No debate while rally continues
None of the Thai Rak Thai Party's key members will join a televised debate with the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and former opposition parties unless PAD demonstrators besieging Government House go home, government Spokesman Surapong Suebwonglee insisted yesterday.
"Our party will agree to a televised debate among the three parties," he said in response to an offer by the Open Forum for Democracy Foundation (OFDF) to mediate talks to break the political stalemate, planned for March 24, "but under the condition that the PAD calls off the rally one day before," Surapong said.If the PAD wants the public to know the facts, it should wait and see whom the people believe, and that will be reflected in the April 2 election, he said. "What I have said is the party's stand, and we don't welcome any further negotiations," he said. Maj-General Chamlong Srimuang, one of the five PAD leaders, said the group welcomed the OFDF initiative to solve the crisis, but he rejected Surapong's offer to stop the rally as impossible. "The only condition is that Thaksin step down, nothing else," he said. The PAD and the former opposition parties, the Democrats, Chat Thai and Mahachon, have asked for a televised debate with caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra defending himself against allegations that led to the public outcry to oust him. They insisted it would be useless to hold a debate without the man who was the cause of the problem. However, Surapong yesterday did not promise Thaksin would take the stage in the debate. "We will send anyone who can clear up the doubts, but not necessarily top party-list House candidates," he said. Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, of the OFDF, said the televised debate would be held at Thammasat University and he had asked all involved to meet on Monday to set the rules.
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