As crisis manager, Somchai proves totally disastrous

Faced with the critical decision on where to hold the parliamentary session to deliver his major policy speech, the premier held a late-night emergency Cabinet meeting. He was apparently unsure what to do in what must have been the worst crisis in his life.

Somchai's Cabinet was split. A few "hawks" insisted that the premier must put his foot down and give out orders,that no matter what happens he will enter the Parliament building the next morning to perform his first major task as the country's chief executive. He was told that his whole political dignity would hinge on that decision to go for broke.

But Deputy Premier Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, leading the soft-approach faction in the Cabinet urged the prime minister to avoid a confrontation with the protestors, which would make a bad situation much worse - and render the whole scenario totally unpredictable and even out of control.

Chavalit proposed holding the parliamentary meeting in another location in the capital while negotiating with the protestors to end their siege peacefully.

Incredibly enough, instead of following his own pronouncement that he would put harmony above all other considerations, Somchai put the issue up for a vote in the Cabinet. Not surprisingly, the hard-line Cabinet members won the day - and Chavalit lost.

A few hours later, a squad of apparently ill-trained policemen, under clear instruction to disperse the crowd at all costs and armed with tear-gas canisters, started firing into, instead of over, the heads of the protestors.

The ensuing melee that saw more than 400 protestors injured, several of them with mutilated legs, marked the beginning of the end of Somchai's tenure that began only two weeks earlier.

Gen Chavalit quit in disgust, citing the police's use of force as the main reason. The real reason, however, was that Chavalit felt betrayed by Somchai and, perhaps, London-based Thaksin Shinawatra.

Chavalit's role as the government's mediator with the People's Alliance for Democracy was clearly sabotaged by the police's move to take into custody two of PAD's core leaders - Chaiwat Sinsuwong last Friday and Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang on Monday. Tuesday morning's tear-gassing of the protestors in front of Parliament House was the last straw.

But wasn't Chavalit supposed to be former premier Thaksin's point-man - and possibly the man to head Thaksin's new party in case the People Power Party is disbanded? That, indeed, was the original plan. One of Chavalit's close aides admitted that Chavalit had in fact been asked by Thaksin to join Somchai's Cabinet to shore up the premier, Thaksin's brother-in-law, who is considered a novice in politics.

Once on board, Chavalit wasted no time in reaching out to the PAD's leadership. Thaksin, of course, wanted Chavalit to build a link to his worst political enemies - but only as a gesture with a political objective, not to the extent that Chavalit tried to portray to the public.

Premier Somchai was never expected to be a strong leader in a crisis in the first place. He came in handy only because Samak Sundaravej was, all too soon, disqualified as premier by the Constitutional Court. Thaksin chose Chavalit to be Somchai's strong second in command not because he trusted him; he thought he could exploit Chavalit's wide-ranging connections for his own benefit.

Chavalit was ready to do Thaksin's bidding only up to a point. When Thaksin sensed that Chavalit was not playing the game by his rules, he had to be reined in. Chavalit, on the other hand, felt that Thaksin and Somchai were giving orders, contrary to his, behind his back.

In the end, Somchai's loyalty lies with his brother-in-law, of course. He made no secret of his real conviction when he told a group of Chiang Mai residents that he would forever be grateful to Thaksin, without whom he wouldn't have been here today. Chavalit, on the other hand, was nothing more than a political tool that could be tossed away once it he was found to be useless at a particular juncture.

It is that same blind loyalty that proved disastrous on Tuesday morning when, with Thaksin's dark shadow hanging ominously over him, Somchai ordered police to break through the protestors' barricades so he could stand up in the House to deliver a policy speech that turned out to be a travesty of parliamentary democracy.

Somchai, his hands apparently shaking, read out the two-hour policy speech that included the phrase: "I will vigorously pursue national reconciliation without resort to violence."

Only a few metres away, innocent and unarmed protestors were frantically fleeing in all directions as the whole country heard the booming sounds of tear gas being fired in a wild orgy of violence.

(Police caught with hand grenades and not only tear gas, as claimed. Go to my blog at http://blog.nationmultimedia.com/ThaiTalk.)