Arisman calls for changes

Fugitive red shirt leaders Arisman Pongruangrong (in pink) and Daranee Kritboonyalai at the Lucky Star Hotel in Phnom Penh during a party which followed Saturday’s friendly football game featuring Pheu Thai MPs, red shirts and Cambodian officials. AEKARACH SATTABURUTH

Red shirt leader urges end to anti-monarchy rhetoric

26/09/2011
Aekarach Sattaburuth
Bangkok Post

More than a year after fleeing Thailand in the wake of the deadly May 19 crackdown on anti-government protesters, Arisman Pongruangrong showed up at a Phnom Penh hotel and called for an end to anti-monarchist allegations against red shirts.

Mr Arisman spoke to reporters at a post-match party that followed a friendly football game between red-shirt leaders, Pheu Thai Party members and Cambodian authorities on Saturday.

At the Lucky Star Hotel in Phnom Penh, Mr Arisman complained of accusations that he was not loyal to the royal institution.

"Claims that red shirts are seeking to topple the monarchy must stop," he said. "We should not involve the higher institution in politics."

It hurt to be accused of disloyalty to the monarchy, Mr Arisman said, adding that he only wanted democracy, justice, fair elections and public participation in the judiciary.

He said Thais had been deceived for decades and had not had power at all.

See also: Surapong praises Cambodian relations

Related: Red shirts' bus crashes on way home

Mr Arisman said he had talked with deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and they agreed that they had to embolden the public so that they could change national systems.

"Today it is necessary for people to take part in each of the three powers - the legislature, the executive and the judiciary," he said.

"I would like members of the public to participate in the judiciary instead of having only appointed people in it."

He and Thaksin are fugitives. While Thaksin left Thailand in 2008 following a corruption conviction, Mr Arisman has been charged with terrorism after outbreaks of violence and arson during last year's red-shirt protests, of which he was a leader, seeking to overthrow the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration.

Mr Arisman said the Abhisit-led coalition, which was chosen in a parliamentary vote in 2008, had done nothing for the people and the July 3 general election, which Pheu Thai won in a landslide, clearly showed that people backed democratic politics.

Although Pheu Thai now leads the government, Mr Arisman said he had no plans to return to Thailand in the near future. He said he is uncertain about his safety in the country and will wait for proposals from the Truth for Reconciliation Commission, which has been tasked with ascertaining the facts of the past political crisis, before deciding on his next move.

"If political cases are finalised and a committee is formed to investigate both sides, then I will return to Thailand to live the life of Mr Arisman, driving a sports car, touring on a motorcycle sometimes, and staying with the family," he said.

Mr Arisman appeared much slimmer than when he was last seen in public in Thailand. He said he has lost 16 kilogrammes since the moment he evaded arrest by soldiers in the May 19 crackdown.

On that day, he recalled, before walking from the protest headquarters at Ratchaprasong intersection, he sat in front of the Erawan shrine for a long while. A garment vendor gave him a pair of sandals. He put them on, changed into ragged clothes and started to walk.

Soldiers ran past him. He then stopped to buy some candy and cigarettes. He smoked and walked as more soldiers ran past him.

He said he saw a dozen Humvees, some 100,000 rounds of ammunition and hundreds of snipers on buildings and heard endless gunfire and shouts.

In Pratunam, he took a motorcycle taxi through the Makkasan area and then changed cars several times as he left Bangkok through Pathum Thani and Suphan Buri provinces and headed for the Northeast.

Mr Arisman said he had passed a number of soldiers' checkpoints en route. He exited Thailand through Nong Khai province, where he boarded a boat to travel by river from Laos to Cambodia.

Once safely clear of his homeland, Mr Arisman said he spent his exile travelling around Africa and Europe before returning to Cambodia. He said he had even made occasionally fleeting visits to Thailand and some soldiers and policemen had recognised him but none arrested him.

"Many people love me. They know it is of no use to arrest me and cause trouble," Mr Arisman said.

It is not known where he has made his base since leaving Thailand.

At the party in Phnom Penh on Saturday, he urged his fellow red shirts to note the favour that Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian nation as a whole had done for him, for Thaksin and for the red shirts.

Mr Arisman said they should return the favour when appropriate.