6/01/2011
SARITDET MARUKATAT
Bangkok Post
The arrest of seven Thais by Cambodian soldiers deepens Phnom Penh's long suspicions of the alliance between the Democrat Party and the People's Alliance for Democracy.
The yellow shirt PAD has irked Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ever since the group dragged his country into its political campaign to oust then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and later pressed the Thaksin-backed People Power Party out of Government House. Its rallies were successful, with Thaksin being stripped of power by a military coup in 2006 and the PPP disbanded by the Constitution Court two years later for election fraud.
The Democrat Party distanced itself from being seen as an ally of the PAD when the opportunity came for the party to administer the country in 2008. It denied during the formation of the government that the rise to power of the Democrat-led coalition had been made possible with help of the PAD's ending the political influence of Thaksin. Although Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva picked Kasit Piromya to be his foreign minister, the choice of the former career diplomat was based on his experience in international affairs and as an adviser and a shadow minister for the party when it was on the opposition benches, instead of his being selected as part of a "PAD quota" to please the yellow shirts. That, in essence, was the message sent to political watchers and to Cambodia.
No comments:
Post a Comment