• 
• 
• 

Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva will have to decide whether Kasit will become more of a political liability than an asset.

Kasit is among 25 people facing terrorism and other criminal charges for last November's siege of Suvarnabhumi Airport, which was part of the People's Alliance for Democracy's long-running campaign to pressure for the resignation of the then government led by the People Power Party.

While Kasit has insisted that, as foreign minister, his role and temperament have undergone a major shift from that of an angry protestor supporting the PAD's strategy of civil disobedience, PM Abhisit will have to base his judgement on the broader picture of how his chief diplomat's credibility and authority might have been subverted by the new turn of events.

In other words, if Kasit is defiant because he doesn't want to be seen as the yellow shirt who has lost ground to the red-shirt movement, PM Abhisit will just have to adopt a "colour-blind" stance if he is to get his foreign policy platform back on track.

Kasit himself isn't unaware of the vulnerability of his position. The straight-talking, sometimes abrasive minister went on al-Jazeera TV in Qatar on Sunday as soon as news broke in Bangkok that he was on the list of "terrorist" suspects.

Kasit was quoted by the station's website as saying: "I have come to a point where I am being criminalised … and I would have to resign without doubt. Fellow Thai citizens a few months back went to a police station near the airport and put a charge against me as being a terrorist … I have been called by the police to meet them."

As soon as Kasit was back home the next day, he went to Nong Song Hong police station in Bangkok's suburbs for two hours to officially deny the accusation. Then he went on Channel 11 the same evening to insist that he wouldn't resign because the "terrorism" charge was "unreasonable".

He declared: "An act of terrorism should be clearly defined. What I took with me to the People's Alliance for Democracy rally were my mouth, brain and pen. I carried no weapons."

That's the legal battle he will have to fight along with PAD core members whose plan to set up the New Politics Party could well be undermined to a certain extent by the latest turn of events.

Kasit will have every right to challenge the police and public prosecutors over the decision to file the severe "terrorism" charge. He will undoubtedly monitor every police action against the red-shirt leaders whose role in the bloody Songkran incidents should also bring forth similar, if not more serious, charges.

But Kasit can't afford to remain foreign minister and play the dual role of running the country's international policy while defending his role as a street protestor and fending off the "terrorism" charge.

Neither can Prime Minister Abhisit survive the whole range of serious political challenges while carrying the unnecessary burden of having to debate the degree of culpability of his foreign minister,day in day out.

Yes, we do hold our political office holders to higher standards, no matter whether they are in government or the opposition, inside or outside the centre of power.