A few days after Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's former premier who was ousted during a military coup in 2006, returned to Bangkok last week, changes were seen in the country's political arena, and fear about more political turmoil has renewed.
Although Thaksin announced his determination to stay away from politics immediately after he returned from an 18-month self-exile, the anti-Thaksin camp seemed untouched, claiming all the changes made by the new pro-Thaksin government led by Samak Sundaravej lately were meant to whitewash the criminal charges against Thaksin and his family, and to clear the way for Thaksin's political comeback.
During the past two weeks, Prime Minister Samak removed four top officials in different areas – National Police Chief Seripisuth Temiyavej, head of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Sunai Manomai-udom, Chief of the Food and Drug Administration Siriwat Tiptaradol and Public Relations Department (PRD) Chief Pramote Ratthavinij – to inactive posts. All four were appointed by the previous junta-installed interim government.
At the same time, the government announced several key policies, including the relaunch of the controversial "war on drug", which was initiated by Thaksin's administration; a plan to legalize casinos; removal of the foreign capital control policy implemented by the military after coup.
The Foreign Ministry also transferred Thai ambassadors to the United States, Japan, England, Brussels and Canada from their posts.
The Peoples' Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a civil anti-Thaksin group which launched dozens of demonstrations against Thaksin before the military coup, issued a statement to warn of imminent unrest in the country in consequence of the recent moves by the Samak government to "purge" senior government officials and allegedly "interfere in judicial procedure". It vowed to launch anti-government campaigns.
The statement, entitled "Here Comes the Chaos", accused Samak's government of insulting the public by appointing figures with " unclean" records to the Cabinet and the legislature, "unfairly" transferring some senior government officials and interfering in the judiciary procedure in connection with corruption cases against the former Prime Minister.
The PAD said the country had returned to a "lawless era", which might trigger another military coup.
