Thailand's Prime Minister elect Yingluck Shinawatra today shot down speculation that her charismatic brother, the former premier Thaksin, who is on self-imposed exile in Dubai, was being considered for a berth in the government.
Yingluck, whose Pheu Thai party, remotely advised by Thaksin, crushed the ruling Democrat Party in last Sunday's general elections, said reports that Thaksin would be made trade envoy were baseless and that she has not thought of giving such a job to her brother.
She was commenting on media reports that Thaksin would be given the new role.
Yingluck, a 44-year old former business executive who obtained her college degree in the US, also said that the new Defence Minister must be a person able to work well with the country's powerful armed forces.
The Pheu Thai Party said in a statement that it will focus on seven tasks once the new government was formed, including unity and reconciliation, reviving the economy by reducing people's cost of living, raising incomes and promoting state investment and promoting international relations.
Among other priority tasks were holding grand celebrations to mark the King's 84th birthday on December 5, stimulating state officials to help solve people's problems promptly, eradicating corruption by ensuring transparent and fair investigation and ensuring all proposed policies were implemented on time.
Thaksin's youngest sister said ministers overseeing economic matters will be selected from members of the Pheu Thai Party first, but capable outsiders could also be inducted if they were suitable for the job.
The Pheu Thai party has entered into a coalition with three other smaller parties even though it has a majority to form a government on its own. Yingluck will later meet her party's economic team to draft economic policies for the new coalition government.
She insisted that the policies publicised during the pre-election campaigns would be implemented.
Meanwhile, Thailand's outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban expressed apprehension that once pro- Thakshin Red-Shirts have control of more than half of the country the form of administration would be changed.
Suthep made the comment when asked what the Democrat Party would do to win the hearts of the people in the Northeast, because without support from this region the party would always face a problem in trying to form a government.
He said said the party would have to look for outstanding people from a new generation, people who shared the same ideology as the Democrat Party, to build up a support base in the region. He said it would take the Democrat Party many years to build a support base to equal Pheu Thai's backing.
"But if they (the red-shirts) are able to take control of more than one half of the country, the form of administration will be changed. Let's wait and see what the lives of our children will be like," Suthep said.
Yingluck has said that work on implementing six economic policies announced during the Pheu Thai Party's election campaign would begin immediately after they are formally announced in parliament.
The six policies included cancellation of the state Oil Fund, which would bring down the price of premium petrol by 7.50 baht a litre, regular petrol by 6.70 baht a litre and diesel by 2.20 baht per litre.
The second on the list was to address the issue of high prices, to overhaul the healthcare system by reintroducing the 30-baht healthcare scheme initiated during the Thaksin administration.
The other priority polices include suppressing illegal drugs, improving foreign relations, and working with the independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT), which was set up during the Abhisit administration.
