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Thai prime minister in court over TV cooking show
Laos News.Net
Monday 8th September, 2008 (IANS)
Moscow, Sep 8 (RIA Novosti) Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej appeared in a Bangkok court Monday after being accused of breaching constitutional law by appearing in a TV cooking show, the Bangkok Post reported.
Thailand's constitution bans the premier from working for private companies. If found guilty the 73-year-old, who also faces corruption and fraud charges, could be forced to resign after just seven months in office.
The prime minister admitted that he had been paid for his appearances on the "Tasting and Complaining" show, but said it was a freelance job.
'I consulted with legal counsel after I became prime minister, and they all agreed it was not a breach of the constitution if I was not a regular employee of a company,' the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Sakchai Khaewwaneesakul, the managing director of the company that produced the TV show, said the company paid the premier 80,000 baht ($2,300) for the four shows.
'The presenters of our shows are not our employees, but we pay them honorariums,' he said.
The complaint against the prime minister was filed by a group of opposition senators from the People's Alliance for Democracy party.
The controversy follows nationwide anti-government protests and the introduction of martial law last week after a protester was killed. Anti-government protesters took over the grounds of the Government House Aug 26 and have refused to move despite the state of emergency.
Besides the cooking show case, Sundaravej faces at least three corruption charges, charges of electoral fraud and a defamation suit.
The court is expected to announce a decision Tuesday.
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Comments on this story
Danny Boy
09-08-08, 01:54 PM |
Thai prime minister in court over TV cooking show
I don’t know if the P.M. is morally or legally guilty of a crime by appearing on a TV show. He was very stupid to make himself vulnerable to his enemies in this way. I don’t know if Samak is guilty of electoral fraud. I do know with 100% certainty that it is the judicial system in Thailand - not the P.A.D. mob - that has the responsibility to bring him to justice. It is not only Samak who is being disgraced by the unchecked activities of this mob, it is the Thai Supreme Court, the legal system that is losing face before the world. No matter how bad a man - corrupt, incompetent, uncaring? - that he may be, his mission in life right now is to squash the P.A.D. and allow Thailand to recover some stability. Even if the P.A.D. is right in its claims against Thaksin and Samak, and its belief that the Thai people are too stupid to elect the right people, they are clearly violating the country’s laws in acting as a mob. They should have been stopped before they metastised out to the unions, transportation, and now to the supreme court. The least painful thing for Thailand is to apprehend the P.A.D. leaders - killing the fewest number of their supporters possible - in order to permit the return to normal government and rule by law. Then, and only then, Can the courts decide if Samak is guilty of something, and deal with him appropriately. It is not just Samak who is being tried by the P.A.D., it is the entire Thai nation- if he is not protected from illegal arrest then no one is safe. It has to be the right of the millions of Thai citizens to decide thro the electoral system to decid who is to govern them.
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Citizen borned countryside
09-10-08, 06:44 AM |
The war in Thailand will not end unless the white scholar become the Prime Minister
The nation spent at least 5000 million Baht for the general election to have a prime minister.
What is happening in the country is that the upper class is so much afraid of loosing power after former prime mininster Taksin for the first time in Thai history took care of the majority. He modernized the country and changed the government officers to service oriented than ruling . Some cannot cope with these changes so brought the military in. After a year of military ruling we have a general election under the pro military atmoshere while the Taksin’s party was dissolved by a small accusaiton. The courts and a lot of organizations were appointed by the military group.
Pro Taksin party won the majority votes and formed the government. Since the DAY1, the anti government launched a demonstation accusation of corruption and so...so. Of course, the court and other organizations were appointed by the military, So we are seeing the most stupid actions. More stupids are coming, until Thailand has the appointed govenment compoosed of the white collars and feudal officers.
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