Perks for graft-busting Thai coup makers draw flak

BANGKOK, Nov 9 (Reuters) Thai coup leaders, who ousted me Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to stop ''rampant corruption'', are under mounting criticism themselves for taking extra salaries and top positions in state firms.

The Nation newspaper called a cabinet decision to give the seven-member Council for National Security, as the coup leaders call themselves, additional pay on top of monthly military salaries the ''dumbest thing'' the interim government had done.

''This is egg in the face'' for coup backers and gives anti-coup activists an ''early Christmas gift'', Tulsathit Taptim, editor of the English-language newspaper, wrote this week.

''I can't figure out any good reason except that they are now so bored with the job already and want to provoke a street protest so as to exit quickly with a good pretext,'' he wrote.

On Tuesday, the cabinet approved ''position fees'' of between 110,000 baht and 120,000 baht ($3,000-$3,200) a month on top of the similar amount they make as top brass.

It also awarded the 242 members of the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly, a third of them active or retired generals and half of them senior bureaucrats, 104,330 baht a month, the salary of a mid-level manager.

Several coup leaders were appointed chairmen of state firms.

Air Force chief Chalit Phukphasuk, already on the board of national carrier Thai Airways International, was expected to be made chairman of profit-making Airports of Thailand next week, Thai newspapers said.

The perks drew flak from political activists who led a street campaign earlier this year demanding Thaksin quit over allegations of abuse of power, cronyism and corruption.

''They are following in the previous coup leaders' bad footsteps, giving the public a perception that they launched a coup for their own benefit, not the people's,'' Suriyasai Katasila said in reference to the previous coup in 1991.

But the coup leaders and the government defended the payments.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, himself an ex-army chief, said he would rather pay the generals hundreds of thousands of baht a month than see the country losing billions to corrupt governments.

He said he would happily revoke the cabinet decision if the coup leaders didn't want the money or wanted less.

Air Chief Marshal Chalit said it was necessary for military personnel to be on the boards of state firms, including a Bangkok bus firm, related to national security.

''There were four or five bankers on the previous boards of some state firms who came to exploit those positions for their own benefits, but it is the time for us now to come to establish transparency,'' Matichon newspaper quoted Chalit as saying.

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