Thai PM Thaksin back on radio as crisis drags on

BANGKOK, July 1: Embattled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the airwaves today after a four-month pause, using a radio address to vaunt his populist agenda.

Thaksin, whose party risks dissolution as a long political crisis drags on, spent much of the broadcast reviewing progress in efforts to help the rural poor and fight illegal narcotics.

He had to suspend his weekly radio address in February after calling an April 2 general election in hopes of stifling a street campaign against him. The courts later declared the vote invalid.

Thaksin said drug problems had recurred in some towns and border provinces after he stepped aside amid big street protests following the April poll. His absence lasted almost two months.

''During the political uncertainty, drugs problems returned to some areas. But since my return, we have seen relatively good results from our renewed campaign to track down dealers.

The problems have now eased substantially,'' he said.

Thaksin's popularity peaked at 77.5 per cent after his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party won 377 of the 500 lower house seats in 2005, and fell to 34.5 per cent in February ahead of the snap election, according to an Assumption poll.

Assumption has carried out no new nationwide poll since then, but its latest survey of bangkok respondents released on Thursday showed only 41 per cent wanted Thaksin as the next prime minister.

BOYCOTTED POLL The invalidation of the April election, boycotted by main opposition parties which accused Thaksin of seizing control of supposedly independent public institutions, left Thailand with a caretaker government unable to make major policy decisions. As he did in most of his previous radio talks, Thaksin also touched on populist programmes that won his party huge support in the countryside, including decentralising management of community development funds and giving the poor easier access to loans from state-run banks.

''Under a capitalist system, access to capital and knowledge is essential for people to build up wealth. Without this, it would be difficult. Turning non-bankable assets into capital is a chance for the poor to gain access to capital,'' he said, referring to a policy allowing the poor to apply for loans from state-run banks with minimal collateral.

Opposition parties denounced the prime minister's use of the public airwaves as giving the government an unfair advantage ahead of an election re-run tentatively set for October 15. The poll is still far from certain to take place given no early signs of an end to the current stalemate.

''The radio talk is a show of abused power, a breach of political etiquette in using state-owned media for his and his party's gains without giving the opposition similar access,'' said Democrat Party spokesman Ong-Ard Klampaiboon.

Thaksin said political problems had hurt the Thai economy, which would still face challenges in the second half of 2006, including costly energy and rising inflation and interest rates.

But his government would do its best to offset declining private investment this year with more government spending despite a delay in preparing the 2006/07 budget due to the absence of an elected parliament.

Analysts said that with the prolonged political uncertainty, the economy would probably grow around 4 per cent this year, down from about 5 per cent projected six months ago and against 4.5 per cent in 2005.

Reuters