One common joke has it that the best students will grow up to become researchers, who then will work for businessmen, who were second-best students in the classroom. Both groups will eventually serve their bad school peers who end up being politicians.
The joke is largely true but for one thing, which is that some of the most brilliant students in the classroom will go all the way to become doctors. Many are still unquestioning servants in business and politics, but a big change happened on Thursday.
The Medical Council’s reaffirmation of its conclusion that Thaksin Shinawatra received the VIP treatment at the Police Hospital after being improperly diagnosed upon his return from exile took place after Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsuthin was booed by protesters. The boos and jeers, however, played no part in what was hailed as doctors’ declaration of freedom from fishy politics.
Somsak, a politician whose education backgrounds were nowhere near medicine, had vetoed the council’s conclusion and its recommended disciplinary action against three doctors. The veto warranted the widely-expected reaffirmation, which came amid overwhelming support from the public and medical community.
The “14th floor case”, as the Thaksin controversy is called, is in fact never a “grey” matter. Everyone knew from the very beginning why the coup-dethroned former prime minister ended up at the Police Hospital.
The real question was not whether Thaksin was critically ill, but whether anyone would try to do anything about the perceived political façade.
The question was whether or not the Thai society, which brings together the public, political apparatus, bureaucracy and professionals, can always accept or always be made to accept what politicians fighting for powers say is the way things are.
The question was whether politicians can go only so far in dictating or influencing public opinions, or whether the sky is the limit regarding what they can do.
Some of the answer has been provided by the Medical Council on Thursday. By “some”, it’s still a very long way to go.
Jatuporn Prompan, a former leading warrior who used to fight for Thaksin, has been full of praises for doctors, who he said were always the first to fight wrongdoings in politics. He remarked that when the Yingluck administration pushed through the controversial amnesty bill, the first significant resistance came from doctors.
“Don’t forget that doctors are the friends who were top of your class,” Jatuporn said at a TV programme aired minutes before the council’s crucial vote.
But his purportedly-upbeat remark can also eat into anyone’s optimism at the same time. That amnesty bill was controversial because it was perceived by many people as an attempt to reincorporate Thaksin politically. If that was true, it was a comparatively “mild” effort if compared with the 14th floor controversy.
That bill was passed by the House of Representatives over a decade ago but today Thais are still debating ethics. In other words, more than ten years have passed since doctors’ anti-bill move before Thais see another significant act of defiance from the profession.
Thursday’s development is soul-searching in another aspect.
Will the People’s Party cheer the doctors? Thaksin’s supporters consider him a victim of political persecution. They see his conviction and prescribed punishment as unfair and the 14th floor controversy as a necessary albeit painful step if “justice” is to be restored.
The Medical Council’s move is pushing Thaksin further away from that “justice”. The People’s Party, now Pheu Thai’s biggest enemy, must be feeling the weight of a big dilemma.
Should the People’s Party stay away from the “ethics” uproar and stick to helping “politically persecuted” persons like Thaksin? In which case it can’t praise the doctors.
That is just one of the key questions generated by the doctors’ “declaration of freedom.” The Medical Council’s moves are having far-reaching ramifications, affecting the future of the entire Pheu Thai Party, its reluctant and fragile alliance with the conservatives, and immediately the political path of Public Health Minister Somsak.
In the uneasy Thai political triangle, everything is delicately tied to something else, meaning one small development can make the biggest status quo fall like a domino.
The council’s reaffirmation will influence the current court inquiry into the execution of his sentence. A negative court ruling will affect Pheu Thai. A bitter Pheu Thai will reconsider the alliance.
Then the script will keep unfolding. A House dissolution maybe? Or a Pheu Thai-People’s Party reunion? Who gets what if Pheu Thai is reunited with the People’s Party? Who will control the Finance Ministry, for example?
What about Digital Wallet that the People’s Party seems to oppose now? The same goes for the Entertainment Complex.
Will there be another coup? Will there be street turmoil whatever happens?
The “doctors’ liberation” was tough, but the above questions are equally hard, if not harder.
