Published on January 13, 2006

The Thai Rak Thai Party had fallen prey to the trap of single-party government, Democrat Party chief adviser Chuan Leekpai said yesterday.

“The strength of single-party government is its unity, but Thai Rak Thai has abused its strength to harbour cronyism in awarding ministerial positions,” he said.

Chuan said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s overwhelming parliamentary majority had made him overconfident and allowed him wide discretionary power – to appoint cronies over qualified professionals.

“The strength of single-party government has turned into its weakness, because Thai Rak Thai members are being treated by Thaksin like his employees and not honoured politicians,” he said.

He urged the public to carefully evaluate any government in power for its performance rather that its form, saying each government, be it a coalition or a single party, had its strengths as well as weaknesses.

He said past coalition governments had some strong points if compared to the present regime.

“My point is this: It matters how a ruling party or a coalition comes to power, as I do not trust any government that condones money politics,” he said, in a swipe at the prime minister.

In his view, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva would be a prime candidate to take over the government, as he had a clean record and more than 10 years’ experience in politics.

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