An Early Start To Election Campaign In Thailand

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ELECTION

An early start to election campaign

By THE NATION

The ongoing censure debate doesn't just sound like an election campaign. It is an election campaign.

And that will be underlined today when the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the opposition Pheu Thai Party face off over the contentious issue of who "massacred" red-shirt protesters and who torched CentralWorld and other buildings during the political turbulence last year.

Pheu Thai decided to squander one full day that could have been used to hammer home corruption charges, which had been sporadic at best after two days. Bringing the thorny issue of last year's violence to the parliamentary floor only means Pheu Thai's main aim is to reinforce the divided political landscape, believing it could play to its advantage in the next election.

Whether that is the right strategy remains to be seen. Pheu Thai doesn't need to retell the tragic stories to keep alive support from the red shirts, who will vote for the party anyway. Perhaps it would be more fruitful for the party to sway non-red voters away from the Democrats, and the only way to do that is to repeat "corruption", "corruption", and "corruption."

A joint Pheu Thai-red shirts war room will reportedly be set up to back the party's speakers. The debate promises to be tumultuous, but Cabinet ministers will welcome the break from corruption attacks.

The Ratchaprasong revisit confirms that both sides understand the significance - or lack thereof - of this particular censure. After Abhisit vowed to dissolve the House of Representatives by the first week of May, the purpose of the no-confidence session went from forcing the government to leave to exploiting the occasion to win the election.

The government side is no less aware of this small window of advertising opportunity. Abhisit led government leaders in trying to discredit previous administrations in response to most Pheu Thai corruption charges.

One possible bombshell is what the opposition has not revealed yet - but will, tomorrow - concerning the charges that the Abhisit government tried to help cigarette maker Philip Morris allegedly underpay its taxes. With news from Japan overshadowing everything else, it will take a |stunning disclosure by Pheu Thai to rock the government.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Chai Chidchob has instructed coalition and opposition whips to come up with a recommendation on whether to postpone the censure vote from Saturday to next week.

That was a bizarre development. Chai justified it by saying that because of prior engagements, a police function is slated for the Parliament building over the weekend and it might conflict with the planned vote on the motion of no-confidence. He was backed by Deputy House Speaker Apiwan Wiriyachai, who said the vote should be delayed until next Tuesday so the censure debate could be extended for an extra day.

Under the whips' agreement, the debate is scheduled to conclude by tomorrow, with the vote cast on the following day.

The Democrats, who naturally want to get it over with as soon as possible, are challenging Chai. Democrat MP Thepthai Senpong said that instead of extending the debate, Chai should have cut it short from four to three days to have the votes cast tomorrow.

When the vote will take place, however, will not alter the fact that it will bring the election campaign from the parliamentary floor to the street.

-- The Nation 2011-03-17

[virtualtraveller]

Throw alot of shit at the wall and see what sticks! That seems to be the Peua Thai's strategy here. Since day one the UDD (and by extension the PT) have set out to force this government to spill blood and be shamed, eventually they got the blood but by then most the public had seen through their ruse and decided not to shame the govt. So, once again, for the umpteenth time, PT (and the UDD behind them) are trying to drum home the message to the public that the government be shamed when we all know (all except dyed in the wool reds) that it is the UDD organisers who should be shamed for the Ratchaprasong dead.

It's a shame really that the party that claims the largest support has very little to campaign on other than 'this government are murderers' and 'we will bring back Thaksin and his cheque book'. They've revealed little substance about corruption and government incompetence in this debate (though it does exist), they don't even have a shadow cabinet suggesting their 'better' way of doing things.

Edited March 17, 2011 by virtualtraveller

[hyperdimension]

Pheu Thai's campaign to kick out the current government started much earlier than now, and led to many unnecessary deaths.

Edited March 17, 2011 by hyperdimension