Politicians who support red shirt protesters warned

Supporting the anti-government rally, he said, would create negative consequences for them in the long term.

Banyat said Thai people regarded the red-shirts' blocking of the government from delivering its policy statement with uneasiness. They wanted political problems to go away so the government could salvage the country from economic crisis.

"The business sector has called for us to switch political camps because they do not want the country to sink deeper in economic meltdown,'' he said.

He was optimistic the anti-government rally would die down because society had learned the lesson over the past two years that social and political divisions only hurt the country.

"Politicians who want to continue working in the political arena in the long term should realise that repeating the same political tactic would only bring negative results to them,'' he said.

Banyat expected the government would be able to deliver a policy statement by January 7.

Meanwhile Pheu Thai Party party-list MP Chalerm Yoobamrung said the red-shirts besieged Parliament because they were resentful that the Democrat-led government was formed without legitimacy.

He proposed the government dissolve the House and both sides, the red-shirts and the yellow-shirts (the People's Alliance for Democracy), sign a pact that after the general election, whoever wins the majority votes should form a government. "Both must not stage any more rallies so the country can move forward,'' he said.

He said he was not behind the demonstration of the red-shirts so he could not stop them from rallying.

Chalerm said if the Pheu Thai Party issued a resolution for the MPs to not attend the delivery of the policy statement by the government, he would abide by the resolution, though he would like to take the House floor to grill the government over its policies.