Thirayuth gives interim govt a vote of confidence
Labelling it an "Over Time" or "Old Technocrat" Cabinet, leading Thaksinomics critic Thirayuth Boonmi says he has complete confidence the new government will lead the country out of its crisis.
He said most Cabinet members were senior politicians who would sacrifice their time to resolve the crisis. In terms of stability, Thirayuth said there should not be any concern because Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was discreet and firm. The Thai Rak Thai Party would not pose a security threat because its leaders would face prosecution within six months, while its populist ideology had not yet gone very deep at the grassroots level, he said. In terms of the economy, the country will sail through because even though conditions were not so bright, the experience and competence of MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Kosit Panpiemras, the deputy prime minister and industry minister, would salvage the economy, Thirayuth said. He said the new government faced a hard task in national reconciliation because of the social divisions caused by Thaksin Shinawatra's administration. These included divisions between rich and poor, urban and rural people, moral forces and some democratic groups. The government had to balance economic growth and public happiness. "To balance the sufficiency economy and globalisation or to balance trans-national business power and local community strength is a challenge,'' he said. Thirayuth said the new government should communicate with locals to make them understand the path on which it is leading them. It should inject money into rural areas but in a way that strengthens people without intoxicating them with materialism. "The Thaksin government ruled the country using marketing tactics with rural people and gave them high hopes,'' he said. The new rulers should also use money from the government lottery to support the media and non-government organisations but stop financial support to political parties. On the drafting of the new constitution, he said Thailand could not go back to a half-democratic constitution because the world was moving towards democracy. "We have to create a full democracy but allow institutions to regulate the direction of political capital. Anti-graft bodies must be strengthened and expanded,'' he said.
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