Whilst military dictators in Burma hold democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi in detention, the Thaksin administration is cracking down on pro-democracy Burmese students living in exile in Thailand.
Can we see the common thread?
Our prime minister has also harshly attacked the UNHCR, and his government is turning a blind eye to the plight of refugees who flee poverty, political oppression and war atrocities in Burma.
Thaksin Shinawatra said Thailand was not a lackey of the UN body. Despite the lip-service he has given to peace and democracy in Burma, his actions show whose lackey he wants our country to become.
What a choice. The Burmese generals must be grinning from ear to ear to know they are not alone in their heartless world of despots.
As well as taking to task the Burmese pro-democracy activists and the UNHCR, Mr Thaksin has a plan up his sleeve to punish poor Burmese who risk their lives to cross our border in order to escape his junta friends' atrocities and find work here _ and some peace.
His idea is to abolish the system of registering migrant workers. In its place he wants to set up a formal, government-to-government, labour import system whereby migrant workers must possess passports, visas, official contracts and a definite term of stay.
That means some two million Burmese workers in Thailand will face expulsion once their registrations expire next year. It also means they will be forced to live a more tenuous existence and thus be more vulnerable to exploitation.
Labour expert Bundit Thanachaisethawut, among many, doubts what Mr Thaksin has in mind is feasible.
Describing it as wishful thinking at best and inhumane at worst, he said the plan did not take into account the simple reality that the Burmese junta does not want to take the migrant workers back. That is because not only do most of the migrants not have legal documents to prove they are Burmese citizens but a large number belong to ethnic minorities that the junta wishes to obliterate.
Thai immigration offices have tried before to formalise the system, and they failed miserably. They had to wait more than six months for Burma to verify the citizenship of just 60 workers before they could be sent home. Two died in Thai detention centres while they were waiting. And the Burmese authorities agreed to accept only 20 for return.
The system broke down with just 60 people. Mr Thaksin seems to think it can handle two million. The mess to come is quite obvious.
The linkages between political oppression in Burma and the influx of Burmese people into Thailand are clear. So clear, in fact, that we must ask ourselves what it is that convinces Mr Thaksin to kowtow to the aggressor generals.
The military junta is widely suspected of supporting the Wa drug kingpins who bombard our country with methamphetamine pills. Its wars of ethnic cleansing have pushed the weak and the poor across the border into our country, burdening us with an endless stream of refugees, displaced persons and migrant workers.
If Mr Thaksin wants to end the influx of war victims, he should not use the UNHCR and the pro-democracy activists as scapegoats, nor should he portray the migrants as a national security threat by painting them as job stealers, drug traffickers and disease carriers.
Instead, he should talk candidly to the junta about stopping their mischief and help to foster peace and mutual respect in Burma so its people can live without fear or in danger in their homeland.
If there is anyone in Burma who is a national security threat to Thailand, it is not the Burmese who want democracy for their country or the exploited Burmese migrants who ask for help; it is the junta's generals, Mr Thaksin's good friends.