‘Nation hater’ remark draws MFP MP’s ire
United Thai Nation (UTN) Party leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga has come under fire for his recent campaign rally remark about banishing “nation haters”.
Rangsiman Rome, spokesman for the Move Forward Party (MFP), yesterday lambasted Mr Pirapan, saying he had no business shooing people away from their own country.
“He’s not the sole owner of this country. This is a democratic society where it is the norm to have different opinions,” he said.
Despite having held a post as justice minister, Mr Pirapan has shown no understanding of basic human rights, which is bizarre, Mr Rangsiman said.
On the UTN’s major campaign stage last Friday at the Benjakitti forest park in Klong Toey district, Mr Pirapan vowed to take action against “nation haters” if his party forms the next government, saying Thailand is a land for patriots and those who don’t like it can live somewhere else.
Mr Pirapan is the UTN’s No.2 prime ministerial candidate for the May 14 election. Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the UTN’s chief strategist, is the party’s No.1 choice.
Mr Rangsiman insisted that by trying to keep the status quo, Mr Pirapan was apparently trying to “freeze” the country and demonstrating he was indifferent to people’s problems. His view, according to the MFP MP, did a disservice to progress.
Malaysia bound
The leader and key members of the Prachachart Party travelled to Malaysia by train to meet Thai voters there and highlight the need for the country to reform its rail system, according to the party.
More than 40 members and 19 MP candidates, led by party leader Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, travelled on a Malaysian train from Padang Besar, a border town in Sadao district of Songkhla, to Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.
Apart from meeting Malaysia’s minister of home affairs and minister of foreign affairs, Mr Wan Nor said he and his delegates would also hold get-togethers with groups of Thais living in Malaysia, including migrant workers and operators of the Tom Yum Kung chain of restaurants.
Mr Wan Nor also said he took the train to see for himself Malaysia’s ongoing development of its rail transport and what inspiration he could draw for formulating his party’s campaign policy for improving Thailand’s own train system.
Dust urgency
Fine dust pollution will be high on the agenda of urgent issues to resolve if and when the Pheu Thai Party takes charge of the next government, according to its No.2 prime minister candidate, Srettha Thavisin.
Mr Srettha made the pledge as he toured Rin Kham intersection in Chiang Mai, the party’s political heartland, yesterday.
The intersection is one of the province’s main spots for gauging the level of MP2.5 fine dust.
Mr Srettha, also an adviser to the Pheu Thai Family, said tackling the lingering haze pollution needs decisive and attentive leadership as well as cooperation with neighbouring countries from where smoke from slashed-and-burned forests blows over to Thailand.
He said some Thai businesses bought wild plants from neighbouring countries, which encouraged the slash-and-burn practice among local farmers as a way to gain easy access to the forests to obtain the plants.
He added that a tax measure will be imposed to regulate the purchase and importing of wild plants.
Mr Srettha maintained the fine dust pollution will be among the priority issues the party deals with if it forms a government.