PAD Threatens to Close Airports Again

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Apparently there has been no reconciliation between the PAD and the new Prime Minister.

 

The following appears in the BANGKOK POST:

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PAD 'to close airports'

 

Supporters of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) said on Friday they will close five airports in the South to try to stop a visit by new Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to his home town.

 

The five airports are Hat Yai, Krabi, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani and Phuket. PAD said they will close all of them with human barricades to prevent a visit by Mr Somchai scheduled for Saturday.

 

Mr Somchai planned to visit his hometown in Surat Thani province to celebrate being named prime minister. He was scheduled to land at Surat Thani on Saturday, but he may try to use another airport in the region because of the militant actions of the anti-government group.

 

Sunthorn Rakwong, core leader of PAD group in the South, said the move is to show Mr Somchai he is not welcome in the South because he is a nominee of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier's brother in law.

 

Mr Sunthorn said the PAD members would gather at the five airports on Friday to "begin operations". He said protesters would remain peaceful, and vowed to avoid violent or aggressive measures.

 

If the premier manages to land in the South, PAD members will follow wherever he goes to pressure him to leave the region and go back to Bangkok, Mr Sunthorn threatened.

 

On Thursday, a group of PAD supporters in Nakhon Si Thammarat blocked House Speaker Chai Chidchob from attending a scheduled seminar on "The House Meets People" held in the southern province, forcing Mr Chai to leave for Bangkok on Friday morning.

 

Meanwhile, PAD core leader Chamlong Srimuang said provincial members of PAD can do what they believe it is suitable, and claimed that any such action had nothing to do with the central PAD.

 

Maj Gen Chamlong also said the group welcomes the opportunity to negotiate with newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh if he actually serves as a mediator between the government and PAD. Gen Chavalit is a senior, national figure who served in top posts including army commander and prime minister, he said.

 

However, another PAD core leader Pibhop Tongchai cast doubts on that promise. He said he has doubts about the real intention behind Gen Chavalit's appointment as a mediator.

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The following appears in THE NATION:

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PAD: No to Rector's Pitch on Reforms

 

By THE SUNDAY NATION

Published on September 28, 2008

 

Group Says Politicians without Legitimacy Cannot Bring about Change

 

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday rejected a proposal by 24 university rectors for the formation of an independent body appointed by the government to start political reform.

 

PAD coordinator Suriyasai Katasila said the PAD could not accept the proposal to have the government as a manager of political reform because this government was a nominee of the Thaksin Shinawatra government and had come to power with a hidden agenda.

 

'GIVE PUBLIC A CHANCE'

 

"We do not believe that politicians who have lost legitimacy would actually create a new politics. We believe that the public as a whole should be given a chance to oversee political reform, in which case the PAD will help create public participation in the political-reform process,'' Suriyasai said.

 

He said that if the government appointed a so-called independent body to reform politics, its intention would be only to buy time to cling to power.

 

PAD spokesman Panthep Wong-puapan said the PAD had also come up with other political proposals, one of which was that to ensure separation of the executive and the legislature MPs should not hold ministerial posts, which he said would curb the problem of "MPs selling their souls". The PAD has also proposed that MPs should not belong to any political party. To increase public participation in politics, the PAD proposed that members of the public should be able to file corruption charges against political office-holders directly, and corruption cases should not come under a statute of limitations.

 

Panthep also said it was time the justice system underwent a reform, starting with the Royal Thai Police, independent agencies, the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Attorney-General.

 

To streamline the country's justice system, police and public prosecutors should be given a deadline of three or six months to complete their investigations, he said.

 

ABHISIT BACKS PROPOSAL

 

However, Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the opposition Democrat Party, threw his weight behind the proposal by 24 university rectors that the government form an independent body to reform politics.

 

He said politicians had to accept that the public was not happy with the current situation and it would be a good solution if a neutral body could act as a coordinator and bring every part of society into the move to reform politics.

 

"It is not important who initiates it; it depends on whether they have the sincere intention to reform politics and reduce tension. We will wait to see how the government reacts to the proposal,'' he said.

 

He added that an important condition was that a new constitution must not be drafted with an eye to vested interests or the interests of any political faction.

 

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat yesterday declined to comment on the rectors' proposal, saying he needed time to look into it.