Somsak urges PM to be ‘respectable’ to politicians

Somsak Prisana-nantakul, a senior adviser to the party, said: “I have no problem if General Prayut plays by the rules and gets public support to remain in power. But it’s important to respect political blocs and not generalise all politicians, giving an impression that they’re all bad.”
He said Prayut also should not insult people’s decision to choose their political representatives based on individuals and their proposed policies.
“If [Prayut] wants to stay in power, please keep in mind that General Prem Tinsulanonda was also an outsider PM but he never insulted anyone,” Somsak said. “That was why politicians gave him cooperation, enabling him to stay in power for a long time,” he said.
Somsak said he saw the possibility of cooperation among the four main political parties – Pheu Thai, Democrat, Chart Thai Pattana and Phum Jai Thai – to form a coalition government after the next election, as proposed by former Democrat Party leader Bhichai Rattakul.
However, he said such an alliance must not lead to the formation of a so-called “national government”, or one with no parliamentary opposition. 
“Our goal is not only to compete against one another to gain the government head’s seat,” he said. “According to the law, at least 375 from a total of 750 votes in the Upper and Lower Houses has to be gained before decisions will be made which party will lead the coalition government.
“If political blocs wish to drive things in a democratic way, they have to support players in the same regime,” he added.