Royal Decree Sets Oct 15 Election Date

[Thaising]

Prime Minister Thaksin is currently in Chiang Mai.

News of his trip can be found in this thread.

Clash between Thaksin's protesters, supporters averted

Chiang Mai - The Chiang Mai governor and police asked of some 50 protesters against caretaker Prime Minister Shinawatra to leave the Chiang Mai Military Airport for fear that they would be attacked by some 200 supporters of the premier.

About 200 supporters of Thaksin were waiting for the prime minister at the military airport at 8:30 am when the protesters arrived and tried to enter the compound.

But the provincial governor and police blocked the protesters to enter the military airport and some of Thaksin supporters ran toward the group and shout abusive words against them.

The provincial governor eventually managed to talk the protesters to leave. Thaksin's supporters booed and jeered the protesters while they were leaving the area.

The Nation

[John K]

Someone mention to me today that if Thaksin says the airport is ready, then it is not. Good point on his part to spot that. Only when it is signed off by someone not under Thaksin’s influence will it be open and ready for traffic. So the payoffs will have to wait. I guess Thai things look out of place and draw suspicion in Thailand if they don’t operate on Thai time.

[sriracha john]

the special session is due to open tomorrow... they will begin determining who will make up the EC as well as the NCCC.... stay tuned:

Senate meets Tuesday to select new elections panel

BANGKOK, Aug 14 - The Senate is set to convene in special session on Tuesday (August 15) to vote for five new election commissioners out of 10 shortlisted candidates nominated by the Supreme Court last week.

The Supreme Court nominated nine men and one woman, mainly judges, as contenders to replace five election commissioners--three who were recently jailed after being sentenced to four years in prison on malfeasance charges, one who died last year and another who resigned earlier this year.

There are growing concerns that some senators might participate in bloc voting to prevent nominees deemed critical to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai government from being appointed to the Election Commission.

The new EC members will have about two months to prepare for the general election scheduled for October 15.

It will be the second poll since a snap April 2 election proved inconclusive and was annulled by the Constitution Court on the grounds that it violated the Constitution.

The nation has been plunged into limbo for months without a functioning parliament and run by a caretaker government.

Meanwhile, the Upper House will also select nine new members of the National Counter Corruption Commission this week.

The former corruption busters resigned in May last year after the Supreme Court found them guilty of awarding themselves a pay rise without parliamentary approval.

- MCOT

[Martin]

Surely this is way 'over the top'?:

"The nation has been plunged into limbo for months without a functioning parliament and run by a caretaker government."

The nation seems to me to have been chuntering along quite well. If it had been "plunged" the Thai baht would have dropped, at the very least. Instead of which, it is as strong as it has ever been in recent years.

[Jai Dee]

TRT disagrees with postponing the general election to a later date

Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) deputy leader Khunying Sudarat Keyurapan (สุดารัตน์ เกยุราพันธ์) asks politicians to leave it to the new Election Commission (EC) to decide whether the general election should be postponed.

Some parties earlier said the new five EC members, to be selected by the interim senate today, should be given more time to make preparations that will ensure a clean and fair election. The general election has been scheduled for October 15, or two months from now.

Khunying Sudarat said she herself believed the new EC could arrange for a clean and fair election in October. She said the postponement would benefit parties looking to draw former MPs from other parties.

Khunying Sudarat, also caretaker Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister, also said none of the 10 nominees for the five EC posts had ties with TRT.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 August 2006

[Plus]

Surely this is way 'over the top'?:

"The nation has been plunged into limbo for months without a functioning parliament and run by a caretaker government."

The nation seems to me to have been chuntering along quite well. If it had been "plunged" the Thai baht would have dropped, at the very least. Instead of which, it is as strong as it has ever been in recent years.

What about next year's budget? They are ok for now, but what they will do next year without a budget? There are also little things like mega-projects, four times the size of the new airport, that are being delayed. And the host of other little things like laws that has to be postponed until the real Parlament/Senate is in place.

But hey, next year will be 10th anniversary of trying to establish National Broadcasting Commission, what's another six months of wait.

Thailand is slowly turning into a failed state, an ungovernable nation that survives in spite of the government, like Somalia.

I think they'll get 3G services in Somalia faster than in Thailand - they don't need no regulating bodies, it's free for all, with cheapest call rates of all of Africa.

[John K]

Has not Thaksin spent all the money out about 5 or 6 years already? Funding todays projects on unearned income. Whoever is next in office will have a dry well to water the crops with. Certainly a great way to make the next guy look bad if you don’t dig deep and understand the underlying reasons. Once again educated voters vs uneducated voters in future elections. Guess who looks bad and who looks good to the uneducated.

Edited August 15, 2006 by John K

[Jai Dee]

The Democrat Party gives importance to education reform

The Democrat Party alleges the government has paid little attention to education development and so pledges education reform if it is elected the new administration.

Democrat Spokesman Ong-art Klampaiboon (องอาจ คล้ามไพบูลย์) said failure to improve the standard of education has plunged the country into an education crisis. Studies found Thai children’s Intelligence Quotient, or IQ, is reducing while investments in scientific and technological development have been very low.

He said the government changed its education minister five times during its five years in office but all those six ministers have done little to upgrade quality of the education system.

Mr. Ong-art said Democrat Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva (อภิสิทธ์ เวชชาชีวะ) will be out meeting the people at Prachanives (ประชานิเวศน์) school where the party’s people’s agenda, which includes education reform, will be discussed.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 August 2006

[Jai Dee]

Deputy TRT leader denies news claiming about bloc voting on selecting members of NCCC

Thai Rak Thai Party Deputy Leader Somsak Thepsuthin (สมศักดิ์ เทพสุทิน) denies the news on vote-blocking of the selection of the National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC).

He stated that the news is groundless and that he is not worried about it. As for the meeting between him and Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrua (สุชน ชาลีเครือ), he said that it happened by chance.

In response to the rumours about the possible postponement of the polling date, Mr. Somsak said that everything must go in line with the law, while confirming that even though the polling date will be changed, he will not transfer to other political parties.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 15 August 2006

[thedude]

Has not Thaksin spent all the money out about 5 or 6 years already? Funding todays projects on unearned income. Whoever is next in office will have a dry well to water the crops with. Certainly a great way to make the next guy look bad if you don’t dig deep and understand the underlying reasons. Once again educated voters vs uneducated voters in future elections. Guess who looks bad and who looks good to the uneducated.

With due respect John K, do you even know how the funding of infrastructure projects are structured by governments and the various institutional funds?

What exactly do you mean when you say "funding today's projects on unearned income"? How is Thailand doing it differently from other economies?

What do you mean when you say "Thaksin spent all the money out about 5 or 6 years already". Would you care to explain the government fiscal position and the level of public revenue and debt over the past 5 years to better elucidate your point?

And finally, perhaps you could explain if you consider yourself an educated or uneducated voter. Thanks.

Edited August 15, 2006 by thedude

[John K]

You could be correct. I am going from memory on this that some of Thaksins critics complained that he was spending money way too far down the road. That was from about mid 2005 he was speanding 2010 money. As I recall it was a “Jump start” according to Thaksin. Generally speaking Thailand is broke and much of the money is in Thaksin's bank accounts. Again news accounts from memories and accusations of critics. I am sure there are threads on it some place here.

[Plus]

How Thailand is doing it differently? For starters they have no clear cut ideas on how to finance the mega projects, no numbers on how much needs to be borrowed, where, at what interest rates, or maybe bonds will need to be issued, no one knows how much needs to be financed from yearly budgets and so on.

There's no financial plan of any sorts in place. And no one knows who is in charge - Transport Ministry or Finance Ministry, and rivals often clash with eachother, readrawing mass-transit lines, or storming out of Cabinet meetings. Should the new government take over TRT, the recent Cabinet resolutions related to mass-transit could be declared illegal, as they are outside of care-taker government mandate.

They don't even know what these projects are! Mass-transit is only a third of all proposed investments - 600 bil out of 1.8 trilllion.

I don't know about all other countries, maybe this approach isn't unique to Thailand.

No one is saying that overall fiscal position is bad, but there are occasionally rumors of liquidity problems, and lots of governement expenses were billed to off-balance accounts. The true picture will emerge only when Thailand gets a new, nonTRT government.

[cclub75]

A very good picture of the situation, in my opinion.

We could add :

-cash flow problems : corporate taxes missed the target (pressure on businesse's margins due to oil prices for instance, fierce competition on export markets, "strong" THB (relatively of course), government's control on prices of many products, etc.)

-off balance : that's a trick used on a very sophisticated scale by western governments. Thaksin is a good pupill. He learned fast how to "manipulate" a budget, to make it rosy, along with other "keys" statistical figures (GDP, inflation with CPI, etc.)

-my guess : since the political crisis, the "care taker" government is working on the mode "dust under the carpet". Everything should look fine and sabai until the next elections.

-the system is completed by old fashion propaganda : mega projects are the best exemple of this (no planing, no financing, pure vaporware in order to make the thai people salivate).

How Thailand is doing it differently? For starters they have no clear cut ideas on how to finance the mega projects, no numbers on how much needs to be borrowed, where, at what interest rates, or maybe bonds will need to be issued, no one knows how much needs to be financed from yearly budgets and so on.

There's no financial plan of any sorts in place. And no one knows who is in charge - Transport Ministry or Finance Ministry, and rivals often clash with eachother, readrawing mass-transit lines, or storming out of Cabinet meetings. Should the new government take over TRT, the recent Cabinet resolutions related to mass-transit could be declared illegal, as they are outside of care-taker government mandate.

They don't even know what these projects are! Mass-transit is only a third of all proposed investments - 600 bil out of 1.8 trilllion.

I don't know about all other countries, maybe this approach isn't unique to Thailand.

No one is saying that overall fiscal position is bad, but there are occasionally rumors of liquidity problems, and lots of governement expenses were billed to off-balance accounts. The true picture will emerge only when Thailand gets a new, nonTRT government.

[John K]

I read someplace that this Saturday will be the last broadcast for Thaksin. Apparently he does not like how the new EC is shaping up.

[John K]

Thai Rak Thai 'monopolises TV news'

A survey by the country's leading polling group has found that Thai television overwhelmingly airs reports related to the ruling Thai Rak Thai party during their prime time morning and evening news programmes as the country prepares for a new general election in mid-October.

The Assumption University pollsters monitored news reports from August 1-to-11 on the six popular TV stations, Channels 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and ITV, during the news programmes from 6-to-8 a.m. and from 5-to-8 p.m. The channels are mainly state-run.

The Abac poll report showed the ruling party dominated the stations' air time during both morning and evening news programmes, followed by the main opposition Democrat party, the Chart Thai Party, the Pracharaj (new Royal Thai) Party, the Mahachon Party and the Santiphap Thai Party, a new, Muslim-based party.

According to poll director Noppadol Kannika, there were 369 reports on Thai Rak Thai during the monitoring period. The Democrats got 136, Chart Thai 46 Pracharaj 25, Mahachon 17. There was one report, in total, on Santiphap Thai.

By minutes, Thai Rak Thai got 1,189 minutes, with most reports about Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on his duties, his interviews, and cabinet meetings.

The opposition Democrat Party got just 519.34 minutes on these TV stations and most reports involved the party's election campaign, its policies, interview clips of party leaders and party members.

Dr Noppadol called the media reporting an indirect election campaign.

He said an Abac poll conducted last year on the role of TV news reports on election campaigns showed that the majority of voters felt TV news reports would influence their decision.

The next election is scheduled for Oct 15. (Compiled by Bangkokpost.com from TNA)

http://www.bangkokpost.net/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=112232

[Martin]

Not being an expert on governmental budgetting, I cannot discuss the detail.

However, I am aware that all Embassies have Commercial Attaches and it seems to me that if the Thai government was 'playing fast and loose' financially they would be sending reports back that would sound warnings, and the baht would be being sold off and its exchange rate would be dropping.

As to mega-projects, if the country needs the infrastructure, it may be that it would be as well to get them done soonest, rather than wait till later. As the price of oil rises and rises and the economy slows down, it will get harder and harder to make up deficiencies of infrastructure. Managing decline is going to be very different from managing growth, and the most important principle would appear to be: "Be Prepared".

For all their faults, a bunch of businessmen turning their hands to running the economy may be better than a bunch of professional politicians.

I think there is a bit of cynicism in the saying: "Those that can, do; those that can't, teach; and those that can't even teach, try to become politicians."

I can think of a few who went to be politicians who could have "done". (Dennis Healey, for instance.)

But they are outnumbered by the other sort (Bush and Blair, for instance). So maybe the cynics can be forgiven.

Obviously, I am western-centric, so I cannot get the 'feel' of how Thai voters will make up their minds as to which will lead the country's next government the better.

We haven't heard from 'Heng' for a while. Maybe he will give us some pointers.

[John K]

Once again taxing the brain cells here but, is not the huge public transportation project slated for Bangkok and the surrounding area being funded by investors outside of Thailand? My first thought when I heard that is Thailand must really be broke. I would think if there was money in Thailand for this project Thaksin would be in the middle of it sizing up his cut. I suspect this supports my post #277 about Thaksin spending too far out and the coffers are empty. Once again I could be wrong because this is not my area of expertise. My gut feeling was Thaksin drained Thailand and now looks to do the same to others.

Is this selling another piece of Thailand to foreign investors? First communication with 'Shin' and now transportation?

[thedude]

How Thailand is doing it differently? For starters they have no clear cut ideas on how to finance the mega projects, no numbers on how much needs to be borrowed, where, at what interest rates, or maybe bonds will need to be issued, no one knows how much needs to be financed from yearly budgets and so on.

There's no financial plan of any sorts in place. And no one knows who is in charge - Transport Ministry or Finance Ministry, and rivals often clash with eachother, readrawing mass-transit lines, or storming out of Cabinet meetings. Should the new government take over TRT, the recent Cabinet resolutions related to mass-transit could be declared illegal, as they are outside of care-taker government mandate.

They don't even know what these projects are! Mass-transit is only a third of all proposed investments - 600 bil out of 1.8 trilllion.

I don't know about all other countries, maybe this approach isn't unique to Thailand.

No one is saying that overall fiscal position is bad, but there are occasionally rumors of liquidity problems, and lots of governement expenses were billed to off-balance accounts. The true picture will emerge only when Thailand gets a new, nonTRT government.

the matter of funding for the mega-projects continue to be debated not only within government, but also together with outside agencies. because the funding will cover a wide array of projects (you are right, mass transit being only a portion of the whole), the government has been correct in exploring non-traditional means so as to alleviate the direct fiscal burden. not only the government, but also the BOT as well as the NESDB have been talking about maintaining public debt at a reasonable % of GDP going forward with the execution of the infra budget. some of these funding approaches involve private sector partnership, and are new not only to this government, but to this region generally, and so it is not surprising that it spends a lot of time exploring the details, and appearing to be stumbling its way through. it might be surprising to you and others like cclub75, but thailand is actually reasonably well-rated (BBB- i think) compared to other emerging economies, and is very very far from being considered bankrupt. its external sector remains very robust. foreign reserve holdings alone (in USD) amounts to something like 58 billion at last count, it is not a poor country. the fiscal position, as you know, is healthy, and tax receipts are at record levels, largely because of better tax administration (cynics will of course have their own spin on this, but the numbers speak for themselves). this is why when thailand announces Bt 1.8 trillion in upcoming infra projects, governments from france and germany and china and japan all line up to lobby the government for the projects. what are they lobbying for? mainly for their own large contractors and equipment suppliers. these governments are not stupid, if they thought their contractors and suppliers wouldn't be paid after committing so much of their resources, they wouldn't be lobbying in the first place. traditionally, part of the trick is to offer government level export credit financing through ECAs like JCIB, US EXIM etc which is secured against the sovereign rating, ie backed by thai govt guarantee. however, newer structures in vogue these days involve what are called PPP arrangements, whereby the infra bill is farmed out to private enterprises (foreign investment priviledges might apply), and the returns are secured against project receivables, taking the direct debt burden away from the government, and usually coupled with asset transfer conditions at the end of the concession period. these structures put the projects under commercial scrutiny, which also in an indirect way, limits the government's ability to act in a corrupt way to inflate the cost of the project, because the cost is controlled by private enterprises who need to secure a reasonable return on the investment. the government's willingness to explore these funding scenarios openly with foreign corporations shows its sincerity in improving the infrastructure of this country. these options in effect limit the government's ability to milk the projects so much that it becomes unbankable. i am not saying there is no corruption, but i am saying that corruption is no longer the greatest barrier to projects being implemented. of course there are exceptional cases, such as the ongoing fight between transport ministry officials and state railway officials over who gets what for the express train project. and of course, not all the projects will be funded by public private partnerships, some projects may find more traditional funding solutions, some will find hybrid structures, but the overall effect in diversifying risk and better managing the spending will alleviate total debt burden. the truth of the matter is, thailand is falling behind its neighbours because for years it lacked the political resolve to bring about large scale infra upgrades. infrastructure is the biggest thing that can help an emerging country leapfrog growth and productivity, a government smart enough to recognise this is also smart enough to know that it can reap far greater rewards down the track. frankly, this government is more sophisticated than going for the blatant corruption handouts, there are far better ways to skin the cat. a lot of the graft that you do see is a bit further down the food chain, at the supply contract level, and some government officials can be implicated, but these guys are not your politicians. this is where i think a lot of people are mistaken, they commonly group all government corruption as being TRT related. most corrupt government officials have been in the same departments for ages, long before the TRT ever came about. breaking the grip of this corrupt bureaucracy is difficult and i have seen first hand how the SRT fought against the TRT government's plans to take back its lands. its all very complicated and no one is really clean, but the TRT does its work on the backdrop of a policy platform which frankly is good for growth. a coalition government, especially one led by greenhorn Abhisit, is diffinitely not going to do any better, the entrenched officials just sit there and wait out his term in office, until the next guy comes along and pays what he wants to get things done.

[John K]

A good post and for sure it made my eyes glaze over . Not to get too far off topic but how do suspect the uneducated TRT supporters view this? I think it is way over their heads and may just trust Thaksin to make the right decision.

[Plus]

Long post, dude, so you are saying the government is working. Very well, they had Thailand mega- sale fair back in January, and despite all this non-stop work they haven't progressed even an inch since. Ok, let's be fair to them, they did manage to form a committee that will oversee the drafts of terms of reference (just the commitee, not the TOR itself). According to Thaksin's boasting back in January, the construction was supposed to be half-way through by now, started in May.

Surely lots of Germans, Chinese, Japanese, even odd Russians want the slice of the pie, and it's absolutely necessary for Thailand to upgrade the infrastructure, but the way Thaksin went about it!!!

He couldn't make a decision one way or another and so asked foreigners to do all his own work - propose different technologies - underground, above the ground, maglev, high speed, low speed - whatever, propose different financing options - payments in chickens or shrimp, maybe even money, even advice on what routes to build. I remember one guy from a French company was reported as saying:"How the ###### would I know which routes will be profitable, I don't live here." In effect Thaksin outsourced the government's work and he asked farangs to decide what he wants. Have you ever worked for a boss like that? It's a nightmare.

Who will own the projects? One way is to give private companies run concessions, like you mentioned, but apparently the government wants to have total control. Contructors probably don't want to operate them anyway - name one single transport project that is not losing money big time in Thailand? Expressways, toolways, BTS, MRT, Hopewell - it's a history of failures.

The latest decision about the first three routes is "turn-key" - farangs build and transfer, the government pays and operates. Critics immediately jumped that it's the most expensive way but who listens.

TDRI recommended to scale down mega-projects, and it recommended how much could be safely spent every year, but who listens.

>>>>

However, I am aware that all Embassies have Commercial Attaches and it seems to me that if the Thai government was 'playing fast and loose' financially they would be sending reports back that would sound warnings

Martin, didn't you recieve your embassy advisory?

The businessmen are not running the country, they are robbing it, they work only for themselves, and their greed is unsatiable - the proverbial bureaucrats will never steal this much in their lives.

[Tony Clifton]

Thai Rak Thai 'monopolises TV news'

But how much of it is good news to TRT?

[sriracha john]

As a sailor, I've heard this referred to as, "Standby for Heavy Seas" :

Re-electing Thaksin means embracing a national farce

I am not sure if the Kularb Kaew affair and the love triangle between the Revenue Department, the Auditor-General's Office and the Council of State is a depressing case of deja vu, or a glimpse of more hilarious things to come.

Only one thing is certain: if the art of defending Thaksin Shinawatra was in its infancy five years ago, it is blossoming into its most advanced form now.

In 2001, it was a tiny, simple matter of "hidden shares" worth a meagre Bt10 billion. He was acquitted by the Constitution Court and life went on. Today, those shares have become a significant part of a deal that brought his family a tax-free Bt73 billion. As in 2001, the country is set for an election. And, once again, Thai society debates Thaksin's pros and cons - the effect he has had on democracy and his political ethics. In 2001, his supporters could focus their defence of him on what was arguably an "honest" mistake that had been made in the "past". His sale of Shin Corp shares to Temasek has changed that, because by concealing some of the shares his family was allowed to evade taxes. The Temasek deal and the resulting national divide show us what we can expect if the nation's rules are bent for an individual's sake. It's no surprise then that trying to defend Thaksin now is far more complicated - in both legal and moral terms.

If Thailand is to welcome him back, then it must be prepared for more farces involving our political system, our checks and balances mechanisms and our bureaucracy. We will have to be ready to, say, forgive the Revenue Department whenever its officials act more like Thaksin's tax lawyers than protectors of national interests, or believe the Commerce Ministry when it requests half a year to investigate the nationality of Kularb Kaew's owners to see if they are in fact Temasek nominees.

We must adopt the ability to find depressing news stories hilarious. For example, we must have been able to laugh when top revenue officials, confronted by the Auditor-General's Office over unpaid taxes involving the Shin Corp-Temasek takeover deal, did their best to look guilty as sin. We must be able to understand that, here in Thailand, when the national tax office is accused of helping the leader; the biggest issue is not the alleged conspiracy but whether or not another agency has the power to investigate them.

Re-embracing Thaksin means that we won't bother asking why the Revenue Department is avoiding the Auditor General's Office at all costs, when it must be simpler to bare all and set the record straight. And it means that we would be capable of absorbing the "Ruangkrai" saga with a sense of humour.

(To refresh your memory, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana is suing the Revenue Department for NOT accepting the return of his tax refund. Having purchased some shares at below-par prices from his father, he was originally taxed. However, after threatening to make a big political issue out of it by citing similarities between his share transfer and those between Thaksin and his children, the department refunded his payment. Claiming the department was guided by political motives and wanted to justify its decision not to tax the Shinawatras, Ruangkrai returned the refund cheque. The department, in turn, claimed that he had a political motive and refused to take back the Bt20,000 cheque.)

And yes, there's the unsettled issue of iTV's huge fine. We must, in this instance, be able to sit back and watch a comedy involving the Attorney General's Office, the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office. The fine is a staggering Bt75 billion, and we have seen Thaksin risk everything for far less money. Granted, he is no longer the "owner" of the television station, but rumour has it that this one issue can turn the controversial Shin Corp takeover deal upside down.

Finally, if Thaksin does come back as prime minister, we will have to accept that although many of us see these conflicts of interest as having a destabilising influence on democracy, they have become a fact of life. And we must sympathise with Thaksin whenever he complains, like he did a few days ago, that he has been under so much intense scrutiny that he's now afraid to breath too hard. "They will accuse me of taking too much of a share of the air," he said.

In a way, this statement just sums the whole thing up. The nation, as in 2001, is at a crossroads. Taking one direction means that what he has done is unacceptable; taking the other means accepting that what he has done, which has brought the country to this precarious spot, has become normal behaviour, like breathing air.

- The Nation Editorial by Tulsathit Taptim

==============================================================

that took some balls to write ... and a fine brain.

[sriracha john]

Thaksin hints that Somkid dispensable

Chiang Mai - Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Wednesday gave a strong hint that Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak is dispensable.

Thaksin gave the hint when asked to comment on a disclosure by Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat that Somkid would end his political career at the end of the term of the caretaker government.

When asked whether the government's confidence would be affected if Somkid is not around, Thaksin replies: "Not at all. Now, I am the main player and others are my helpers".

The Nation

[cclub75]

When asked whether the government's confidence would be affected if Somkid is not around, Thaksin replies: "Not at all. Now, I am the main player and others are my helpers".

That's the good point with Thaksin : he speaks the truth. But people have some problem to listen.

Like Hitler in the 30's. Nobody wanted to "listen" what he was saying despite the fact that it was... crystal clear.

[Plus]

He's got only two people with some credibility left - Somkid and Pridiyatorn - Finance Ministry and Bank Of Thailand.

If he really wanted to screw the country he should have gone after these two long time ago. Pridiyatorn has been a torn ever since KB lending affair but, reportedly, he has some serious backing and is not easily removed. Somkid is just too smart to keep around, and too strong to simply fire. If he resigns, it's better for everyone, except for the country, of course.

[hammered]

Thaksin hints that Somkid dispensable

Chiang Mai - Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Wednesday gave a strong hint that Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Somkid Jatusripitak is dispensable.

Thaksin gave the hint when asked to comment on a disclosure by Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat that Somkid would end his political career at the end of the term of the caretaker government.

When asked whether the government's confidence would be affected if Somkid is not around, Thaksin replies: "Not at all. Now, I am the main player and others are my helpers".

The Nation

How humiliating for all those ministers who thought they were important. They are just mere nobody helpers to the mighty one. I'd love to see the Thai wording for this one. It could be even worse than the translation makes it look.

[Plus]

There are no TRT ministers who think they are important, they are all toadies, they know their place.

[John K]

Are you saying that they are there to serve Thaksin and do as he dictates? Perhaps you are right. So what are the tiers of the socal structure now?

Thaksin

People who think they are important but have yet to relize the truth about Thaksin.

People who have relized reality with Thaksin and know they are not important.

People who have not been screwed over by Thaksin yet.

People who have been screwed over by Thaksin.

People who lack the education to relize Thaksin is screwing them over.

Farm livestock.

Food.

[Plus]

Are you saying that they are there to serve Thaksin and do as he dictates?

Who? The ministers? They can't get appointed without his wife's approval. No one crosses her. Did you think they got their positions on their merit? In the beginning Thaksin had to placate various factions but gradually no one had any bargaining power left.

People who think they are important but have yet to relize the truth about Thaksin.

I doubt they still exist. Sanoh was probably the last one, fell out with Thaksin years ago, long before officially resigning.

[thedude]

He's got only two people with some credibility left - Somkid and Pridiyatorn - Finance Ministry and Bank Of Thailand.

If he really wanted to screw the country he should have gone after these two long time ago. Pridiyatorn has been a torn ever since KB lending affair but, reportedly, he has some serious backing and is not easily removed. Somkid is just too smart to keep around, and too strong to simply fire. If he resigns, it's better for everyone, except for the country, of course.

Fyi MR Pridiyathorn is not a TRT member, in fact, he is very closely linked to Anand Panyarachun - ie liberals even if not strictly speaking Democrats, so he would be pretty insulted to be tarred with the same brush if you know what i mean. Again, not all government officials are working for the TRT, and it would be good to understand which camp they come from. IMHO MR Pridiyathorn is a godsend, his tight fisted control over bank lending and conservative treatment of interest rates have very much kept things afloat. He has a sharp, no nonsense way cutting through issues, and he will stick with policies even when it hurts. Being the central bank chief in way makes him quite untouchable in the same way that say Alan Greenspan was.