PM turns to military top brass for protection

The strategy adopted yesterday by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to ward off the threat against his rule from the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) was simple, but risky.

The prime minister took the unexpected step of surrounding himself with the military top brass at the Supreme Command.

A military source revealed that Mr Samak phoned Supreme Commander Gen Boonsrang Niempradit around 8am after being told that PAD supporters would try to seize control of Government House and several ministries to pressure the prime minister and his cabinet to step down.

Gen Boonsrang was asked to arrange a meeting room for the cabinet at the Supreme Command at 9am. A room on the fourth four of the Supreme Command's main building was then vacated and re-arranged as a meeting place for the cabinet as requested.

The prime minister's decision to stay inside the barracks came despite a strong rumour on Monday night that a military wing, led by First Army chief Lt-Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha, was planning to stage a coup and overthrow the government.

Mr Samak asked both Army chief Gen Anupong Paojinda and Lt-Gen Prayuth to be by his side all day yesterday and used the command centre as a base to deal with the PAD attacks against his administration, the source said.

Mr Samak took a big risk by putting his trust in Gen Anupong he would not be back-stabbed if he stayed inside the barracks which could have made him an easy target if the army had opted for a coup, an observer noted.

The prime minister, who is also the defence minister, rewarded them for the protection within hours yesterday by quickly approving the military reshuffle list.

The reshuffle list was discussed on the sixth floor of the building immediately after the cabinet meeting, which ended at 2pm. Normally, at least 30 minutes are spent on discussing the list, but this time the prime minister approved the list within 10 minutes without making any changes.

Mr Samak told the armed forces chiefs that he respected their decisions as he believed they knew their forces better than anybody else, according to Gen Boonsrang.

Many military leaders were themselves surprised at the quick end of the meeting, as it has taken days in previous years to finalise the list due to heavy internal lobbying.

Details were not unveiled after the meeting.

Earlier, Mr Samak reportedly planned to propose that Gen Anupong also hold the post of supreme commander as Mr Samak disagreed with Gen Boonsrang that his deputy Gen Montri Sangkhasap be nominated to succeed him.

But Gen Anupong refused to take up the post, reasoning that he would find the workload too heavy, and said many other senior officers were qualified for the job, another military source added.

The source said Gen Boonsrang would likely be succeeded by Gen Songkitti Chakkabat, chief-of-staff of the Supreme Command, instead of Gen Montri.

But pleasing the military leaders by leaving the list untouched was no guarantee that he would not face a coup. If the situation worsens, the army will be left with no choice and could take that very step to restore the stability of the country, another observer said.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/270808_News/27Aug2008_news03.php