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Pay Hike For Thai Coup Leaders, New Cabinet under fire for approving salary increase, top posts in several state firms – coupsters seem pretty close to expiry date…

BANGKOK – The Thai coup leaders, who removed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to stop “rampant corruption”, are now facing growing criticism themselves for receiving a salary increase and also for being appointed to
top posts in several state firms.

Thai newspapers reported that the new Cabinet decided to give the leaders of September’s coup an additional pay-out on top of their monthly military salaries.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont is reported to have defended the move, saying the extra payments were justified and designed to reduce the risk of corruption.

Graft was a key reason given for the ousting of Mr Thaksin.

Payments for the seven-member Council for National Security (CNS), as the coup leaders call themselves, were approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

The Cabinet also awarded the 242 members of the military-appointed National Legislative Assembly – a third of them active or retired generals and half of them senior bureaucrats – an extra 104,330 baht ($4,432) a month, the salary of a mid-level manager.

Coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin will also see his salary double. He will get an additional payment of nearly 120,000 baht each month for chairing the CNS, roughly equal to his monthly military salary, according
to The Bangkok Post newspaper.

His deputy, Air Chief Marshal Chalit Phukphasuk, will receive nearly 114,000 baht while the other five CNS members will receive 110,000 baht, over and above their military salaries.

The coup leaders have also been given positions on the boards of several state firms.

The moves drew sharp criticism from the Thai media.

The Nation newspaper said it was “egg on the face” for all those who had backed the coup and an “early Christmas gift” for those who had opposed it.

“I can’t figure out any good reason except that they are now so bored with the job already and want to provoke a street protest so as to exit quickly with a good pretext,” wrote Mr Tulsathit Taptim, editor of the English-language newspaper, in an editorial.

He also described the Cabinet decision as the “dumbest thing” the interim government had done.

– text (c) Today Newspaper Singapore –

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written by Chris