Pay Rises, Perks For Thai Generals

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

Pay rises, perks for Thai generals

Nopporn Wong-Anan

Friday, November 10, 2006

Thai coup leaders who ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to stop "rampant corruption," are under mounting criticism themselves for taking extra salaries and top positions in state firms.

A Cabinet decision to give the seven-member Council for National Security, as the coup leaders call themselves, additional pay on top of monthly military salaries was the "dumbest thing" the interim government had done, The Nation newspaper declared.

"This is egg in the face" for coup backers and gives anti-coup activists an "early Christmas gift," wrote Tulsathit Taptim, editor of the English-language newspaper.

"I can't figure out any good reason except that they are now so bored with the job already and want to provoke a street protest so as to exit quickly with a good pretext."

The Cabinet Tuesday approved "position fees" of between 110,000 baht (HK$23,331) and 120,000 baht a month on top of the similar amount they make as top brass.

It also awarded the 242 members of the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly - a third of them active or retired generals and half of them senior bureaucrats - 104,330 baht a month, the salary of a mid-level manager.

Several coup leaders were appointed chairmen of state firms.

Air Force chief Chalit Phukphasuk, already on the board of national carrier Thai Airways International, is expected to be made chairman of profit-making Airports of Thailand next week.

The perks drew flak from political activists who led a street campaign earlier this year demanding Thaksin quit over allegations of abuse of power, cronyism and corruption.

"They are following in the previous coup leaders' bad footsteps, giving the public a perception that they launched a coup for their own benefit, not the people's," said Suriyasai Katasila in reference to the previous military coup in 1991.

But the coup leaders and the government defended the payments.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, himself an ex-army chief, said he would rather pay the generals hundreds of thousands of baht a month than see the country losing billions to corrupt government.

He said he would happily revoke the Cabinet decision if the coup leaders did not want the money or wanted less.

Air Chief Marshal Chalit said it was necessary for military personnel to be on the boards of state firms, including a Bangkok bus firm, related to national security.

In other moves in Bangkok, the military-appointed parliament agreed unanimously Thursday to lift a little- enforced ban on political gatherings of more than five people.

Martial law, denounced by the European Union and the United States, could also be lifted before Surayud attends the APEC summit in Vietnam November 17, Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said. REUTERS

[merlion]

The dumbest thing I have heard from the coup leaders.

[samran]

Topic closed. Already being discussed elsewhere...

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