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Published on February 18, 2008

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will today deliver his coalition government's policy address to Parliament as part of a three-day debate.

At a meeting with People Power Party members yesterday, Samak said he did not want other government MPs to laud its policies beyond their merit. He also wanted MPs to use reasons in their debate.

Cabinet members and MPs were given a briefing on the policy address and how to present their own opinions.

The Samak government plans to resurrect populist policies successfully implemented during the Thaksin years in securing political gains. But the policies have also saddled the country with about Bt150 billion in debt.

These populist policies include housing for the poor, a debt moratorium, village funds, financing schemes and the people's bank. However, the new government will also pledge to invest heavily in infrastructure and mega-projects in order to jump-start investment.

Kuthep Saikrachang, spokesman for the People Power Party, said there would not be more than 30 MPs from the party taking part in the policy debate. He said Samak wanted the debate to be as realistic as possible.

Kuthep said he welcomed the participation of opposition Democrats, who have lined up about 50 MPs to grill the government's policy platform.

"The opposition has agreed that the debate should last three days and we welcome this," he said. "The government side will not counter-attack the opposition point by point because in the new way of politics we'll be playing by the rules."

He hopes the Democrats will stick to the framework of the policy debate rather than attacking personalities, which could create damage.

Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said the government was ready to respond to the opposition's plan to attack the government's populist economic policies, arguing that these policies were designed to help out grass-roots people.

"We have to pursue the populist policies fully, from the Bt30 healthcare scheme and the people's bank to infrastructure projects," he said.

The Democrats have also attempted to follow the policy programmes of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, he added.

Asked whether all the populist policies of Thai Rak Thai would be taken up by the government, Noppadon said no good programmes would be abolished and said they would be pursued further, such as financial support for senior citizens.

Democrat spokesman Ong-art Khlamphaiboon said the opposition had lined up about 50 MPs to take part in the policy debate. Each MP will have a 15-minute time slot.

He cautioned that on several occasions, while the Democrats were making their point in Parliament, the government MPs had tried to disrupt them by making protests.

He said the government MPs should not try to protest without justification because it hinders the opposition from performing its role of probing the government. Political activist Suriyasai Katasila said the Samak government had copied most of the populist policies of the ousted Thaksin government but had no clear time frame to put the economy back on track.

He said the Samak government had failed to spell out the three main policies: how to eliminate corruption, how to reform the media and the political system, and how to tackle poverty.

The Nation