- Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government and the 60 billion bath spending
- Thai flood victims must know the truth
When
the leaders of the Democrat Party and the many “invisible hands” above
him kept him at the helm of the “opposition” they expected him to make
troubles, and at best to sow havoc at each activity and project of the
Pheu Thai Party’s government led by Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra. It was a
poor decision to put Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva at the helm of the
“opposition”. Not for long it turned out to be a horrible political
miscalculation by irrational Democrat leaders.
Mr.
Abhisit Vejjajiva was the head of the Thai previous government and head
of the Democrat Party that lost the last national election to Pheu Thai
Party. His two years on the job did not offer political strength, any
at all for him to brag about. On the contrary they are riddled with
social division, revenge against and accusation of a large segment of
Thai society with the sole purpose of justifying the September 2006
Coup. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had become the main
course of the Abhisit Vejjajiva’s government’s meal for two years. He
had been made criminal for the crime that almost all Thai politicians
should have been charged, for conflicts of interests under Thai law.
Abac
poll has been long overdue to survey Thai legal experts in one hand and
the Thai people on the other to see how many Thai politicians could be
charged for crime of conflicts of interests under Thai law. In case I
missed this poll, Abac could refresh my memory. Surprisingly, just less than 10 working days
after 24 August when Yingluck Shinawatra’s government presented the
government policy statement to the full house of parliament and counting
up only to 5 September, Abac pollsters did not waste any time in making
a survey and found out that “the majority of people identified
themselves as non-partisan silent force are not satisfied with the
government for being too slow to act in solving problems,” as
reported by the Bangkok Post on 4 September 2011. Not even ten working
days on the job and already Thai non-partisan silent force expected
miracles from the Yingluck Shinawatra’s government, something that seems
to be too much too premature and too demanding. Would Abhisit Vejjajiva
and the Opposition Democrats bank on this poll? We will see in the
coming days.
Since
24 August, Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva and his team of Opposition Democrats
had not hit a solid punch on any area of the new government policies,
but danced around the issue of Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
They have attempted since the days of the campaign of election to
politically assimilate Ms Yingluck to Mr. Thaksin or Mr. Thalsin to Ms.
Yingluck without success. Admittingly, Ms. Yingluck has a strong
personality of her own. She seemed to be meticulous in tackling the
political and national issues, and she seemed to be also very cautious
without pretentions to be bravado in her public appearance in this
“ingratitude world of politics”. She has the job to make the voters
accept her for being Prime Minister and to make all of them, at least
the majority of Thai people happy with her government’s achievements.
For
once, and it could be the first once among the many others also, the
former Prime Minister and Opposition Democrat leader will be exposed by
the government on the issue of the money left in the emergency central
fund. Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said on Sunday that “the previous government had spent nearly 60 billion baht from the central fund, which now had only about 35 billion baht left.”
He would on Monday give detailed figures on the money spent from the
central fund by the Abhisit government to counter Mr Abhisit's claim
that there was sufficient money to help flood victims. When the detailed
figures are known by the public, it is likely that questions would be
raised and answers should have been given by Mr. Abhisit to explain some
items of the 60 billion bath spent by the Abhisit’government. On he
other hand the Yingluck’s government will have to prove that it does not
allow itself to be bogged down by the situation of the emergency budget
to pay for flood relief which is running low and the by the trading of
accusations by Mr. Abhisit saying that “the government should stop making excuses to avoid compensating flood-hit farmers at the rate it had promised them.”
Will
the former Prime Minister and Opposition Democrat leader Abhisit
Vejjajiva be effective in making troubles against and sowing havoc in
Ms. Yingluck’s government? Due to the fact that he might have to defend
the policies of the previous government where some details are now
within the reach of the new government certain revelations can be
embarrassing. The choice of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva as the leader of the
opposition was a poor choice. He had to protect his tail that may not be
as clean as he thought so far. “Number doesn’t lie”. When the
itemization of the 60 billion bath is exposed, who will dance, and at
what tune?
5 September 2011
Pen Ngoeun,
Member of PRU
(The
opinion expressed in this article is the personal opinion of the writer
and does not reflect under any shape and form the opinion of PRU)