Sondhi slams Abhisit as a traitor

Sondhi Limthongkul has hit out hard at Abhisit Vejjajiva ahead of the People’s Alliance for Democracy’s move against Parliament’s approval of documents related to the Thai-Cambodian border dispute on 2 Nov.

On 29 Oct, Sondhi said in his weekly programme on ASTV that if next Tuesday parliament endorsed the three meeting reports of the Thai-Cambodian Joint Boundary Commission (JBC) as proposed by the government, Thailand would definitely face territorial loss.  And it was under a government led by the Democrat Party again that the loss would be incurred, similar to what happened after 1997 when another Democrat-led government allowed foreigners to buy assets at cheap prices.

Sondhi said that the reports of the JBC meetings were made according to the MOU signed in 2000 by the Democrat-led government.  MR Sukhumbhand Paripatra was then Deputy Foreign Minister, and Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai just signed as the Foreign Ministry proposed.  On the issue of border dispute, each country can insist on its border claim according to its own evidence, and the dispute can drag on for 50 or 100 years, which is OK.  But Thai Foreign Ministry officials are cowards.  Since Thailand lost Preah Vihear Temple to Cambodia in 1962, they have just tried to save their own skins, not having the nerve to protect their land.  Whenever the Democrat Party becomes the government, it always does what is dictated by the bureaucrats.  It lets the bureaucrats do the job, not daring to intervene.  Since Abhisit Vejjajiva became Prime Minister, he has always said that this is the job of the Foreign Ministry.

Sondhi said that the Abhisit government took the opportunity of the flood crisis to bring its treacherous agenda to Parliament on 26 Oct.  A spokesperson for the Cambodian government said that Hun Sen would not bring up the border issue in talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon [during the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi] because the Thai government had promised that the Thai Parliament would endorse the JBC’s meeting reports.  Sondhi asked who had struck such a treacherous deal in advance, Abhisit or Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya?

He said that Abhisit had told members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy at the Thai-Japanese Din Daeng Sports Stadium on 7 Aug and the public through Channel 11 television on 8 Aug that he would stick to the borderline demarcated by the watershed, and viewed the Cambodian settlements around the Preah Vihear compound as a violation of the 2000 MOU; the government would take diplomatic and military measures to push them back.  Three months have passed, and Abhisit has done nothing to push the Cambodians back.  So what Abhisit said was just a lie.

He said that any parliamentarians who voted to endorse the JBC reports would be considered traitors.

He urged PAD members to come out to gather early in the morning of 2 Nov to protect Thai territory, but said that they would not block the entrance to Parliament.  This will be a show of force for the government to see, because it sees the PAD as impotent.

‘It’s not that we’re impotent.  The fact is that we’re people of reason.  When we see [the government] committed to the work, we’re ready to find solutions for them.  But they go back on their word by bringing the JBC reports to Parliament, and the content of the JBC reports contradicts all that they have said.’

‘The Foreign Ministry is under the government.  Can’t you give orders, Abhisit, Kasit? Can’t you tell them that you don’t want this?  You look into the detail, and you surely know.  You let it go, because you are not decisive.  You want to float above problems, caring nothing for the loss of the country.  I regret this.  I have remorse.  I’ve supported you all along sincerely.  I thought that you should be given the chance on many occasions.  It’s been almost two years that I’ve been silent, because I wanted to give you the chance, although I felt frustrated and uncomfortable many times because of you,’ Sondhi said.

Source: 
<p>http://www.prachatai3.info/journal/2010/10/31683</p>

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