Yingluck ensures she has last word

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Will the Oil Fund be scrapped or not? Will the baht be allowed to float freely or be managed? Will red shirt leaders be allowed to become ministers, or will they be banished from the cabinet?

 

Realising it could cause public confusion with daily back-tracking and corrections, the Pheu Thai Party has resolved to give the microphone only to its would-be prime ministerial candidate Yingluck Shinawatra.

 

A high-level meeting chaired by Ms Yingluck yesterday agreed that from now on, no Pheu Thai member would be allowed to comment in public on the party's policies and how they would be implemented. Such matters would be left to Ms Yingluck only.

 

The move to streamline communication came after what appeared to be a series of flip-flops on policy proposals. At the final rally two days before the election, Ms Yingluck announced that her party would scrap the Oil Fund to lower fuel prices.

 

On Wednesday, she also declared as an urgent task a measure to end contributions of three fuel products to the Oil Fund. Yesterday, however, she switched track slightly and said her party had no plans to jettison the Oil Fund after all. It is only looking at halting contributions to the fund temporarily.

 

Ms Yingluck made a few more corrections. Earlier this week, Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech, whose name has been tipped as a candidate for finance minister, told Reuters that Thailand should ''steer and manage'' the baht to keep the currency at ''a competitive level''.

 

Ms Yingluck yesterday said the government would not actively intervene in the baht, and that Mr Suchart's remark was just a preliminary analysis.

 

She also responded to Sanoh Thienthong, a leading Pheu Thai member and party-list MP, who said the appointment of red shirt leaders to cabinet could lead to social division.

 

Yesterday, Ms Yingluck insisted the selection of cabinet members is not closed to red shirt leaders provided they are qualified.