'Gen Prem the invisible hand'

For the first time, ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Friday night publicly accused Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda of being a mastermind of events lead to the 2006 coup that overthrew his government.

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He also said Prem was the "influential person outside the Constitution" trying to meddle in government affairs when Thaksin was in power.

He also urged his supporters to continue rallying against the government until "real democracy" returned and double standards in the country were brought to an end. He encouraged his fellow banned politicians from the now-disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party as well to join the red-shirt protests across the country.

The former leader called on privy councillors and military leaders to stop getting involved in politics, insisting that the Constitution had to be amended, the House of Representatives dissolved and a snap election called to end the ongoing political conflict.

Thaksin said Prem, the other privy councillors and the Army commander should resign and contest elections if they really want to get involved in politics.

He said that even though he would not be contesting in the elections, other banned politicians should be allowed to run. The ex-leader was addressing his red-shirted supporters through a video-link system, which was loud and clear and displayed during their rally outside of Government House last night.

His speech, which began at about 8.30pm, lasted for more than an hour.

"General Prem has become so involved with politics that people suspect he is the Democrat Party leader," Thaksin said.

He also criticised Prem for publicly supporting Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, an action he described as politically significant.

He said by interfering in politics, Prem, as a royal adviser, would make people think his moves were being approved by His Majesty the King.

Apart from Prem, Thaksin also named former prime minister Surayud Chulanont as one of the plotters of the September 19, 2006 coup.

Earlier in the day, General Panlop Pinmanee, Thaksin's "witness" in his case against the coup plotters, yesterday called on Surayud to quit his privy councillor's post because of alleged involvement in the coup.

Panlop said Surayud should resign to protect the Privy Council from any untoward criticism. "A privy councillor should not get involved in politics, but he [Surayud] meddled in politics. So in order to protect the institution's reputation, I think he'd better resign," Panlop said.

The retired general said he was suggesting this out of good intentions, because Surayud was his former commander in the Army and former senior at the military academy.

Surayud served as the Army's commander-in-chief and later the Armed Forces supreme commander before retiring.

Panlop served as deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command when Thaksin was prime minister, and it was during that period that Panlop was also accused of masterminding a plot to assassinate the deposed PM.

Yesterday, Panlop reiterated his claim that Surayud had a hand in the coup, saying he himself had attended up to four meetings with other coup plotters at a house in Bangkok's Sukhumvit Road area.

He said the attendees were looking for ways to overthrow the government of Thaksin over accusations of being disloyal to the monarchy. In the end, the plotters came up with two possible options: overthrowing Thaksin through legal and constitutional means or doing it through a coup.

Panlop yesterday also accused Surayud of trying to persuade certain members of the Election Commission to resign so the April 2006 general elections could not go ahead.

He said one of the election commissioners had told Thaksin about Surayud's moves, but Surayud denied it when confronted by the ousted prime minister.