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Well that's how the Khao Sod ran it yesterday: "Ceasefire announcement from joke bandits on TV".

The text below read: "Army Chief Anupong Paochinda said the self-proclaimed separatist groups have been inactive for 20 years. Former Army chief-turned-politician Chetta Thanajaro insists that the video was not staged." Chetta claimed success, but the paper expressed strong doubts as to whether the announcement was real, judging from the tone of the story.

Matichon's headline highlighted the words "No Idea". The newspaper said that the defence minister, the supreme commander and the Army had no idea where the groups who appeared on the video came from. The text below the headline said that Chetta said he would take responsibility for the video. He urged the public to wait for the results over the next 30 days. Academics, however, concurred that the video was staged.

Thai Rath, in its lead story, quoted the Army chief as saying that he would not negotiate with insurgents. Anyone found to have participated in the insurgency would be punished by the law. Thai Rath also described the videotape from the self-proclaimed insurgents as "The Chetta Show".

Another big news item that was prominent on the front pages of local newspapers concerned the continuing conflict along the Thai-Cambodian border as a result of the Preah Vihear temple.

Several papers featured photographs of the confrontation that took place between the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and locals in Si Sa Ket after a PAD demonstration along the Thai-Cambodian border. It was Thais against Thais.

Matichon criticised the Samak government's six-point anti-poverty programme, calling it an attempt to "revive populism".

Matichon said the name given to the programme, "The six-month measure to brave through the crisis", clearly showed that this is a product of populism, which Thais have been familiar with since the first term of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party under the premiership of Thaksin Shinawatra. Even then, Matichon said, people widely criticised the consequences of populism over the long-term.

The paper said that the government believes Thais should be happy with the package over the next six months. The government agreed to spend Bt47 billion on the measures, resulting in a higher deficit for the fiscal budget in order to cushion the economic hardships of the people. However, business operators and economists believe that the measures won't help because they will simply distort market mechanisms. The measures came out too late and they will not boost consumer confidence.

Instead, the government's fiscal deficit will rise from Bt170 billion to somewhere between Bt210 billion and Bt220 billion. It is not certain whether the measures will help people manage through the crisis or if they were designed to score political votes at a time when the Samak government is facing increasing pressure to leave office.

It can be said that those who benefit from the six measures will welcome them. But the question remains whether the benefits of the measures will be distributed to all groups of people, as the government claims. The government didn't say how to it would handle inflation or a higher fiscal deficit.

But at least people who benefit from the measures will feel that they are "indebted" to the government's populist policies, especially after they became addicted to such measures while Thaksin was in office. These people are not aware of the impact these measures had on others or the fact that they were politically driven.

Therefore, all sides should keep an eye on the measures to see whether they have a positive or negative impact to the economy, Matichon said.