Former prime minister Chuan Leekpai welcomed last weekend’s visit to the southern tourist provinces of Phuket and Phang-nga by the new prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, as an encouraging sign that the incoming government will not ignore the southern region in the way the two previous Shinawatra administrations had done.
Chuan recalled that both the Thaksin and Yingluck governments deliberately sidelined provinces in southern Thailand in their development programmes, simply because they were political strongholds of the Democrat party.
Speaking at a function organised by the Provincial Press Association of Thailand on Saturday, Chuan said development budgets allocated to the region by the two administrations were negligible, when compared with those for other regions.
“Thaksin openly said that his government would give development priority to provinces that voted for his…
