On Aug 10, PAD co-leader Sondhi Limthongkul commented in an ASTV programme about his attempted assassination. He said that Suthep Thaugsuban, Secretary-General of the Democrat Party and Deputy Prime Minister, should stop protecting the culprits. He suspected that Suthep may be in the know as to who plotted the ambush. Some said that Suthep had been aware of the plot, but did not speak out.
Asked if the shooting was the result of collaboration among various groups, Sondhi just repeated what he had said on Friday, that PAD supporters, especially those in the South, now had to choose between the PAD and the Democrat Party which has people like Suthep.
He said that PAD supporters in the East should do the same, ‘Don’t go in disguise. Show yourselves. Let’s see if the PAD will be left with only the 5 leaders. If so, we’re ready. We don’t want anybody to falsely claim to be PAD. The true PAD must have a clear and solid ideology.’
While sparing Abhisit as a good man, Sondhi said the Democrat Party lacked ideology and Suthep’s behaviour was suspicious.
He was not afraid that PAD supporters would get angry with him, because he claimed that true PAD supporters would not get angry, but would understand him. He cited ‘Tee Chingchai’, a PAD artist who lost his hand during a clash with police, as an example [of a true PAD supporter].
‘The Democrats are a bunch of ingrates. Suthep clearly said that the Democrats were not associated with the PAD, and were not indebted to the PAD. With the Secretary-General saying this, what will the PAD-Democrats say?,’ Sondhi asked.
When asked by the co-host of the programme about the government’s slack response to the red shirt petition campaign, he said that he had the impression that Suthep was extraordinarily close to Thaksin, as he observed that Suthep did not want to speak about Thaksin, and vice versa.
There are links between the two men, one of which is a woman nicknamed ‘Ngoh’ who works for Thaksin. She has been a link between them since Suthep was the Minister of Transport. Another is Suthep’s man whose name Sondhi did not want to reveal for now.
‘Today Suthep is in charge of police affairs, but the revocation of Thaksin’s police rank has been going nowhere,’ Sondhi said.
Sondhi warned that the Democrat Party should consider itself, and Suthep would lead the party into extinction.
He said that he had never wanted to play politics, but he had to because the Democrats were ungrateful and always provoked the PAD. And some Democrats conspired in the assassination attempt, as they thought that without him the PAD would weaken, or else would grab votes from them.
