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[/color]Question: Can you tell us about Thailand’s politics [right now]?
Answer: We are confident we have a government on the basis of very clear policy direction and measures, on the basis on the rule of law, which is applicable to everyone including the ministers and the Cabinet, noninterference in the judicial process, good governance, accountability and transparency.
How far is the government committed to developing democracy in Thailand?
On the democratic side, it is going to be a consensus-building society, so we welcome the opinion of the civil societies, private sectors and politicians… My prime minister talks to the people through television every Saturday and we allow the same amount of time to the opposition leader as a mark of equal access to the media.
Second, we work very closely with the parliament, whose members are the representatives of the people.
Third, we will support what was already established by the past government, the political development council. It is composed of about 100 people from all walks of life, for them to provide political education, knowledge on democracy to the people and so on.
At the same time, the government has suggested to the opposition to set up a bipartisan committee to review and re-look into the spirit and letters of the existing constitution which provisions could be improved to make them more democratic.
How about the government policy about [the former prime minister] Thaksin [Shinawatra]. Will you revoke his passport?
No. His diplomatic passport was cancelled by the last government, not by us. He only has an ordinary passport valid up to the year 2012. Whether we will cancel his ordinary passport depends very much on the recommendation of the judicial council, which is the advisory legal body to the executive branch. But the final decision will be at the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, depending on their recommendation.
Second, if we are to annul his passport, I don’t think we will be accused of infringement of his freedom to travel, because the foreign office can issue the Certificate of Identity, which is a one-way travel document – he must come back to Thailand. He has to come back to Thailand because he has to go to jail for two years. But I cannot do this unless the Office of the Attorney General instructs the foreign office to do so.
So we don’t want to just simply go and cancel his passport without a notification from the Office of the Attorney General and the police. It is their duty to bring back Thaksin, it is not my ministry’s duty. But it will be our duty if and when the AGO writes to us. They haven’t written and I said that I am waiting for that letter.
Once they ask me to do, I already know what to do. It is already in my head.
At the same time… we do not want any friendly countries to allow Kun Thaksin to use their country as a political platform to attack Thai society and the decency of Thai society. And he has to go to jail.
As the host of the ASEAN summit, does Thailand have any agenda to push forward?
I think the spirit of the letters of the ASEAN Charter is talking about the ASEAN community. To make ASEAN change from an association to a community, every ASEAN citizen must have a hand in it, in terms of expressing their opinions, making ASEAN part of their everyday lives.
I think the agenda or the objective is to create more awareness, to give knowledge to the people and to ask them to express opinions and also to observe ASEAN rules and regulations, so as to make them feel [like] ASEAN [citizens] and have a sense of the ownership or stakeholders.
So we cannot have an association that used to be confined to intellectuals, to a few politicians or bureaucrats. It must be a community of the 600 million people and they must know that they are the owners of ASEAN and act likewise.
What is Thailand’s stance on the Rohingya boatpeople?
I have agreed with your foreign minister to put the whole thing under the Bali Process, which is a framework in principle that the countries in the region would work together on human trafficking, as a result of our experience with the Vietnamese boatpeople and the trafficking of women from Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Did they come willingly as refugees?
No. They came for their economic well-being. But whichever way it is, they are being trafficked. So you have to start from that point. Second, what are the causes of
the trafficking?
There are many causes, so we have to go back to the source. So what happened? Why did they leave?
Then we have to go and help them better their lives. I think it is the regional and international responsibility. And also, it is the responsibility of the sending country, Myanmar, and the major transit point, Bangladesh. And we all have to work together. You don’t have to blame one another but there is a problem. So let’s work together.
There is a plan to meet in March, or April at the latest inside the Bali Process. I already went to Geneva and talked to the UNHCR high commissioner. So the UNHCR will come in. We will be coordinating very closely with the Indonesian government.
What do you say about the claims of abuses committed by the Thai military?
The Navy has said in very strong words that they did not do it and they have never done it. [There were some reports alleging that the army was turning away boatpeople in shoddy boats, causing hundreds to perish in the Andaman Sea].
Don’t forget we took in 1 million Vietnamese boatpeople [in the 1970s and 1980s]; we never had that negative record. I think an interview with one or two Rohingya by an international news agency has to be authenticated, verified.
At the same time, we are doing our independent investigation. Our human rights commission is also conducting an investigation.
Sometimes our foreign friends, international media, tend to be accusatory and tend to be sensationalistic without respect for the decency of a society, without respect for the truth.