February 7, 2005

PM delays visit to the South

 YUWADEE TUNYASIRI

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has postponed his trip to the deep

South citing a bad cold he caught after his gruelling election campaign,

a government source said yesterday.

His three-day visit to Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala was originally

scheduled to begin tomorrow to follow up on operations of the Southern

Border Provinces Peace-building Command.

The source said Mr Thaksin had delayed the trip by a week to Feb

15-17.

After learning of the exit poll results, Mr Thaksin told the press on

Sunday visiting the troubled southernmost provinces was high on his

post-election agenda.

But observers said the change of plan might also be because Thai Rak

Thai failed to win a single House seat in the three violence-prone

provinces in the poll though it stormed the rest of the country.

The three provinces have 11 MPs and voters on Sunday gave 10 seats to

the Democrat party and one seat to a candidate from the Chart Thai

party, according to unofficial results.

Deep South buries TRT

Clear signal of dislike for Thaksin's policies

Thai Rak Thai's crushing defeat in the three Muslim-dominated provinces

was a consequence of the government's mismanagement of problems in the

far South, several religious leaders said yesterday.

The prime minister's party failed to win a single seat in the three

provinces.

``This is not surprising at all since Muslims in the area were quite

confident this would be the outcome. We predicted this. The prime

minister totally misjudged the situation down here,'' said Nideh Waba,

president of the Private Islamic Schools Association.

Abdullahman Abdulsamak, chairman of the Narathiwat Provincial Islamic

Committee, shared Nideh Waba's view. He said the resounding defeat of

Thai Rak Thai (TRT) clearly showed local people's frustration and

disappointment over Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's handling of the

situation in the southernmost provinces. The bloody incidents at Krue Se

mosque and later at Tak Bai police station had a bad effect on Thai Rak

Thai's image.

``We are hopeful this will make the government pay more attention to

local people's feelings,'' he said.

Mr Thaksin yesterday admitted his party failed in the South, saying it

was a warning sign for his government.

``The government has to listen more and make further adjustments,'' Mr

Thaksin said.

The violence in the three provinces has obviously had a major of

bearing on the poll since none of the party's former MPs were re-elected

to the House.

Early indications were that TRT had won eight of the 11 seats in Yala,

Narathiwat and Pattani and the Democrats only three.

However, as counting continued yesterday, unofficial results showed the

Democrat took nearly all the 54 seats in the greater southern region.

The Democrats won 52 seats from 14 southern provinces, including 10

seats in the three southernmost provinces. The 11th seat went to Chart

Thai candidate Kuheng Yawhason in Narathiwat's constituency 3 which

covers Rangae, Cho Airong and Sukhirin districts.

In the 2001 elections, the Democrats won five of the 11 seats, New

Aspiration party five and TRT one.

Five NAP MPs, under the leadership of deputy prime minister Wan

Muhammad Nor Matha, later joined TRT. Four Democrat MPs also switched to

TRT which then became the pundits' favourite to sweep all 11 seats in

the restive region.

But the Democrats were not surprised by the outcome. ``We were quite

confident from the beginning since we were well aware of local people's

displeasure with Mr Thaksin, who has made a mess on situation down

here,'' said Democrat deputy secretary-general Niphon Boonyamani, in

charge of the party's southern campaign. ``The problem down there was

not the economic pledges made by the prime minister to draw votes from

local people. It had more to do with the people's feelings of

insecurity, of being mishandled by the government.''

Former Demcorat MP Wairoj Pipitpak-dee, a veteran politician in Pattani

who jumped ship to TRT, admitted local Muslims were very unhappy with Mr

Thaksin's handling of the situation. Mr Wairoj was trounced by unknown

Democrat candidate Anwar Saleh.

Paisal Yingsaman, Thai Rak Thai's candidate in Yala's constituency 2

admitted the defeat was totally unexpected. The government's harsh

action at Tak Bai had caused wide displeasure and the Democrats

benefited from this.

``They said during the campaign that there would be more bloodshed and

more killing if Thaksin led another new government,'' Mr Paisal said.