Updated: Political purge at the Ministry of Interior

The Bangkok Post reports on a purge at the Ministry of Interior. It begins: “The annual reshuffle of provincial governors is targeting those thought to have failed in containing the April-May political unrest…”.

The “governors in provinces where city halls were burned down _ Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, Mukdahan and Khon Kaen _ and governors who were “unresponsive” to politicians’ orders were either made governors of smaller provinces or appointed Interior Ministry inspectors-general.”

And it is clear that the Bhum Jai Thai Party led by Newin Chidchob has worked with the Democrat Party to get this purge in place. This is about the future, though, not the past: these parties are desperate to win some seats in red shirt strongholds, and having “tame” governors makes that much more likely. Remember when Thaksin Shinawatra was considered evil for doing similar things (although the scale was more limited).

The report says: “Most of those [new] governors are obedient.” Some governors “seen as having failed to respond to the orders of politicians” have been demoted while those close to Newin and other coalition politicians in the government have been transferred to larger provinces in order to control them at election time and to suppress red shirts.

It seems that those who yelped about Thaksin’s “underhanded” tactics are now the ones in support of political purges.

Update: On the subject of political purges, the Bangkok Post has a further article of interest, related to the and an alleged interference in its operations to oust Pichet Sathirachawal, a leader associated with the Puea Thai Party and the Thai Rak Thai government prior to that. See earlier stories on this official here and here.