Bangkok Post: Opinion

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Buffet cabinet and New Thailand

Posted by Veera Preteepchaikul

About 100 Pheu Thai MPs are lining up, waiting for their turn at a cabinet seat, redolent of a large group of diners eagerly lining up at a buffet table which can seat only 35 people at a time.

Pornsak Charoenprasert who? The name may not ring a bell with most of us, not even people in the media. The five-time Si Sa Ket MP of Pheu Thai Party was the deputy agriculture minister in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra which was reshuffled last week, and he was among the 10 ministers who lost their jobs.

If several of the axed ministers were disappointed because they were not given any advance notice by the prime minister, or their boss in Dubai, but Mr Pornsak was not. Instead, he took his dismissal in his stride, saying that he had already fulfilled his dream of being a cabinet minister and brought honour to his Charoenprasert clan - even if his term in the office was only nearly six months.

In an interview with Post Today newspaper, a sister publication of the Bangkok Post, Mr Pornsak explained that he was removed not because he did not perform or under-performed, but because of a "heart-to-heart" agreement with his boss in Dubai, ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, that his ministerial term would be brief and that Pheu Thai MPs should take turns at cabinet seats.

The Si Sa Ket MP said that Thaksin had promised many Pheu Thai MPs, himself included, that they would be rewarded because of their loyalty to Thaksin and their decision not to desert the party.

He said that Thaksin thanked him a lot for not abandoning the party.

"I told him that I would stick with him until he quits politics. He gave me morale support and made me a party-list candidate in the last election.

"I was made a minister because I asked for it and I would like to thank him for that. Although I was dismissed that's fine by me because the treasure [cabinet seats] does not belong to me alone, but to everyone," he told Post Today.

Mr Pornsak also disclosed that there were about 100 Pheu Thai MPs who wanted a seat in the cabinet at least once in their life time. Since there are only 35 cabinet seats and there are 265 party MPs, and if 10 ministers are to be removed after serving six months in the office, there would be eight cabinet shakeups during the government’s four-year term -- if the government lasts four years.

That means only 80 MPs will have their dream fulfilled, and if all the Pheu Thai MPs are to have a taste of cabinet then the party must stay in power for three full terms, or 12 years.

As I see it, if a cabinet shake up every six months so that Pheu Thai MPs can take turns to having a cabinet seat is Thaksin’s policy to reward them for their loyalty, then the cabinet is diminished - it becomes just a buffet table, a smorgasbord, which can seat only 35 diners at a time while another hundred wait in the line for their turn at the trough.Buffet cabinet and New Thailand

About 100 Pheu Thai MPs are lining up, waiting for their turn at a cabinet seat, redolent of a large group of diners eagerly lining up at a buffet table which can seat only 35 people at a time.

Pornsak Charoenprasert who? The name may not ring a bell with most of us, not even people in the media. The five-time Si Sa Ket MP of Pheu Thai Party was the deputy agriculture minister in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra which was reshuffled last week, and he was among the 10 ministers who lost their jobs.

If several of the axed ministers were disappointed because they were not given any advance notice by the prime minister, or their boss in Dubai, but Mr Pornsak was not. Instead, he took his dismissal in his stride, saying that he had already fulfilled his dream of being a cabinet minister and brought honour to his Charoenprasert clan - even if his term in the office was only nearly six months.

In an interview with Post Today newspaper, a sister publication of the Bangkok Post, Mr Pornsak explained that he was removed not because he did not perform or under-performed, but because of a "heart-to-heart" agreement with his boss in Dubai, ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, that his ministerial term would be brief and that Pheu Thai MPs should take turns at cabinet seats.

The Si Sa Ket MP said that Thaksin had promised many Pheu Thai MPs, himself included, that they would be rewarded because of their loyalty to Thaksin and their decision not to desert the party.

He said that Thaksin thanked him a lot for not abandoning the party.

"I told him that I would stick with him until he quits politics. He gave me morale support and made me a party-list candidate in the last election.

"I was made a minister because I asked for it and I would like to thank him for that. Although I was dismissed that's fine by me because the treasure [cabinet seats] does not belong to me alone, but to everyone," he told Post Today.

Mr Pornsak also disclosed that there were about 100 Pheu Thai MPs who wanted a seat in the cabinet at least once in their life time. Since there are only 35 cabinet seats and there are 265 party MPs, and if 10 ministers are to be removed after serving six months in the office, there would be eight cabinet shakeups during the government’s four-year term -- if the government lasts four years.

That means only 80 MPs will have their dream fulfilled, and if all the Pheu Thai MPs are to have a taste of cabinet then the party must stay in power for three full terms, or 12 years.

As I see it, if a cabinet shake up every six months so that Pheu Thai MPs can take turns to having a cabinet seat is Thaksin’s policy to reward them for their loyalty, then the cabinet is diminished - it becomes just a buffet table, a smorgasbord, which can seat only 35 diners at a time while another hundred wait in the line for their turn at the trough.

As a taxpayer who pays their wages, I have no confidence at all in the new cabinet because, at the very least, about 10 of the ministers gained their portfolios not because of their competency, knowledge, wisdom, vision or experience but because of their unwavering loyalty to Thaksin -- which seems to clearly be the key criteria in determining who should get cabinet posts.

Even the most foolish entrepreneur would not run his business this way -- giving out executive posts to employees for the simple reason they have been loyal and to give them a taste of a top job for just six months. But here we are in this Land of Smiles, which should better be called the Land of the Ridiculous because we are being just that in the way we are running the country’s affairs.

So much for Thailand’s future, or is this Pheu Thai's "New Thailand" dream?

As a taxpayer who pays their wages, I have no confidence at all in the new cabinet because, at the very least, about 10 of the ministers gained their portfolios not because of their competency, knowledge, wisdom, vision or experience but because of their unwavering loyalty to Thaksin -- which seems to clearly be the key criteria in determining who should get cabinet posts.

Even the most foolish entrepreneur would not run his business this way -- giving out executive posts to employees for the simple reason they have been loyal and to give them a taste of a top job for just six months. But here we are in this Land of Smiles, which should better be called the Land of the Ridiculous because we are being just that in the way we are running the country’s affairs.

So much for Thailand’s future, or is this Pheu Thai's "New Thailand" dream?

Leave a comment