Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra replaced his finance, interior and defense ministers yesterday in a Cabinet reshuffle as the government faces a Muslim insurgency in the south, a volatile stock market and a public outcry over a privatization plan.
The removal of the defense and interior ministers was likely related to the upsurge of violence in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south in the past two months. The change in the finance minister's post was part of an apparent bid to revive Thailand's stock market, which was one of the world's top performers last year but has slipped in recent months.
Government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair announced the new Cabinet lineup after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed Thaksin's proposed changes.
Both the defense and interior ministers had been criticized for failing to stop sporadic attacks by alleged Muslim separatists, including a raid on an army base in January in which four soldiers were killed and hundreds of weapons stolen. Since then, about 50 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed.
Defense Minister General Thamarak Isarangura was shifted to the post of deputy prime minister and replaced by General Chetta Thanajaro, a former army commander who has been serving as science and technology minister.
Interior Minister Wan Mu-hamad Noor Matha was moved to the post of deputy prime minister, and replaced by Bhokin Bhalakula, who had been a deputy prime minister.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha was replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who previously held the finance portfolio. Suchart was moved to the position of deputy prime minister.
Somkid returns to the helm of the finance ministry just a year after being moved.
A marketing guru, Somkid is considered a better salesman than the outgoing Suchart, who was also faulted for his failure to quash opposition to a plan to privatize Thailand's electricity company.
The planned privatization of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, or EGAT, triggered massive protests in recent weeks, with tens of thousands of workers and activists demonstrating over fears the move would lead to layoffs. The government delayed the plan Saturday.
The privatization attempt was one of a series of missteps for Thaksin.
Some observers called the expected reshuffle an attempt to repair the government's image.
The overhaul amounted to Thaksin trying "to make the public feel he is making positive changes after the government's reputation deteriorated in recent months," Somchai Paggapagvivat, a professor at Thammasat University, said on Tuesday.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the