BANGKOK, Oct 1: Thailand’s military rulers unveiled a stop-gap prime minister and constitution on Sunday, fulfilling a promise to step back in favour of civilians within two weeks of their coup against Thaksin Shinawatra.
In other signs of the situation stabilising, the tanks that had stood outside Government House since the Sept 19 putsch rolled back to the barracks and four of Thaksin’s most powerful ministers were released from army custody.
Shortly after television stations announced the interim constitution, army chief and coup leader Sonthi Boonyaratglin confirmed that Surayud Chulanont, a retired general, would be prime minister under a gradual plan to restore democracy.
“I went to his house and spent half an hour convincing him to take the job while the country is in crisis. He has agreed to take it,” General Sonthi told reporters at a news conference.
Later, at a ceremony at Government House, Sonthi read out a short statement confirming King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s approval of Surayud as Thailand’s 24th prime minister in 74 years of democracy. Surayud, 63, then announced that a new cabinet would be picked in a week. He said his government would focus on “people’s happiness” above economic growth.
“We will concentrate on the self-sufficiency economy that the King advocates,” he told a news conference. “We won’t concentrate so much on the GDP numbers. We would rather look into the indicators of people’s happiness and prosperity.”
Under the new constitution, he is charged with keeping the country and economy ticking over while a panel of eminent Thais draws up a new long-term constitution. According to the generals’ “democracy roadmap”, this should take about nine months, at the end of which there will be a referendum and national elections.
MILITARY CIVILIAN: Although a career military man, Surayud — until now a senior royal adviser — has a reputation as a reformer who recognised the need to keep soldiers out of politics in a country which has now seen 18 successful coups.
Despite promises not to interfere, doubts remain about the military’s neutrality, especially given that the coup leaders are staying on in the form of a Council for National Security (CNS) with the power to dismiss the interim administration.
Having ousted Thaksin without a shot being fired, Sonthi promised to hand power to civilians within two weeks, a pledge that ensured domestic goodwill but failed to avert international condemnation of Thailand’s first coup in 15 years.
The interim charter guarantees basic human rights and sets up an assembly of 2,000 eminent persons to start work on a long-term constitution, but it also enshrines the coup leaders’ security role and their ability to hire and fire governments.
CALMING FEARS: Officials have tried to assuage concerns about the army overshadowing the return to democracy, saying the authority to sack the government is largely hypothetical.
“It is a power that is in reserve. I don’t think they foresee a situation to resort to it,” senior Foreign Ministry official Krit Garnjana-Goonchorn said.
Sonthi told Reuters on Friday the CNS would play a role only in security matters, such as tackling an insurgency in the Muslim far south where over 1,700 people have been killed since 2004.
“I can assure you it is impossible that we will control the government,” he said in an interview at Army Headquarters. “We will be the government’s tool to keep peace.”
He also said Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire who won election landslides in 2001 and 2005 but now lives in exile in London, should not return to Thailand as the “domestic situation has not settled yet”.
BANGKOK, Oct 1: Thailand’s military rulers unveiled a stop-gap prime minister and constitution on Sunday, fulfilling a promise to step back in favour of civilians within two weeks of their coup against Thaksin Shinawatra.
