Is Plodprasop a liability for govt?

Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi has become the government’s weakest link, thanks to his outspokenness and stubbornness.
He recently attracted much criticism – even from government supporters – for describing environmental activists protesting against the government’s water projects as “garbage” and then using an offensive word to refer to his critics.
Although the government still enjoys the support of many red shirts, some of its actions have upset supporters and drawn accusations of unfair treatment. Critics also question the government’s massive spending on the rice price-pledging project, which has created an estimated loss of Bt260 billion.
The amnesty laws proposed by certain government figures also have led to opposition from families of the red-shirt protesters who were killed or injured during the anti-government rallies and subsequent unrest and riots in 2010.
Many people, including a number of alienated red shirts, have come out against the government. Those are in addition to people who oppose the so-called Thaksin regime, which is said to include the ruling Pheu Thai Party and its allies. Among these latter groups are Pitak Siam, Thai Patriotic Front, Thai Spring and, most recently, the White Maskers, who uses Guy Fawkes masks in their anti-government campaign. There are also many “cyber warriors” who regularly make online attacks against the government.
While other Cabinet members react gently to criticism, Plodprasop often appears to opt for a harsher response.
Responsible for the government’s Bt350-billion water-management and flood-prevention mega-project, he has heavily attacked critics of the project who question its transparency. There are also many villagers who do not want dam projects built on their community land, and object to the possible destruction of large areas of forest. Rather than try to win their cooperation, Plodprasop has opted to counter aggressively the claims of such critics.
His methods seem only to have won more enemies for the government of which he is a part.
Plodprasop’s use of the word “garbage” to describe activists who questioned the water projects was widely denounced, even by red-shirt scholars such as Sombat Boon-ngam-anong and Somsak Jeamteerasakul.
Recently, Plodprasop did it again, during a speech before a gathering of red shirts in Chiang Mai. He compared his critics to monitor lizards, using the word hia, which is an expletive in Thai. He also said the Pheu Thai-led government would not build an international conference centre in Phuket as long as the southern province does not elect any MPs from the ruling party.
“We won’t build it now. Is there a problem? In the future, we will certainly build it when Phuket sees the good in us and elects our people. If that day comes, I will build it. Today, I have no desire to,” he said.
This latest remark has attracted much criticism, particularly from the opposition Democrat Party, whose members have pointed out that the previous government of Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva approved the budget for the construction of Chiang Mai’s new international conference centre. The place was the venue for the recent Asia-Pacific water summit.
Phuket, which has one MP, has long been represented by a Democrat politician. Chiang Mai, which has 10 MPs, has been dominated by Pheu Thai and its former incarnations, the Thai Rak Thai and People Power parties, which were both dissolved by court order for electoral fraud.
Thaksin made a similar remark to Plodprasop when he was prime minister, saying his then-ruling Thai Rak Thai would focus its development projects on provinces that elected its candidates.
Plodprasop’s latest remarks have become a subject of ridicule on the Internet. A YouTube video lampooned him by inserting recordings of him between reaction shots of judges on the “Thailand’s Got Talent” TV show. The clip used footage taken from an episode of the show where judges got involved in a war of words with contestants.
The White Maskers plan “flash mobs” this Sunday in different places throughout the country, including Phuket, which was mentioned by Plodprasop. They also called a rally outside Government House for today to call for his removal from the Cabinet.
With the opposition against Plodprasop mounting, it will be interesting to see how long the government can withstand the pressure to dump him from the Cabinet.