TRT factional revolt founders but Snoh stands his ground

It is reported that 32 of the TRT MPs who signed the petition sponsored by Wang Nam Yen leader Snoh Thienthong have withdrawn their support after being threatened by Thaksin. Snoh has said he will stand his ground even if it means his expulsion from the TRT.

Good for him!

Speaker Bhokin Interferes with Airport Scanner Investigations

The extremely partisan speaker of parliament, Bhokin, has order the three different panels investigating the airport scanner scandal to merge into a single panel under the leadership of a Thai Rak Thai member.

The Democrats, who head one of the other panels, are protesting that Bhokin's move is meant to interfere with the work of that panel which is finding different results from the ones headed by TRT members.

The War on Corruption continues.

National Counter-Corruption Commission found Guilty of ?

The nine members of the NCCC have been found guilty of abusing their power to give themselves pay raises and have each been given a suspended two year sentence. They are all now expected to resign and a new NCCC will have to be formed. There are currently about 1000 cases pending.

The 1997 constitution stipulates that the NCCC members must be selected by a panel including people from five different political parties. Given that there are currently only four parties represented in parliament this poses something of a problem. The 1997 constitution is really looking like a bit of a disaster when you consider what it has led to.

What I can't figure out is, if they voted themselves a pay raise and they had not the authority to do so, then who did they instruct to pay them the extra money and how could this have gotten through the bureaucracy? It seems to me that these judges are guilty only of misunderstanding the rules. If they don't have the authority to raise their own pay, then just don't pay them the extra monay - end of story. How does this end up in jail terms and a dissolution of one of the few remaining checks and balances on the power of the government left? Something really stinks here but not even the normally combative Nation seems to be asking what is really going on here.

Meanwhile the opposition's attempts to bring a censure motion over the airport corruption scandal has nowhere to go, since such a procedure needs to go through the NCCC, which after today will likely no longer exist!

Divisions in the TRT re-emerge

After settling down for a couple of months, the conflict between different TRT factions has found new life. Again, it is the Wang Nam Yen faction led by Snoh Thientong that is finding itself crossing Thaksin. The great leader is reportedly furious, as usually the case when anyone disagrees with him or disobeys orders.

The problem involves 60 MPs, primarily Wang Nam Yen members, petitioning the Senate to withdraw the appointment of a new auditor-general. The current auditor-general is regarded as being relatively honest and somewhat opposed to the government.

We will see how this develops in the coming days, but some sources expect those who participated in the petition to be removed from any political posts by the petulant PM.

Bad Press

Thaksin continues to exacerbate his own problems by refusing to keep his mouth shut, this time over the Matichon headline about the World Bank good governance report.

The Thai Journalists Association responded to Thaksin's earlier criticism of Matichon by issuing a statement accusing the PM of once again trying to intimidate and muzzle the press when he called the headline "inaccurate" and not respectful of the government. The statement went on to say that both the article and the headline were an accurate account of the World Bank report which is freely available on the World Bank website.

The TJA statement also suggested that rather than spending his time criticizing the press for simply doing it's job, Thaksin might better spend his time in the fight against corruption, and that he might use the information contained in the World Bank report to improve Thailand's situation.

All too predictably, Thaksin responded to the TJA by claiming that the deputy editor of Matichon used his "influence" as Vice-President of the TJA to issue the statement in retaliation for his comments on the headline. Thaksin seems to think that he is the only person who should be allowed to make public statements and criticisms of others? Thaksin is not using his "influence" and Prime Minister of the country to do these things?

Furthermore, he claims that the TJA has blown the issue into a big deal. Of course, it would have simply been a one day headline in one newspaper had Thaksin himself not started the whole thing off with his own initial criticism of Matichon. Is Thaksin really incapable of grasping this?

The icing on the cake is the following words of advice from the great leader :

“It is okay if you want to attack me, but please think of the country. If there is another economic recession, as there has been in the past, you will see a lot of crowded garage sales [filled with jobless journalists]. I am just a little disappointed,”

So in other words the coming economic recession will not be Thaksin's fault, it will all be down to these pesky and unpatriotic journalists who insist on reporting the facts!

Showing a maturity and restraint that seems to be completely beyond the grasp of Thaksin, the deputy editor of Matichon who has been the subject of Thaksin's incoherent ranting (Prasong) said that he did not want to comment on the issue, telling the Nation

“It is not a personal issue. I am not a child and will not take the matter as a personal issue,”

Good Governance?

Thaksin has once again lost control of his temper, as he blasted the Matichon newspaper for reporting that the World Banks's rating of Thailands governance had declined under the Thaksin Rak Thaksin regime. As usual, Thaksin confused criticism of the government (or simply reporting the facts in this case) with disrespect of the country as a whole.

Along with "showing disrespect" for Thailand, the great leader also claimed that the Matichon was incorrect as the articles headline showed that Thailand's "control of corruption" was only 49% when in fact it had improved from 42% from 1996 to 2004. In fact, the Good Governance measure is based on 6 factors and overall, the measure had in fact declined from 2002 to 2004 as the article was pointing out. Moreover, most of the improvement in the corruption control index had taken place before the year 2001 when Thaksin took over.

Thaksin should look at the numbers before shooting his mouth off. I wonder if good governance has anything to do with having a Prime Minister who doesn't regard the country he governs as his own personal property?

Corruption Survey

Assumption University released the results of an opinion survey on corruption. In the survey, 33.4% of respondents said they were pleased with the governments efforts at fighting corruption, 27.9% said the government was doing enough to fight corruption, and 7.9% said that they did not believe that corruption was a problem in Thailand in the first place.

In the wake of the GE Invision scanal, from this we can conclude that 33.4 percent of the respondents are die-hard Thaksin fanatics and unwilling to criticie anything he does, 27.9 percent were probably beneficiaries of corruption themselves in some way, and 7.9 percent thought that the survey was about Switzerland.

The survey also had the amazing but completely credible result that 68 percent of respondents said that they had been requested to pay bribes to state officials over the past three months.

Did Nobody Inform the Mahachon Party?

Meanwhile, the most clueless group in Thai politics, the Mahachon Party are calling on the National Counter Corruption Commission to investigate a Thai Rak Thai MP (Bua-sorn Prachamorn ) who they say pocketed 130,000 baht of a 200,00 baht donation to a Chiang Rai temple from the Government Lottery Office. Though the Mahachon seems to have good grounds for their accusation, they also say that the temple board has received no updates from the NCCC on the complaint that they lodged about the matter.

I suggest they may be too busy defending themselves, too pay attention to matters of corruption outside their own body. Which I'm sure is just how the governing party likes it.

Corruption on a Merry-go-round

The corruption trial of members of the National Counter-Corruption Commision continues. Only in Thaksinland!

They are accused of illegally voting themselves a pay raise. I still don't understand how, they could do so, and expect to actually recieve the money, if they weren't legally entitled to do so in the first place. I mean who issues the bloody cheques?

Meanwhile, the activities of the NCCC have been suspended. So who is fighting corruption? Aside from corruption in the NCCC itself, that is?

What's Good for the Goose ...

Speaking of defamation, the Thai Rak Thai may itself be sued by the Chart Thai Party. A couple of TRT MPs have said that water shortages in their constituencies are the fault of Chart Thai leader Banharn, who they claim has somehow gained possession of a "key" to the water gates at Chao Phaya Dam and has prevented the Irrigation Department from release water to provinces other than Banharn's own Suphanburi.

These two idiots (Phayap Punket and Prasang Mongkonsiri) made promises during the February election that water for irrigation would be supplied to their constituencies year round, and have been unable to meet those promises and have, therefore, looked for a scapegoat in the opposition.

Amazing how a party than controls 75% of the seats in parliament has so little control over basic government resources, isn't it?

Thailand Slips Again in Press Freedom

Freedom House is the latest organization to downgrade Thailand in its rank of press freedom in 194 countries. Thaksinland now ranks 95, even worse than last years 88. It now ranks only 23rd out of the 40 Asian countries included in the survey.

The decline is attributed to the defemation lawsuits the government has brought against some journalists who have written articles critical of the government.

Update and Scandal

Internal TRT squabbles seem to have been resolved for the time being by Thaksin. The problems of the South continue but Thaksin is wisely keeping his mouth shut for a change while the commission he appointed, headed by former PM Anand Panyarachun, does it's job.

However, Thaksin has a new problem to deal with as the US company GE Invision has reported to the US government that it bribed top officials to secure the contract for baggage scanners at the new Suvarnabhumi airport. Thaksin is scrambling to deal with the situation which is another blow against TRT and his promises to rid Thailand of corruption. He has threatened to scrap the deal with GE Invision and find a new supplier and to sue GE Invision for besmirching the reputation of Thailand (once again confusing himself and his party with Thailand as a whole - it's the reputation of the government that is in question, not the country). Thaksin claims that the airport will still open on schedule.

I may start flying into Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and taking a train when I head for Bangkok from overseas.