Political chess game

In chess, pieces have set ways to move across a square chequered board to capture pieces or block an opponent from moving to win the game. However, to win the game some pieces may be sacrificed.

The concept of this game is comparable to the current political situation here. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej is designated as King on the chessboard. Deputy Prime Ministers and ministers can be regarded as rooks or knights, which have different powers of movement on the chessboard. The pawn is regarded as the weakest player as it can only move forward by one square at a time and is therefore most vulnerable.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Surapong Suebwonglee and deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan, who have the responsibility to direct the country's economy can be compared to the knights.

However, recent incidents have showed that Mingkwan is losing his knightly powers.

Surprisingly, his position was not weakened by any of his opponents but by players on his own team. Some of his colleagues are dissatisfied with Mingkwan's attempt to block some unscrupulous politicians who were trying to seek personal gains from the commerce ministry.

One of the most glaring incidents was the government's rice management system. Although Samak chairs the Rice Policy Committee, he should have consulted with Mingkwan before making any decision on rice policy. Instead, Samak decided to cancel the commerce ministry's cheap rice project, and set up the rice pledging programme without conferring with the person in charge: Mingkwan. Samak chose the finance ministry to handle this task instead of the commerce ministry.

As Commerce Minister, Mingkwan has the authority and responsibility and has detailed information on rice issues, including trading, stock levels, and ways of setting up the pledging scheme. But, he has been left out of the decision-making process. Even worse for Mingkwan's future, Surapong, who should be handling macroeconomic policy while Mingkwan was supposed to oversee microeconomic policy, has taken over most of Mingkwan's responsibilities.

Despite some criticism of his performance, Mingkwan was widely perceived as a relatively clean politician. He was reportedly getting in the way of politicians who tried to benefit from the rice programme.

A source at Government House said the government would soon announce the release of rice from its huge stockpile of 2.084 million tonnes under a Government-to-Government contract but the commerce minister would be removed from the contract's clauses in order to open loopholes for politicians to profit from the programme.

The source added that Mingkwan was likely to be eliminated from the rice managerial system soon, or even be removed from the Cabinet.

The king on the chessboard may not immediately kill off his pawn as this piece was selected to help gain votes to win the general election. However, this pawn may not be in the game for long.

If a major player like Mingkwan was kicked out of the Cabinet, what would happen after amid the growing political turmoil and economic crisis?