PM Abhisit: No Change Planned To Thai Cabinet Line-Up

[webfact]

CABINET RESHUFFLE

No change planned to Cabinet line-up : PM

By THE NATION

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday strongly rejected claims that he plans a new Cabinet line-up next month.

"There is no change [in the ministerial line-up] at this juncture," he said.

The government will face two crucial verdicts next month - one related to the Democrat Party dissolution case and another on the job qualifications for Democrats. But the prime minister said he would neither shuffle the ministerial portfolios nor adjust the coalition alliance to favour the Puea Pandin Party.

If the main coalition party is dissolved by a judicial decision and its executives face a five-year ban from politics, Abhisit said he would be automatically out of the picture, so he would not have a say in the next government under such a scenario.

In regard to the verdict on the case involving Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankhiri, he said he was not aware that Trairong's job in the government would suffer an impact, whatever the verdict on equity stakes Trairong held as an MP.

He repeated his stand about keeping the Bhum Jai Thai Party in the coalition bandwagon.

And while he confirmed that his decision to keep or fire a minister would be based on performance, none of the job-evaluation reports and probes into alleged irregularities had been completed to warrant changes.

"I am saying I am not completely satisfied with the performance of some Cabinet members but this is not the time to bring up the issue," he said.

In a related development, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij dismissed speculation he was involved in talks about the return of the "3 Ps" clique from the Puea Pandin Party to the coalition alliance.

The clique, made up of faction leaders Preecha Laohapongchana, Pinij Charusombat and Pairoj Suwanchawee, was booted out of the government after a censure vote against two ministers from Bhum Jai Thai.

Korn said speculation about the clique was designed to smear him and cause a rift within the coalition.

He issued an eight-point rebuttal, which said:

?he was never involved in negotiations for a coalition deal, as alleged;

?he was not in any talks without authorisation from either his party leader or his party secretary-general;

?the last time he met with Preecha, Pinij and Pairoj was at a dinner party six months ago;

?he was busy with his job tackling economic issues, as assigned by Abhisit;

?his secondary task was to take care of Bangkok constituencies and not to broker deals;

?as finance minister he was obligated to work with Cabinet colleagues and not make enemies;

?he was uncertain why such speculation spread, but he suspected it was aimed at causing a split among coalition partners;

?the prime minister and he remain in complete agreement with each other.

Bhum Jai Thai spokesman Supachai Jaisamut, meanwhile, called for the Democrats to remain firm on their alliance, warning against any malicious attempt to sow distrust between the main coalition party and its junior partner.

Supachai drew an analogy that the Democrat-Bhum Jai Thai alliance was like a husband-and-wife team. The marital status would be in jeopardy if the husband picked a third party over the wife, he said.

He suspected that there were moves to drive a wedge between the Democrats and Bhum Jai Thai. The aim was to boot his party out of the government because its people were in charge of top ministries such as Interior and Transport.

Commenting on alleged corruption cases linked to Bhum Jai Thai, he said he was confident his party could clear its name.

For example, the graft probe related to the scandal on candidates for district chiefs found no link to the minister in charge, he said, arguing that the prime minister would have purged the Interior Ministry long ago if Bhum Jai Thai ministers were involved in the scandal.

Amid speculation about the "3 Ps" clique, Pairoj and Preecha showed up at a lunch with Puea Pandin leader Chanchai Chairungreang.

The three denied the lunch had an underlying political message although top party executives showed up in full force. Also seen at the lunch were deputy finance minister Pruttichai Damrongrat, Information and Communications Technology Minister Ranongrak Suwanchawee and party secretary-general Sithichai Kowsurat.

Sithichai said the lunch was part of preparations for a party meeting to be held in Rayong next month. He dismissed claims that Pinij was in contact with fugitive ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to plot the Cabinet line-up.

-- The Nation 2010-10-13

[SergeiY]

I wonder how they will react and deny everything if the next rumour goes something like this:

Nobody has done anything and no-one is planning to do something.

[asiawatcher]

Why would he bother changing his line up now with elections planned? No need - atta boy!