Trouble is brewing in the Palang Pracharath-led coalition alliance sooner than expected over the sharing of key economic ministries. Now that the party got its candidate, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, voted in as prime minister, it is going back on its promises by demanding the agriculture and commerce ministerial posts from the Democrat Party, and the transport minister's post from the Bhumjaithai Party, on the pretext that Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, Gen Prayut's right-hand man on economic affairs, may opt out of the new cabinet if he does not control the three key economic ministries.
Palang Pracharath Party leader Uttama Savanayana was assigned the unenviable job of renegotiating with the two "kingmaker" parties which have somewhat lost their bargaining chips after parliament's election of the prime minister.
But since Mr Uttama is just a messenger and not the real decision-maker who can bang his clenched fist on a table and announce: "I want this!", his mission is likely to fall apart as the two coalition partners will almost certainly reject a new deal outright.
Someone with real clout in the party must step in and end the conflict so the government can be formed after the Royal Command appoints Gen Prayut as prime minister.
It is definitely not deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwon, because of the high risk of the Palang Pracharath Party being disbanded for letting an outsider dictate party affairs in accordance with the twisted logic embedded in a constitution crafted to ensure the junta's stay in power. But that distorted charter is now biting the master of the framers.
That leaves Prime Minister-elect Prayut to do the job of choosing one of two options -- to keep the promises the Palang Pracharath Party made to save the coalition, at the expense of Mr Somkid, or drop the two parties to get the three key economic ministries back at the expense of the government's stability.
Not a pleasant choice at all. But it is an opportunity for him to demonstrate true leadership qualities and put an end to this disarray to drive the country forward, albeit without the magic wand of Section 44 of the interim constitution and without the support of the National Council for Peace and Order.
In hindsight, this messy situation reflects one thing about politicians in this country -- that the virtue of trust is lacking among many of them. For them, a promise is anything but real and meant to be kept.
Some Democrats are now crying foul that the Palang Pracharath Party is not honouring promises given to the party over the key ministerial posts.
But are they aware that they, too, broke their pre-election promise, announced by then party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, that they would not support Gen Prayut's bid to return to the role of prime minister? Many of the party's loyal supporters were believed to have abandoned it and embraced the Palang Pracharath Party because they felt they were betrayed by their party turning against a party which shares their common anti-Thaksin stand.
The Bhumjaithai Party also broke its promise to its supporters that it would vote for its leader, Anutin Charnvirakul, to be the next prime minister. In desperation, the Pheu Thai Party also dropped its promise to nominate one of its three prime ministerial candidates in favour of the Democrats' candidate in an attempt to lure the Democrats to join its alliance.
All seem to have a typical ready-made excuse to justify their flip-flopping -- that it is for the sake of the people's benefit or national interest. We have been treated with disdain by unscrupulous politicians for a long time. It is about time that we wake up and tell them straightforwardly that enough is enough.
Veera Prateepchaikul is former news editor, Bangkok Post.
