Amid a swirl of controversy and the clicking of camera shutters, the high-profile saga of Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s former leader and a character fit for the most engrossing of political dramas, continues. What’s new, you ask? Well, darling readers, the man has carved out a nook for himself in the sterile quarters of the Police General Hospital, transforming it into his unexpected residence for the past 120 days – that’s a solid four months of medical pampering, for those keeping count.
The Department of Corrections (DoC), the agency not typically known for its soft side, has permitted this stay, ignoring the furrowed brows of skeptics. A certain regulation, hot off the presses and already marinating in controversy, allows qualified inmates – our Mr. Thaksin included – to trade iron bars for hospital wards. And as you might guess, not everyone’s toasting to his health over this decision.
“We’ve got his medical updates on paper,” declares Pol Col Sirikul Srisanga, the hospital’s spokeswoman, likelier with a clipboard than a stethoscope, shedding light on the DoC’s involvement. Per the rules, doctors play the informant role, their assessments of Thaksin’s condition deciding whether he’s a fixture in his hospital enclave or if prison blues become his next fashion statement.
Here’s the deal: the 14th floor now dubs as Thaksin’s medically-sanctioned penthouse jail cell, court-approved and DoC-supervised. But hush-hush on the health details, folks – the National Health Act zips lips on such matters unless Mr. Thaksin signs off on the gossip. Pol Col Sirikul puts it plainly, steering the media to tread lightly around the patient’s rights – Thaksin’s and theirs.
The puzzle of whether this new DoC codex is a Thaksin-favoring wildcard remains on the table. Deputy Prime Minister Somsak Thepsutin, however, swats away the notion Thaksin’s playing an endless game of ‘hospital stay’: doctors will blow the full-time whistle, he assures, not the wishes of VIP visitors or onlookers.
In this play where health merges with law, political drama aficionados can’t get enough. Thaksin, soaring into his mid-70s, returned to the motherland only to exchange freedom for confinement of a different sort. What ensued was an express trip from the Big House to the Big Hospital, and the verdict is out whether he’ll be a permanent resident in the name of healthcare.
Then there’s Winyat Chartmontree, holding the fort as Thaksin’s legal eagle, who waves a finger at social media busybodies hungry for a nibble of Thaksin’s medical charts. Such intrusions could be a no-no, he types away on Facebook, encrypting it with warnings of rights infringements and human rights violations.
Not all heroes wear capes, some carry petitions. Enter Pichit Chaimongkol, spearheading a network pushing for clarity (or perhaps transparency) on Thaksin’s true health state and the star-studded medical team behind his treatment curtain. The fear, whispered or yelled, is that Thaksin’s scoring preferential treatment points, cloaked under the guise of a sick bed. A fit as a fiddle Thaksin at the airport months ago versus the now-hospitalized figure is fuel to their fiery doubt.
The docudrama unfolds each day, with a nation hooked on every twist. As Thaksin’s hospital holiday inches towards uncertain closure, one thing’s for certain – the Thaksin chronicles are far from over, and I, your spirited scribe, will be here to spill the ink on every chapter yet to come.
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