Newly Sworn-In Thai Cabinet Urged to Be "People's Government"

The new Thai cabinet was sworn in Sunday afternoon before Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, marking the official start of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's government.

Speaking to the 36 new cabinet members at the monarch's residence in Southern resort city Hua Hin, King Bhumibol urged the Thaksin administration to serve as the "people's government."

"This government is the first after the country adopted the 1997 Constitution, which is known as 'people's Constitution.' So I hope you will serve as 'people's government.'"

"If you succeed you will be the pride of the Thai people and they will salute you. This will create respect for every one of you," said the king.

"Any decision you make will affect the people and the country," he said, urging the cabinet members to avoid any wrongdoing during their term in power.

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party won a landslide victory in the January 6 general election, the first held under the new Constitution, which aims to bring about political and social reforms in Thailand.

The new three-party coalition government, commanding an unprecedented parliamentary majority, is expected to implement Thai Rak Thai's ambitious policy platform, which includes a three- year debt repayment moratorium for poor farmers and gives each of Thailand's 70,000 villages one million baht (23,500 U.S. dollars) in development funds.

The party also promised to offer universal low-cost health care and establish a national asset management company to take over bad debts from banks.

Now the government is facing the challenge of fulfilling these promises as soon as possible.

"The most urgent issues facing the government are the country's economic problems and the need for a solution to the drugs crisis, but we will also focus on education and health," Thaksin said.

However, with the country's sluggish economic recovery and economic slowdown of the United States in backdrop, it is hard to say whether Thaksin administration can be effective enough to spur economic growth, analysts said.






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