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The Democrat Party yesterday urged the government to tackle the
country's problems head-on and to prioritise urgent tasks.
 "So
far, the people have failed to see how the government has been
handling the four main problems cited as reasons for the coup,"
spokesman Ong-art Klampaiboon said.
He said
the only apparent achievement of the government and Council for
National Security (CNS) was the appointment of new members to
some key independent organisations.
He said
the CNS and the government had failed to restore unity and the
mission to tackle corruption by the previous administration
seemed to be going nowhere as only one case had been completed.
The
Democrat spokesman said the government must intensify its
attempts to solve the country's problems.
"During
the past five months, the government has announced that it would
focus on three main issues. That is, it would try to end the
rift in society, it would solve the southern border province
violence and it would use the sufficiency philosophy to get the
country's economy moving on," Ong-art said.
"But five
months have passed and none of the promises has been fulfilled
yet."
He said
the divide between groups supporting or opposing ousted prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra remained, while the southern
situation was still volatile and the economic situation had
worsened.
"We would
like the government to end the old working style used during the
past five months and dare to tackle the problems head-on," Ong-art
said.
He said
it was good that the Cabinet held a special meeting on Saturday
to review its work during the past five months.
But the
Cabinet must come up with clear-cut working strategies and must
prioritise its tasks.
He said
if the government prodded Cabinet members and permanent
officials to carry out their duties to their full capacity, the
country's problems should be solved in five or six months.
Democrat
deputy spokesman Sathit Pitudecha said he supported the
government's plan to reallocate the country's budget with
fairness and transparency.
He said
the Thaksin government had abused the budget allocation for
political purposes for six years.
Sathit
suggested the government should allocate parts of the 2008
fiscal year budget to revive the economy by increasing the
income of the middle-class and launching projects to create
consumer confidence so that they would spend more.
Also
yesterday, the Campaign for Popular Democracy (CPD) said the CNS
had failed to reach its goals of the coup six months ago.
CPD
secretary-general Suriyasai Katasila said the CNS had failed to
live up to the expectations of the public again and again until
people had lost faith in the junta.
"It could
be said that the CNS has so far seized only the prime minister's
seat but could not absolutely seize power from the Thaksin
regime," Suriyasai said.
He said
the CNS had failed to solve the four main problems cited as
reasons to stage the coup, which were massive corruption, social
rifts, interference in independence organisations and failing to
take action against those who had allegedly insulted His Majesty
the King.
Suriyasai
said the CNS and its installed government had failed to
cooperate in their works and apparently had different goals.
He said
the new constitution being drafted under the supervision of the
CNS could also lead Thailand to much more complicated rifts as
it would allow a non-elected person to become prime minister. |
