VII - The Chuan Leekpai Government and Its Policies

Summary

The first problem Chuan encountered when he tried to form his government was the selection of a fifth party, since his four-party alliance had only a slim majority of 185 in the 360-seat Lower House. The Democrat Party wanted to include the Chart Pattana Party (CPP) of former Prime Minister Chatichai Choonhavan, which had 60 seats. But that attempt was resisted by other partners. This was because if the CPP was brought in it would be the second largest in the government, which, under the system of four MPs to one ministerial post (both ministerial and deputy ministerial posts) (see Appendix Table 5), would upset the ministerial quotas of the other three parties — the NAP, PDP, and Solidarity. Another choice was the Seritham Party led by former House Speaker, Arthit Urairat. But Arthit's party commanded only eight seats, which was thought to be too small to stabilize the government majority in the House. Under such circumstances the other three partners were in favour of the Social Action Party (SAP).

There was a considerable reluctance to include the SAP in the first place because of its affiliation with the previous Suchinda government, but its number of seats, 22, were just right. The partners worked out the conditions that should the SAP agree to join the government, two of its key members — party leader Montri Pongpanich and another senior member Piyanat Watcharaporn — had to be excluded from ministerial posts. Montri was barred mainly because he was still facing an allegation for corruption lodged by the military. Piyanat was disliked for having blatantly supported Suchinda when he was a minister in Suchinda's government. Piyanat was seen by pro-democracy forces as having sold himself short just to get the ministerial post. With the SAP joining the government, the Chuan administration has a comfortable majority of 207 in the House of Representatives (see Appendix Table 4).

It is to be noted here that, unlike in the past, the military completely restrained itself from interfering in the formation of the Chuan government.