February 16, 2005

Democrats offer to aid govt in rebuilding trust

YUWADEE TUNYASIRI MUHAMAD AYUB PATHAN

Yala _ The Democrat party has volunteered to help bridge the gap

between the government and the people in the deep South as a first step

in restoring peace to the troubled region.

Acting Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said his party was under an

obligation to voters in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat for giving it a

political mandate in the region and must thus help alleviate their

plight.

The Democrats won 10 of 11 House seats in the three provinces in the

Feb 6 general election.

Mr Abhisit and a number of key party figures met with around 1,000 Thai

Muslims and Muslim religious leaders in Yala yesterday to gather their

opinions on what they believed were the best measures to put an end to

the southern unrest.

Mr Abhisit pledged ``full and constructive'' cooperation from all his

party members with the government in solving the problems in the South.

All information gathered from the party's visits to local communities

would be passed on to the government in ``any manner that caretaker

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra feels most comfortable with'', he

said.

Mr Abhisit said his party would let Mr Thaksin decide if he wanted to

listen to its suggestions and would not demand that he accept them.

``The prime minister should not be worried with what we are doing. I

can assure him we are not looking for our own political gain,'' he

said.

Mr Abhisit said the ultimate goal was only to return peace to the deep

South.

He said the new government should start afresh with people in the South

first of all by not saying things that could hurt their feelings.

During the transition of power, there was also no need for Mr Thaksin

to confirm or deny what he would or would not do to tackle the southern

troubles, Mr Abhisit said.

Mr Abhisit said he was able to say that the meeting agreed with the

party's suggestions that the government give the people a say in their

future, accept their cultural and religious differences and also

strictly enforce laws.

The local people themselves had given the Democrats a lot of useful

advice but some was different to what was on the government's agenda, he

said.

``The people do not see things the same way as the government,

particularly the structure of security agencies and the role of

officials,'' he said.

Mr Thaksin said he welcomed the Democrat party's assistance and that he

had no problem in setting up a meeting with them to discuss measures

that would help resolve the problem of southern violence once and for

all.

``We will adopt anything that is good,'' Mr Thaksin said.