Sgt-Major Chakhrit Janthara re-enacts the alleged car-bomb plot at Bangkok military airport on Saturday. The case has been shrouded in suspicion since Chakhrit named three generals as conspirators.

BURNING ISSUE

Brass losing patience over 'plot'

If military men implicated in 'assassination attempt' decide to strike back, it could be the beginning of the end for PM

The alleged car-bomb plot aimed at assassinating caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has poured fuel onto the political fire, accelerating events towards the end-game.

One military strategist said a growing number of top military strongmen were greatly upset with the incident, which they said looked like a set-up aimed at drawing the military into an "assassination plot" against the prime minister.

"I think the situation is getting out of hand. People in the military are not happy with the car-bomb incident because it has led to attempts to draw in the military. The government might collapse as a result of this incident," he said.

So far, police investigators have only been able to arrest junior military officers attached to the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), who are alleged to have been involved in an attempt to kill Thaksin.

The police have yet to arrest any "big fish" but there have been generous leaks to the press on an almost daily basis about the involvement of military brass at the rank of general in the car-bomb incident.

"If police go ahead and link the incident with the military strongmen, who are graduates of the Chulachomklao Military Academy, then that would trigger real trouble.

"These military strongmen all have friends in the same class and now hold different positions in the armed forces. If they decided to strike back, it would be difficult for the government to survive," the military strategist said.

The car-bomb incident looks increasingly like a joke after General Pallop Pinmanee, the former deputy director of Isoc, came out to make fun of Sgt-Major Chakhrit Janthara, a key suspect in the alleged plot.

Pallop said Chakhrit does not have a sound mind and nobody would be crazy enough to assign him to implement a plot of this scale.

Chakhrit has become - or acted as - the centre of the so-called assassination plot, naming three major-generals as conspirators.

But he is reported to be close to one of the military advisers to the prime minister and is well known in the Ratchadaphisek area where he provides protection to entertainment venues.

Although he has confessed to being involved in the alleged plot, his family has not come out to visit him, protect him or even to give him moral support.

The car-bomb incident has further divided the military, which was already upset over the annual reshuffle.

Admiral Bannawit Kengrien, deputy permanent secretary for defence, has come out twice to bitterly criticise Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura for allowing political interference in the military reshuffle.

Bannawit's case could be dismissed as sour grapes, since he did not get a promotion to permanent secretary ahead of his retirement next year.

But it reflects a deep division in the military brought about by political interference aimed at building up a support base for the Thaksin government.

Some observers say the government might be tempted to use the incident as a pretext to stage a "coup" for itself through enforcement of the emergency internal security laws. Then, those who oppose the government would be purged.

But people have doubted the credibility of the assassination plot from the outset.

In the meantime, there have been rumours of a real military coup, which Thaksin discounted while attending the Asia-Europe Summit in Helsinki earlier this week.

Foreign leaders have been asking him when the election is going to be held, to which he does not seem to have a definite answer, save for a delay of around one month.

But with the political barometer rising to new highs, people at home are questioning whether Thaksin will return home after his foreign trip, which will also take him to Cuba and the United States.

The political stakes are high; all seems set for the end-game.

The Nation