Reiterate the government never intrudes into any countries first
I would like to reiterate that the stand point of the Thai government is not to intrude into any countries first. However, we have to protect our sovereignty at our best. The incidents happened during the last two days were caused by armed forces movement of Cambodia. Once the fire happened, Thailand unavoidably had to fight back in order to protect our sovereignty, not allowing Cambodia to occupy the areas and to cause damages to the Thai public.
From the clashes during the past two days, we have lost our soldiers. And I would like to pass my condolence to the families of these brave soldiers who did their best in protecting our sovereignty. I would like to say that at the moment the operation to deal with the incidents, such as evacuating people living in the risk areas, has been done properly. After the incident in February, we have set up and rehearsed the plan and it made evacuation of 30,000 persons orderly.
This afternoon I am going to have a remote conference, connecting to the evacuation centre, to discuss with the Army Commander, the governor and especially Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office Ongart Klampaiboon, whom I assigned to take care of this matter two days ago, including Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti, who went to visit people in those areas to ensure that all were safe and being taken care well over there. Meanwhile, I have monitored the situation closely with the Interior Minister, the Commander in Chief and the Second Army Area Commander. I assure that our officers have well encouragement to do their duties and be ready to protect our sovereignty for all Thais.
Ministers’ policies to support sovereignty protection
I would like to reinforce that the government’s policy provides the fullest supports to the Army to protect our sovereignty. The country direction is clear that any operation will be done in the framework of international laws. The assault will aim at military bases only. And it will be suitable for the operation of Cambodia. The government will issue a letter to the United Nations to report the real situation immediately. For the foreign affairs, it is quite clear enough that the incidents in the past two days were attempts of Cambodia to upgrade this conflict between Thailand and Cambodia to the international level. Noticing from the incident happened this morning, Cambodia issued a letter to the United Nations so fast and travelling of the Foreign Minister of Cambodia to Europe happened so quickly.
The government has reported and clarified about the situation to the United Nations. The Thai Foreign Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand has also issued a letter to object Cambodia’s action of firing to Thailand first.
Issue a letter to the ASEAN chairman in Indonesia.
At the same time we have issued a letter to the ASEAN Chairman in Indonesia to explain about the incident according to the facts. In fact, ASEAN has determined the direction clearly that the border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia has to be solved at bilateral level. And Indonesia has just facilitated both sides in organizing a negotiation session for Thailand and Cambodia, the Joint Border Commission meeting or the JBC. Now Thailand is ready to host the meeting for the two countries to collaboratively ease the problems, no matter if it is GBC that the army will host or the meeting called RBC, which is the meeting at regional level. No matter where the meeting will take place, in Phnom Phen , Bangkok, Thailand or Cambodia, it will show that Thailand have intention and sincerity in easing the issue at bilateral level.
Ultimate goal of the government is to bring normalcy back as soon as possible
Also I have assigned the Foreign Minister to direct our officers who live in Paris or New York and in the location where international organizations are located to urgently clarify and explain the facts. The ultimate goal of the government is to bring normalcy back as soon as possible so that people can go back to live their normal lives in those areas. And definitely, we will protect our sovereignty at our best.
I seek cooperation from all Thais. I know that everyone loves the nation and be worried about the situation, especially our soldier fellows. I would like assure you all that every movement is aligned. The policy is in accordance with the international principles, and there will be nothing to interrupt protecting sovereignty and our lands. Still, I concern about the news spreading in the aspect that the army was interrupted by policies, laws or agreements. I confirm that it is not true since I have always been talking to the army.
We should be well aware that this is a very important matter for all Thais to help protect our sovereignty together. We will not be trapped by Cambodia that tries to portray the conflict and violence to be more intense and widened or even claimed that the conflict in term of relation between Thailand and Cambodia cannot be solved at bilateral level and tried to turn it to be an international issue, allowing the third countries to intrude into our internal business. The government will not allow such thing to happen. In the afternoon, I am going to have a remote conference to follow up with the situation.
Increase income for the public
The matter of increasing income has been operated continuously. After the salaries of government service officers, employees and state enterprise employees, especially those with low income, increase, the wages now is being reviewed by the Ministry of Labour whether the wage should be increased in the middle of the year. This is to help the public to be able to live with rising prices of consumer products in the market. In the second part of the program, you will see when I visited some factories and talked to the labours about the wage which is supposed to increase not only for meeting with the living cost but also in term of structure.
Confirm to move forward to improve living lives of the public
I have a chance to talk with many people and I would like to confirm that the government will move forward to improve living lives of people. I assure that we are realistic, what I have talked today, there are plans to support and we will move forward to work on them. I would like to thank you all again for warm welcoming. I will visit here again if I have a chance. And I would like to say that no matter how many problems you have, the government has provided many channels for you to talk to us. Today we have discussed about the cost of living and the wage but there are still many issue in your minds. Some of them as I know are the issues of drug and gambling. Next week the operation will be more serious. The concerned organizations will report me today how they are going to set up a special team or a plan to tackle this issue as many communities, including the communities in this area, have raised complaints to me. We have to work on this seriously. I would like to say thank you all today and it is the time I have to say good bye. Thank you