Abhisit's proposal won't go anywhere

I fail to see why Songdej Praditsmanont should address the “2-to-1” challenge offered by opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The target is certainly not her, but someone pulling the strings behind the Pheu Thai Party. To have addressed such a challenge to the wrong person will not lead to anywhere, and Pheu Thai has so far ignored this challenge.

But that is to be expected. For if Songdej also watched the live telecast of the “debate” on the night of April 5 till the end, he would know that it was an impossible challenge and it would be turned down.

What’s more, it wasn’t really a debate on substance. It was more like a knee-jerk reaction on both sides to outwit the other. I would even say that it was no more than a shouting match to score points, and had nothing to do with “reconciliation”. Abhisit may have had the last laugh, because he knew that his target would not respond.

It resembled a recent proposal that suggests that a meeting of the minds between Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda and Thaksin Shinawatra would cure all the ills in the country. That was a far-fetched and impossible proposal.

To be sure, having listened to the full two days of the “debate”, I got the feeling that neither side can afford to show the kind of “sincerity” that is sought by Songdej. And if the challenge is accepted by Pheu Thai’s real leader, it will certainly not come without some conditions attached. And those conditions will make it impossible for Abhisit to accept and we will be back to where we started, which is nowhere.

Prachyadavi Tavedikul

Bangkok