Thai citizen.

For all his "I love my country" rhetoric, Thaksin does not mind destroying his homeland in order to portray his indefensible political crimes as a conspiracy. Hiding behind landslide victories and the praise for social policies that favoured the poor, he has never accepted that the charges against him constituted conduct unbecoming a national leader. He never faced it like a man and instead is distorting the consequences of his wrongdoings as being "politically motivated".

Thailand is in this predicament not because of elements that are jealous of Thaksin's wealth and popularity. If such elements do exist, they are taking advantage of Thaksin's failure to reinforce democracy while he was in the best position to do so. Thaksin's contempt for true democratic values brought about his downfall. What we are experiencing is the repercussions of one leader's badly mistaken idea that an electoral mandate gave him the licence to do anything.

The worst part is that he has been telling the world he was right. Again, he invoked his election triumph and his popular welfare programmes. The Thai Supreme Court, which based its ruling in the Ratchadapisek land case on the intent of the law and nothing else, is being denounced as working under dictatorial influence. Even now Thaksin refuses to accept that it was illegal for his family to acquire the land while he was in power.

Was it a crime that warranted a coup? No.

Was it Thaksin's stubborn mentality that made the deal a legitimate danger to democracy? Yes, because it led to his complete dismissal of the value of checks and balances on the conflict of interests. During his time, agencies like the Revenue Department and Securities and Exchanges Commission did not work in the country's best interests but spent much of their time finding loopholes that could justify the tax-free nature of the Temasek deal.

Nobody knows what Thaksin's "democracy" would have been like if it hadn't been for the coup and the People's Alliance for Democracy. Obviously it would have been a democracy which had no grounds to criminalise the Ratchadapisek land purchase, the blatant use of nominees to avoid billions of baht in tax and the loan to the Burmese junta that would substantially go into Shin Corp's pockets. What these would have done to the 1997 Thai Constitution is anybody's guess.

He will not tell his supporters today that Thailand's crisis started with his complete contempt for the law and attempt to stay above it once he got caught. He will blame anyone but himself, fuelling political tension and widening the social rifts in the process. He will not tell them that the law is there to ensure equality in a democracy. Instead, he will claim that the law is an unjust tool used to destroy a "successful politician" like him.

He will never admit that the current lawlessness of Thai politics began with his own rejection of real democratic and legal principles. He will lambaste everyone who has crossed the line, without explaining the root cause why they were able to do so. He will say that the bitter divide in his motherland is not his fault but the result of a conspiracy on the part of people envious of his noble political success. Most of all, we will never hear him say that while he may have been shrewd and noble in spending the taxpayers' money, he is nothing but a selfish coward where his own interests are concerned.