New Thailand PM starts healing post-coup rifts

Bangkok, Oct 2: Thailand's new Prime Minister started work today with pledges to focus on national reconciliation and ''people's happiness'' in the wake of last month's military coup against Mr Thaksin Shinawatra.

After a blessing ceremony with the country's top Buddhist monk, General Surayud Chulanont prepared to move into the Government House offices that have been empty since the September 19 putsch, Thailand's 18th in seven decades of democracy.

The weekend's smooth appointment of Gen Surayud, a respected former army commander-in-chief, helped lift the Bangkok stock market at the opening bell as investors hoped any immediate post-coup instability was now past.

The baht, which fell to a 6-1/2-week low after billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin was deposed, also held steady despite comments from Surayud that suggested a focus on healing social divisions before boosting economic growth.

''I don't think it will affect the market that badly but it is going to make people think twice before putting money into Thailand because they don't know him, and that is a problem,'' said Marco Sucharitkul of JP Morgan in Bangkok.

After being sworn in, Surayud said his administration, which is meant to keep the country ticking over for a year while a new constitution is drawn up, would focus on a ''self-sufficiency'' economic model espoused by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

''We won't concentrate so much on the GDP numbers. We would rather look into the indicators of people's happiness and prosperity,'' he told a news conference.

TANKS GONE, ARMY STILL THERE

His cabinet, which should be appointed in a week, is sure to be scrutinised by investors wanting to see how serious he is about the economy, and foreign governments and rights groups wanting to see how free he is of army interference.

The US ambassador was among his first official visitors.

The tanks that have been on the streets since the coup rolled back to the barracks within minutes of the stop-gap constitution being announced, but the coup leaders, now grouped on a Council for National Security (CNS), are still very much in the fray.

Under the interim charter, army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin has the power to hire and fire governments, and appoint members of the 2,000-strong People's Assembly that will start work on a new long-term constitution.

The army will also vet the final draft of the constitution before it is submitted to a national referendum in about nine months, according to the generals' ''roadmap to democracy''.

Sonthi has tried to assuage fears about military meddling, telling Reuters the CNS would play a role only in security matters, such as tackling an insurgency in the Muslim far south where over 1,700 people have been killed since 2004.

''I can assure you it is impossible that we will control the government,'' he said. ''We will be the government's tool to keep peace.'' He also said Mr Thaksin, who won election landslides in 2001 and 2005 but now lives in exile in London, should not return as the ''domestic situation has not settled yet''.

His four most trusted aides, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya, chief of staff Prommin Lertsuradej, Prime Minister's office Minister Newin Chidchob and Environment Minister Yongyut Tiyapairat, were released from army custody yesterday.

REUTERS