Thai govt under fire from all sides

Thai govt under fire from all sides

By Jim Hatton

BANGKOK (AFP): Barely a month after taking office, Prime Minister Banharn Silapa-archa's government is under fire from all sides, including such heavyweights as the military and the monarchy.

Discontent appears to be growing in both urban and rural areas. Villagers in northern Phrae province, opposed to a dam the government wants to build, threw stones at Banharn's helicopter on Aug. 18 when he came to inspect a reservoir.

Then the Stock Exchange of Thailand fell when Banharn, unable to find a respected technocrat to take the Finance Ministry portfolio, gave the post to an aide. The bourse still has the blues.

The local press remains highly critical. The most tepid criticism has come from the political opposition, which promised to hold fire during an initial honeymoon period.

While no one has suggested the government is ready to fall or the military is about to take over, an aide to Banharn was quoted Friday as saying a cabinet reshuffle could come as early as January.

Banharn's seven-party coalition government was in trouble even before it was born.

During the run-up to the July 2 election, which Banharn's Chart Thai party won, there were widespread charges of massive vote-buying. Banharn himself was labeled the "mobile ATM" (automatic teller machine) for his largess.

Two Chart Thai canvassers were caught with 11 million baht (US$440,000) in cash and campaign literature on them, but police said that since no crime had been committed yet, no charges could be filed.

A Chart Thai legislator later defended the two, telling Parliament "all MPs have bought votes."

When Banharn set out to form a government, the fight for ministerial posts was so intense he took the unusual route of accepting the royal appointment as prime minister before settling his cabinet lineup.

Several of his cabinet choices have been criticized as unqualified. Some had been declared "unusually wealthy" by an ethics panel set up after the army deposed Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan in 1991 on grounds that his Chart Thai-led government was hopelessly corrupt.

But two senior Chart Thai men suspected by the US of having ties to the drug trade, Vatana Asavahame and Narong Wongwan, did not get cabinet seats.

Narong was ignored because he failed to win a House seat, and Vatana's plea that he be given a top post to prove his innocence went unheeded.

Since the cabinet was sworn in July 20 it has had two main problems: Bangkok's traffic and rising inflation.

Deputy Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said after being named Bangkok's traffic czar that he would find a way to solve the congestion within six months. Since then he has voiced several imaginative but largely unworkable ideas, such as using army helicopters as airborn tow truck.

The Nation daily has been running a graphic with its traffic stories that has Thaksin's face and says, "Keeping Traffic Vow, Deadline: Jan. 26, 1996. "

The Bangkok Post has had almost daily editorial cartoons lampooning Banharn and Thaksin.

When cartoonist Nop draws Banharn he frequently puts a "B" on his buckle or tie with a vertical line through it, making it a "baht" sign for the local currency.

If Banharn has been unruffled by the press, he reportedly "panicked" when King Bhumibol Adulyadej criticized the government. The monarch said on Aug. 17 that Thaksin and Deputy Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, tasked with improving traffic in the suburbs, had not been working together.

Last Friday, the military waded in, blasting the government for high prices and for not solving pressing social issues.

"We Thai people are hoping that some day soon we will have a leader who is brave enough to create fairness in society" and control food prices, a military radio program said.

The political opposition has also joined the fray, accusing the government of failing to resolve the problem.