Thaksin 'swamped' by anxious politicos
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Ex-PM received many visitors in S'pore ahead of rumoured Cabinet reshuffle
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra started to feel uncomfortable receiving so many visits from seekers of Cabinet posts, MPs and ministers reportedly on the way out while he was in Singapore, a Pheu Thai Party source said yesterday.
Last Thursday and Friday, a former Thai Rak Thai party executive and his family went to see him. On Saturday, besides a foreign minister in the Thai Rak Thai administration, a current minister accompanied by a former Thai Rak Thai executive called on him, the source said.
Thaksin is scheduled to fly from Singapore to Cambodia tomorrow, so many former key members of the defunct People Power Party as well as Pheu Thai MPs might be planning to join him there, the source added.
Government Spokesman Anusorn Eiamsa-ard said Cabinet secretary-general Ampon Kittiampon reminded the ministers at their meeting to submit their three-month achievement reports in both hard and soft copies.
Democrat Party spokesman Chavanond Intarakomalyasut dared the Pheu Thai Party to admit that fugitive Thaksin is the real decision-maker behind the anticipated Cabinet reshuffle.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s younger sister, dodged questions from Government House reporters about a new Cabinet line-up.
“Let me go to the meeting first,” she said before chairing a special Cabinet meeting on flood projects and budgets.
“Let’s talk about it later,” she told reporters after the meeting, when they asked whether the shake-up would take place next month.
Before the meeting started at 9am, many ministers who had been reported as possibly losing their Cabinet seats avoided reporters by arriving via the underground parking floor.
However, Deputy Commerce Minister Poom Sarapol took the unusual step of walking through where the reporters were gathered. No one interviewed him.
Pornsak Charoenprasert, the deputy agriculture minister from the Pheu Thai Party, said any change to the agriculture minister’s office, which is now occupied by Theera Wongsamut from the Chart Thai Pattana Party, depended on key figures in the Pheu Thai and coalition parties.
Pheu Thai might have to take the post from Chart Thai Pattana’s ministerial quota if the government wants a good plan for sustainable water management, he said.
“It’s not that Theera’s performance is bad. But he has had so little a role compared with former prime minister Banharn Silapa-archa, as we saw in the news,” he said.
Banharn is the de facto leader of Chart Thai Pattana.
Somsak Prissananantakul, a key Chart Thai Pattana member, said it was not a good time to remake the Cabinet, as the government had to deal with many issues including restoring confidence after the flood.
“While Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has said clearly there will not be a Cabinet reshuffle, this is a signal for everyone to stop moving. According to etiquette, the ruling party should discuss [the matter] with coalition parties before a Cabinet reshuffle after they have worked together for some time.
“If the coalition party says it’s not the time to change the minister in its quota, then that’s it. Everything goes on according to the same positions. In case of changes, they must talk about suitability,” he said.
