Thaksin Shinawatr had promised one day earlier in his Tweet to "speak my mind" yesterday before the red-shirted crowd before the submission of a petition for a royal pardon for him.
As it turned out, he did try to fight back tears when he started talking about how loyal he is to the monarchy and how he had told His Majesty that he would live until he is 120. But upon closer scrutiny, you could hear him talking about himself most of the time. It's "me," "mine" and "myself" -- how he had been mistreated, how he had devoted himself to the betterment of the country, how he had fought hard from poverty to wealth -- and how he was in a way like Bill Gates.
There was not a hint of regret. No apologies for having caused the country such rift. No proposal of a reconciliation process. Just me and my pardon.
Most critical was perhaps his insistence in his speech that the judicial system was not acceptable to him. That would put Thaksin in a very delicate position. You can't pardon someone who doesn't accept guilt in the first place.
It's clear that the petition will not get anywhere now that the Royal Household Secretariat has issued a statement -- only hours after the petition was submitted today -- that all petitions to the King must first be reviewed by the government.
Perhaps, it was never Thaksin's intention to get a pardon in the first place. Perhaps, the real agenda is something else.
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