The People's Alliance for Democracy announced Sunday that will hold a meeting Tues to decide on measures for protesting the appointment of Somkid Jatusripitak, economic tsar of the Thaksin government, as sufficiency economy envoy.
Suriyasai Katasila, a spokesman of the PAD, said the appointment of Somkid was the last straw for the PAD so it had hold the meeting at the Manager Group's head office at 10 am to review its tie with the government.
Suriyasai said the meeting would definitely come up with measures to pressure the government to reconsider Somkid's appointment of chairman of a special committee in charge of explaining sufficiency theory to foreign countries.
Suriyasai was speaking at a press conference held to announce the PAD's stand against Somkid's appointment.
"If the government does not take any action regarding this issue, we will review the PAD's tie with the government," Suriyasai said.
He said Somkid could reduce public pressure toward his appointment by showing that he had really repented for once supporting the Thaksinomics and he was ready to atone for support of the Thaksin regime.
"Somkid's first job is not to launch PR campaigns to explain sufficiency economy idea to foreigners but he must firs tell Thais what damages the Thaksinomics had done to the country," Suriyasai said.
Speaking at the same press conference, Somsak Kosaisuk the PAD disagreed with Somkid's appointment because it confused the public about the government's stand.
"Somkid is being investigated by the Assets Examination Committee related to corruption in the rubber seedling project but the prime minister appointed him to work on foreign policy," Somsak said.
"I doubt whether Thailand has only Somkid who can give explanations to foreign countries."
Somsak said Somkid stood by the Thaksinomics for a long time and did not distance himself from Thaksin regime "so he has no pride to be in this position".
He said Somkid's appointment underlined perception that the government lacked capable personnel to work for the country so it had to recruit persons, who had caused damages to the country, to work.
"I don't think foreigners will regain confidence in Thailand because of Somkid," Somsak added.
Suriyasai also denied that the PAD was rifted over Somkid's appointment because a PAD leader, Sondhi Limthogkul, earlier came out to support Somkid.
Suriyasai said Sondhi also called on Somkid to show that he had repented.
Mahachon Party leader Sanan Kachornprasart yesterday criticised Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont for appointing Somkid to the position.
This is absolutely fascinating to me. I can't believe the PAD is actually going to fight Somkid's appointment. I am relieved to know that they think that there was more to Thaksin's Empire than just Thaksin. And Somkid was by Thaksin's side until the bitter end.
Also, Chart Thai, the Democrat Part and Mahachon are all coming out against the appointment, which means that they see Somkid as the chosen one by the junta when things supposedly get back to normal after the next election.
Why would the junta pick Somkid, the mastermind of Thaksinonics to be their spokesman for Sufficiency Theory? Did they not think somebody out in the real world wouldn't pick up on this hypocrisy?
And the notion that they did it because Somkid is respected in the international community is a fricking joke. I don't know any foreigners who respect Somkid. Everybody knows he was Thaksin's number one crony and chief political strategist. Why would foreigners love Somkid when they hated Thaksin?
I can only guess what the Thai mental process on this one. After re-reading Thai media criticism concerning all the good things the foreign media supposedly thinks about Thaksin, I gather that the Thai government thinks that if the foreign media "loves" and "praises" Thaksin, then the foreign media must be in love with Somkid even more, because he is Thaksin without the baggage. Either the Thai government is stupid or they think all farang are stupid. I am with the PAD, the Democrats and Chart Thai on this one. No foreigner with a braincell in his head will think a two-faced, back stabbing Thaksin crony like Somkid will have any credibility to explain anything.
This just goes to show the public the absurdity of Thai politics. The PAD protested against Thaksin's rule for a long time. The junta overthrew Thaksin and forced him into exile. The junta said one of the reasons Thaksin was overthrown was because of his malfeasance concerning government spending AKA Thaksinomics. But Thaksin balanced the budget. The Junta is running budget deficits. Now the Junta is hiring Somkid, Thaksin's Number One crony to be their economic policy spokeman--even though it said his policies under Thaksin were bankrupting the country. Now the PAD is going to hit the streets again, but not because the military dictatorship has been completely worthless in every possible, but just because it hired Somkid.
1 comment:
This is just a display of power from the PAD (which technically doesn't exist anymore, since it dissolved itself the week of the coup).
They want to show that they still got the influence to channel thousands of people together.
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