By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER ANUTIN Charnvirakul said today (Sep.30) he was quite puzzled by fresh allegations that his Bhumjaithai-led government is merely fishing for popularity among the people with a copay project to be renewed and implemented nationwide just ahead of a general election anticipated around the upcoming March.
The prime minister who concurrently acts as leader of the Bhumjaithai, core of the current coalition government, told reporters that he was dazed and dumbfounded over the allegations launched by opposition lawmakers during the government’s policy statement session at parliament that they may be practically tempting the people nationwide with the copay project with intent to woo their votes in the next election at the cost of the taxpayer’s money.
“This government will certainly do anything which may be of beneficial use by the people. We will do it in no hasty fashion but in prompt, effective fashion,” Anutin said, referring to the copay project.
The copay project initiated in the time of former army chief-turned-coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha over the last several years provided for the people throughout the country to pay half the total price of a purchased merchandise or service with the other half to be paid by the government.
Many people have been apparently impressed with the copay project to some extent whilst the 10,000-baht “digital wallet” project launched by a previous Pheu Thai-led government had not been literally implemented as earlier planned and young generations had been denied, rendering the whole populist project allegedly initiated by de facto Pheu Thai boss-turned-inmate Thaksin Shinawatra to stumble and fizzle out.
In another development, the prime minister remarked that the contentious Thai-Cambodian MoUs issue may not need a public referendum for the people nationwide to decide whether such agreements between Bangkok and Phnom Penh should be unilaterally, entirely terminated by the Thai side because, he said, his cabinet is legally empowered to cope with it at any given time.
Anutin said an ad hoc House committee is currently working on the issue to see whether those MoUs should be scrapped, given the possibility that Thailand might lose advantage to Cambodia in regard to a joint, undersea natural resources development scheme and a maritime border demarcation project which could possibly jeopardise Thailand’s territorial integrity.
If the House panel officially concludes that Thailand will lose rather than gain any interest provided by the MoUs, the Bhumjaithai-led cabinet will definitely scrap them once and for all without waiting for the people to make a relevant decision via a public referendum, according to the prime minister.
The prime minister said the people would be given honour to take part in the making of such a significant decision which may involve national and public interests if it warranted a public referendum, however.
He was apparently responding to comments recently made by Deputy Prime Minister Bowornsak Uwanno that a couple of important issues might probably be decided by the people via a public referendum to be conducted on the same day alongside a general election, largely expected to be held in a four-month time after the government has formally delivered their policy statement or some time in the upcoming March.
The deputy prime minister in charge of the government’s legal affairs referred to whether the people nationwide may agree to the planned making of a new constitution in lieu of the current, coup junta-designed charter by the so-called Constitution Amendment Committee and whether the Thai-Cambodian MoUs signed in 2000 and 2001 in the times of former prime ministers Chuan Leekpai and Thaksin respectively should be completely terminated.
CAPTION:
This and Front Page: Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul speaking at parliament today, Sep. 30, 2025. Photos – Thai Rath
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