nathalieandkyoko

By Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky

Tokyo – 23 August 2011 – This week, Thaksin Sinawatra plans to visit the Japan’s tsunami victims as part of a controversial attempt to rebuilt his international reputation. Japan’s Justice Minister Satsuki Eda said on August 15 that his Ministry would approve Thaksin’s visit as a special case under the immigration control law, which normally bans entry of convicted criminals. After the 2004 tsunami disaster, Thaksin received global sympathy and his party won a disputed election which his opposition parties boycotted.

“Thaksin obviously wants to use the Japan trip to help facilitate a possible push for his amnesty later,” Tulsathit Taptim, Editor-in-Chief of The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, told the Washington Times. “His Japan trip, however, is being viewed internationally as an unwise step that would weaken his sister (new Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra) politically.

Many criticism has been made over the fact that the newly elected Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Sinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest sister who is eighteen years younger than himself, is too closely related to him. Thaksin confessed at a press conference in Tokyo that he is “really close” to his sister, who he sees like his “elder daughter”, because he partly raised her after his parents passed away when Mrs Yingluck Sinawatra was eight. Thaksin said that after Mrs Yingluck took her Masters Degree in an university in the US, she joined his mobile phone company in Thailand. He said he “trained her” to become the president of his owned company. His sister and himself are in constant contact as family members. “I act like an encyclopedia, whenever she wants to open the book, she can feel free to open and close it”. Thaksin also told the journalists in Tokyo that he would go back to Thailand if he is not be part of the problems. And that he is willing to “urgently go back” if he could be part of the ruleship. Nathalie and Kyoko (unedited version)