PDRC leader proposes 18 months for national reform

BANGKOK, March 10 (TNA) - Secretary-General of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) Suthep Thaugsuban has proposed a year and a half for his group's national reform process. Suthep told journalists at his rally site, Lumpini public park, in Bangkok on Monday that his group is gathering national reform ideas from people of all walks of life with a hope that a people’s government would implement them in 18 months before letting people elect a new government under a genuinely democratic rule. Several academics and experts in many fields attended the PDRC’s forum and the anti-government group plans its forums on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from March 10-21 to gather opinions on national reform in six areas, including poverty reduction, corruption suppression, power decentralization, police reform, political reform and bureaucratic reform. Meanwhile, Tida Thawornseth, chair of the pro-government red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), announced that her group would not accept any reform idea of the PDRC unless they were democratic, while UDD spokesman Worawuth Wichaidit vowed that the UDD would stage a huge rally in Bangkok if independent organizations, the PDRC and the military joined forces to overthrow the elected government and appoint a non-democratic prime minister.(TNA)