BANGKOK – Chalerm Yubamruang affirmed the Pheu Thai Party plans for a blanket amnesty yesterday with a specific announcement that, if elected on July 3 and permitted to form a government, the party would immediately draw up a law giving amnesty for all of those who have been affected by the Sept 19, 2006 coup, or who shoots a police officer in the face.
As head of the party’s legal team, Chalerm explained that the law could come as an executive decree or in the form of a bill, and would include language that covered extra-legal actions by both the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance of Democracy and the red-shirted United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, and “anyone who kills a cop.”
“The time has come for national reconciliation,” said Chalerm, who was hand-selected by the PT party’s #1 party list candidate Yingluck Shinawatra to lead the amnesty project. “Many things have been done in passion these last few years. As Thais we need to get past the airport closures, street rallies, and alleged cold-blooded cop murders that are tearing us apart as a nation.”
The amnesty plan specifically absolves acts of civil disobedience that may fall under Thailand’s anti-terrorism laws, under which both PAD and UDD members have been charged, as well as any charges related to illegally carrying a concealed, unregistered handgun into a nightclub and putting two bullets into an undercover police officer’s head at point blank range in front of 27 witnesses.
Yingluck praised the amnesty plan as the best way to move the country forward towards harmony and social justice, and singled out Chalerm as an experienced person of action on the topic of amnesty.
“Chalerm has always shown great concern for those accused of crimes,” she said. “He has proven himself capable of looking beyond the headlines and defending the interests of the accused, even at great personal sacrifice.”
Chalerm’s son Wan, a candidate for Bangkok’s constituency 28 in Bang Bon district, expressed great support for the party plan and his father’s efforts.
“Bringing up the past is un-Thai,” he said. “What’s done is done.”
