Abhisit tells visiting journalists next election will depend on progress in reconciliation - Premier hopes to convince ordinary red shirts, but their leaders seen as inflexible
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday vowed to reach out to "ordinary people" in the red-shirt movement and seek their cooperation for reconciliation but admitted it would be difficult to persuade their hardcore leaders to support the plan.
Interviewed by a group of senior Asian journalists visiting Government House in a forum organised by the Asia News Network, Abhisit closely linked progress in reconciliation to the timing of the next election. He expressed surprise at recent news reports playing up his remark that an election early next year was a possibility.
Abhisit insisted his stance on the election remained unchanged, saying it could only be held when it could "help" provide solutions to the political crisis, not when election campaigning would aggravate the deep divide or renew violence.
Treading a sensitive line, Abhisit yesterday apparently stepped up his search for chairman of the main reconciliation panel with a private, unannounced visit to former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, the leading candidate to head the committee.
Abhisit was tight-lipped about whether he had Anand in mind, saying only that he would like the issue of who would be chairman to be an initiative of the public, not of the government.
"I've been meeting with Anand regularly, because he's been doing some work with the government," the prime minister said.
Abhisit said he expected a public nomination of the reconciliation chairman next Thursday and would not mind if the public preferred someone else to head the crucial panel other than Anand or the second choice, Prawase Wasi.
During their interviews with Abhisit and later Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, the Asia News Network journalists were interested in the reconciliation road map in particular, with some questions focused on potential obstacles.
Abhisit admitted that acrimonious issues being investigated now or in the future could constitute big bumps in the road. But he expressed hope that efforts to reach out to ordinary red shirts could allow reconciliation planners to understand genuine problems and separate them from political ones that concerned top movement leaders, including ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Those red-shirt leaders "tend to reject every proposal made by the government", Abhisit said.
Korn assured the visiting journalists about the Thai economy's flexibility and ability to absorb massive damage and lost opportunities resulting from the political turbulence of the past two months.
However, both the PM and Korn admitted that tourism, sent reeling by the crisis, was the industry of utmost concern.
Responding to a question about how to restore shattered foreign-investor confidence in Thailand, Korn said trust had to "come from within".
If Thais are confident in their own country's stability, foreign confidence will surely follow, the finance minister said, admitting that such domestic confidence still needed strengthening.
Abhisit also downplayed reports that Kanit na Nakorn, who has been named to lead an independent probe into the recent political bloodshed, has approached some red-shirt leaders as potential panel members.
"We have guaranteed the independence of the fact-finding committee and welcome contributions by anyone to the probe," the prime minister said.
During the Asia News Network interview, Abhisit was asked by a Cambodian journalist about diplomatic problems between Bangkok and Phnom Penh involving Thaksin and the Preah Vihear Temple.
The prime minister said high-ranking authorities of both countries were working closely to ensure border violence did not flare up.
Asked when bilateral ties would be normalised, Abhisit said that could happen once Cambodia understood the Thai political system was workable and fair.