Govt's fate hangs on interest compromise among partners

But he expressed confidence that the Democrat would reach a compromise with its key partners before the deliberation of the budget bill and Bt400-billion loan executive decree during the upcoming extraordinary session of Parliament.

"I think it will be too soon that the conflicts will deteriorate until coalition partners will not vote for the government," Chaturon said.

He said he believed the coalition partners would be able to reach an agreement to share their benefits from the government's plan to seek Bt800 billion worth of loans.

"It's possible that they will be able to reach an agreement in their bargaining because they have several tens of billions of baht at stake," Chaturon said.

"And I don't know how much the Bt800 billion loans will be siphoned."

The government has issued an executive decree to authorise the Finance Ministry to seek Bt400 billion loans and drafted a bill to empower the ministry to obtain another Bt400 billion worth of laons.

"But if they can't reach an agreement, they may decide to leave the government to collapse and have a new election held."

Chaturon said although the conflicts among coalition partners over their projects have heightened, their leaders have also been trying hard to compromise the conflicts.

As a result, Chaturon said, the government has been preoccupied with attempts to compromise the conflicts so it has failed to tackle the economic crisis.

He said the economic measures of the government were also confusing. First, the government handed out money as if it were rich but late on, it was forced to borrow Bt800 billion, Chaturon said.

The fact that the government's survival depends on the compromises of vested interests among the coalition partners prompted Thai politics to return to the vicious circle, he said.

He said the current vicious situation would prompt the military to interfere in the civilian politics again.

But he said the military would not stage another coup for now because the military has just staged a coup in 2006, causing severe damages to the country.