IT'S BRAGGADOCIO TIME AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE

Threats against a national leader should not be taken lightly. Even while
experts are still debating their credibility, intelligence reports that
big-time drug dealers have put a bounty on Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra's head certainly warrant a security beef-up for him.

No one should dispute the likelihood that the government's current war on
drugs may prompt some of the major traffickers to hit back - not only at
the top political leadership but also anyone with a role in spoiling their
dirty business.

However, being concerned about security is one thing. Exploiting the
situation for whatever purpose is a totally different matter. And it looks
like our leader is having a field day trumpeting the security threat he is
reportedly facing.

Thaksin didn't hesitate to bask in the public sympathy generated by the
reported threat to his life. He used every available occasion last week to
keep himself in the spotlight with statements like "I am not afraid to
die", or "it would be an honour to lie in a coffin draped with the national
flag".

Then he spent a good portion of his weekly radio talk last Saturday
bragging about his courage to stand up to the threats against his life.
"Wouldn't I look good dying for the good of the country?" he said. Then
with a touch of boldness, he declared: "Why should I be afraid? You only
die once."

At one point he apparently attempted to project an image of a humble
person, but his message probably had the opposite effect. "The death of a
Mr Thaksin is nothing. All he needs is a seven-day funerary rite and a
funeral after a 100 days . . . But for a national leader to die is not just
anything," he said.

Even if the threats against his life had some concrete basis, Thaksin
should know better: national leaders don't go around boasting about how
willing they are to die for the good of their country.

It was embarrassing enough that the police and military intelligence
agencies were at odds as to how verifiable the reports on the Bt81-million
contract on Thaksin were even before they were leaked to the media. And
Thaksin made it even more embarrassing by putting on a show of bravado in
the hope of political gains.

Of course the fight against drugs is a dangerous task. But to paint a
picture of the prime minister as the target of an assassination plot is
hardly likely to create confidence in the public that their cooperation
will not subject them to danger as well. If the prime minister doesn't feel
safe, imagine what the ordinary citizen thinks.

Thaksin may have got so carried away that he failed to notice how
ridiculous it was to, on the one hand, talk valiantly about a "coffin" and
"death" while on the other trying to tell the public not to get too excited
about the reported contract out on him. If his intention was to help calm
down any public anxiety about his safety, he could have easily done away
with his unnecessary display of verbal bravado.

Well, Thaksin certainly got the attention he desired. At least it was
enough to overshadow complaints about excesses in the ongoing war on drugs.

But there is an irony here. When well-known human-rights activist Pradit
Charoenthaithawee said he had received death threats after making noises
over the rising death toll of drug suspects, he was quickly laughed off -
even by Thaksin himself.

It's unfortunate that Pradit doesn't have weekly radio time to tell people
how willing he is to put his life on the line as a member of the Human
Rights Commission. And it would not have been just empty talk. Pradit did
not flinch when he was under tremendous pressure after exposing military
atrocities against pro-democracy protesters in the 1992 political uprising.

And like Pradit, there are many others out there who have exposed
themselves to danger in the course of their struggles against political and
social injustices.

They do not have an army of security guards watching them day and night so
that they can feel sufficiently safe to show how brave they are.

Thaksin should not be faulted for the heightened security around him and
his family. Since threats against top political leaders should not be
discounted - no matter what the country's political culture - they deserve
the best security available. But no respectable leader brags about it in public.