Stop hurting the King : Newin

A tearful Newin Chidchob yesterday launched a stinging attack on former boss Thaksin Shinawatra and asked him to put the brakes on the red-shirted movement's activities that may have upset His Majesty the King.

His voice choked with emotion, Newin said if he could ask for two things from Thaksin after "risking my life" for him, he would want the former prime minister to tell his men to stop "hurting" the monarch and end activities that could damage Thailand as a whole.

The political drama unfolded on TV at Siam City Hotel as Newin and his colleagues appeared at a press conference to rebut claims by the red-shirted movement that they had "betrayed" Thaksin.

Newin - once a right hand man of the runaway ex-PM - directed most of the press conference to denying he had betrayed Thaksin by turning his support to Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva to form the government late last year.

Newin asked red-shirted protesters who planned to join the planned mass rally today to reconsider their decision, saying their leaders had ulterior motives beyond toppling the Abhisit government. He said he suspected the protest leaders had plans to incite the situation and provoke violence in the country.

Newin said Thaksin and his (Newin's) group had fulfilled each other politically. It was not him alone who had gained advantages from the relationship.

He was an elected MP and a deputy minister in three ministries before joining Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party. Besides sharing Thaksin's way of thinking, which he appreciated, Newin said he risked his life working for Thaksin, was detained after the coup in 2006 and indicted for involvement in irregularities in two of the Thaksin government's projects.

The "real betrayal" and "utter show of ingratitude", he said, was Thaksin's treatment of Samak Sundaravej when he was made to believe Thaksin was 100 per cent behind efforts to reinstate him as prime minister last September. Newin claimed Thaksin betrayed Samak by asking coalition allies and some People Power Party MPs to back Somchai Wongsawat as prime minister, after Samak had been disqualified in the cooking-show controversy.

Samak became prime minister as the leader of People Power Party, to which the former Thai Rak Thai Party's MPs had moved after the party's dissolution.

Newin said that Samak, in his 70s, had to suffer as a prime minister just for Thaksin's sake. And Samak would have stepped back if he had known Thaksin no longer wanted him to continue as prime minister.

Newin said the red shirt protest leaders had held people hostage to achieve their goals and for their own benefit.

He told Thaksin's supporters to take his group as an example of this exploitation.

"When we think differently from Thaksin, we are hunted. We are destroyed," he said with trembling voice. "With respect, I want to send a message to [former] prime minister Thaksin that we are men, we are human, not slaves.

"I want to tell brothers and sisters joining the rally, I want to tell the [rally] leaders, I was a tool."

In a trembling voice and with tears at his eyes, he continued: "I was just a hound. On the day, I thought differently, I didn't follow what he said, In [former] prime minister Thaksin's eyes I became just a traitor. These are our lives. For those who are joining the rally on April 8 [today], I want you to take our lives as a lesson," Newin said.

Sitting next to Newin on stage, Deputy Interior Minister Boonjong Wongtrairat wept while Newin was speaking. Former deputy agriculture minister Theerachai Saenkaew, former deputy transport minister Songsak Thongsri and former deputy public health minister Anutin Charnvirakul were also at the press conference.

Newin's voice was choked with emotion when he said he was ready to die for the monarchy and would do anything to fight those who wanted to destroy it.

In his phone-ins, Thaksin has encouraged protesters to join the mass rally today, to oust the Abhisit government.

In a separate development, Natthawut Saikuea , a co-leader of the red shirts, told protesters at Government House that Newin had met Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda on Monday night before the dramatic press conference.

However, Newin denied the claim.

Reactions

"He must be thinking he has enough charisma to convince people or to win their hearts. But he is wrong. I want to tell Newin that his friends here are happy that he has gone away. They are not longing for his return."

PHEU THAI MP CHALERM YOOBAMRUNG

"He has done everything for his own interests. What he is doing now will only encourage more people to come out [and join the protests]."

CHAMLONG KRUTKHUNTOD, A FORMER CLOSE AIDE TO NEWIN

"I cannot understand Newin's agenda."

PONGTHEP THEPKANJANA, Thaksin SHINAWATRA'S PERSONAL SPOKESMAN, INSISTING THE FORMER PM IS AS LOYAL TO HIS MAJESTY AS NEWIN.