Transport Minister Expected To Be Next Pheu Thai Party Leader

[webfact]

PHEU THAI PARTY

Transport minister 'expected to be next leader'

The Nation

Pheu Thai caretaker executives vote for deputy party leader Viroj Pao-in, centre, to be caretaker party leader. The 17 executive members had to be out of their posts after Yongyuth Wichaidit quit his party leader post last week.

Charupong believed to have a good image and similar characteristics as Yongyuth

BANGKOK: -- Transport Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan, who is also Pheu Thai Party's secretary-general, is expected to take over as party leader, a highly placed party source said yesterday.

Reports have it that former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, seen by many as the ruling party's de-facto leader, has given the nod to Charupong assuming the party's top post after the minister flew overseas to meet him.

Charupong is believed to have a good image and similar characteristics as former Pheu Thai Party leader Yongyuth Wichaidit, who stepped down after the Civil Service Commission found him guilty of malfeasance in relation to the Alpine land controversy. It is believed that Charupong would make a good leader due to his allegiance to the party and wide acceptance among the red shirts.

Another party source said several Pheu Thai members who met Thaksin in London had been told that Energy Minister Arak Chonlatanon might replace Charupong as party secretary-general.

Meanwhile, Police Lt-General Viroj Pao-in was voted as caretaker leader of the Pheu Thai Party yesterday morning - while the general assembly to formally select a new party leader is due at the end of the month.

After a meeting of caretaker party executives, Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said Viroj was the most senior of six deputy party leaders and an expert on the law and familiar with its regulations.

Viroj joined only Pheu Thai just before the 2011 general election, but has become caretaker leader following the resignation of Yongyuth Wichaidit.

He was elected for the first time in 1995, as the Prachakorn Thai Party MP for Angthong. Later, he joined the Chart Thai Party and was appointed a deputy prime minister in the Chuan Leekpai government in 2000.

Before becoming an MP, Viroj entered politics as a deputy interior minister in the short-lived Suchinda Kraprayoon government on April 17, 1992. He held the position just over a month until May 24, 1992.

Before joining the Suchinda Cabinet, Viroj sat on the Assets Examination Committee, set up following the coup against the Chatichai Government in 1991.

In the 2005 general election Viroj was beaten by a new-face candidate with Thai Rak Thai, Penchisa Hongupthamchai. He later joined Pheu Thai and became a deputy leader and contested the 2011 election as its No-17 party-list candidate.

Viroj, who is 78, is the most senior deputy leader.

He said he believed he was selected as caretaker leader because he was the most senior deputy and would hold the position until the party calls a general assembly to elect the new executive board on October 30.

He did not know if he would become the official leader or not because former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had not talked to him about the position.

Viroj said the former national police chief, General Priewphan Damapong, plus Phumtham Wechayachai and other candidates had a chance of being the next Pheu Thai leader, but that would depend on party members.

-- The Nation 2012-10-09

[asiawatcher]

Wouldn't it be good if the leadership was voted by the populace not the party.

[Pi Sek]

Wouldn't it be good if the leadership was voted by the populace not the party.

No, I disagree, it wouldn't be good at all. What does Somchai the sator farmer from Satun, or Rattana the rice farmer from Roi Et, know about the party leader's job and what it entails (which is exactly why they don't get to vote on the PM)?

All they get to decide on is which party should run the country - a decision based on which promises sound the best. Unfortunately the party with the best promises is usually the party with the most unrealistic promises.

Maybe moreso in Thailand as in other democracies, nobody wants to hear that things might not be 100% rosy, even if the election candidate spouting austerity measures make sense. The result being parties that win elections rarely have answers to the more pertinent questions, and will even deny the relevance of those questions.

This is why strong democracies are based upon education and political awareness. What proportion of people in Thailand have heard of the Weimar Republic, understand the dangers of creating credit as a national scheme, or even know why there is a global economic crisis?

"the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"

"democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried"

- Winston Churchill

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"

~ Benjamin Franklin

[ratcatcher]

Wouldn't it be good if the leadership was voted by the populace not the party.

No, I disagree, it wouldn't be good at all. What does Somchai the sator farmer from Satun, or Rattana the rice farmer from Roi Et, know about the party leader's job and what it entails (which is exactly why they don't get to vote on the PM)?

All they get to decide on is which party should run the country - a decision based on which promises sound the best. Unfortunately the party with the best promises is usually the party with the most unrealistic promises.

Maybe moreso in Thailand as in other democracies, nobody wants to hear that things might not be 100% rosy, even if the election candidate spouting austerity measures make sense. The result being parties that win elections rarely have answers to the more pertinent questions, and will even deny the relevance of those questions.

This is why strong democracies are based upon education and political awareness. What proportion of people in Thailand have heard of the Weimar Republic, understand the dangers of creating credit as a national scheme, or even know why there is a global economic crisis?

"the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter"

"democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried"

- Winston Churchill

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"

~ Benjamin Franklin

Since we are into quotes, something regarding the present (and past) misadministration in the Kingdom.

"The (Thai) government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other."

Ronald Reagan

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."

Aesop

and a saying I have seen regarding the USA election campaign.

"What Thailand needs is adult supervision"