Interim PM reports performance to Parliament

BANGKOK, May 24 (TNA) – Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont spent nearly one and a half hours at Parliament on Thursday addressing the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on the performance of his government and its future plans.

In a lengthy, prepared speech, broadcast live via state-owned TV Channel 11, Gen. Surayud assured the NLA and the Thai people that his government had invariably been directed toward the course of ''sustainable development'' in the economic, social and political affairs of the country since he took office following the September 19, 2006 military coup d'etat which ousted his predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra.

The current government had called off the previous administration's much-publicised schemes which had directly dispensed cash in the form of village funds to grass-roots people in the provinces and those in urban communities throughout the country because, Gen. Surayud said, they were not considered as ''sustainable'' approaches to curing Thailand's national economic woes.

Instead, the current government had not only turned to the principles of the sufficiency economy under which cash flows from the capital to the provinces, and localities are contained to keep the people from
over-consuming and to preclude possibilities of a repeated economic bubble burst but also taken appropriate measures to cope with the economic slowdown, according to Gen. Surayud.

Meanwhile, a budget for Fiscal 2008 has been set at Bt1.6 trillion, the prime minister disclosed. Of the total, Bt1.5 trillion would come from government receipts throughout the next fiscal year.

Nevertheless, the Bt1.6 trillion budget will account for a Bt120 billion deficit.

Gen. Surayud said his government had pushed forward political reforms to the extent that possible abuses of future government policies, which may have been more complicated than ever, will be eliminated and possible misconduct in office among high-ranking government personnel will be eradicated.

For instance, the government had taken steps to resolve varied problems intertwined with official misconduct and pay-off scandals at Suvarnabhumi international airport, the prime minister said.

As part of the political reform scheme, he said, the Constitution currently being drafted would significantly generate state mechanisms and apparatus to help the authorities combat such malpractices in bureaucratic and government circles.

Regarding national security issues, Gen Surayud said his government had continually applied various ways and means to end the unrest in the Deep South and bring the conflicting sides to terms with one another on a basis of national reconciliation.

Other major government performances over the past months included the emergency handling of natural disasters, such as flash floods, droughts and forest fire-induced smog in the northern region, he said.

Sixty-eight NLA members were allowed to take the floor for 15 minutes each to debate the Surayud government's performance. The NLA session was scheduled to close at about midnight.

Debating the government's performance, NLA member Prasong Soonsiri, also chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, strongly criticised the government, saying it had not made any concrete achievements in solving the four major problems the military used to justify the coup: those being divisions in society, corruption, interference in independent state agencies and acts deemed disrespectful to the monarchy.

He also criticised the government's handling of the continuing southern unrest, saying the situation in the troubled-region was getting worse.

TNA

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Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont shows signs of fatigue during the National Legislative Assembly's debate on the government's performance yesterday

CHANAT KATANYU, Bangkok Post