BANGKOK - A PARLIAMENTARY debate over next year's budget was derailed on Thursday after opposition MPs created an uproar over an audio recording in which Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was purportedly heard ordering generals and Interior Ministry officials to use force to provoke protesters in April.

The flap over the tape underscored the flammable nature of the political crisis in Thailand, especially ahead of a rally on Sunday by supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.

A source in a security agency, referring to the recording that was almost certainly faked, said: 'It is a classic 'third hand' action meant to spark violence.'

The recording has found its way onto the Internet. One website that posted it has been closed down by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, as the authorities tried to trace the tape's origin.

In the recording, Mr Abhisit speaks for just over 3-1/2 minutes, purportedly instructing unknown people to create a situation that would plunge Bangkok into chaos and provide an excuse to crack down on the 'red shirts', on the grounds that they wanted to overthrow the monarchy.

Apparently speaking shortly after the red shirts had disrupted the Asean summit in Pattaya in April, and a mob attack on his car in Bangkok the day after, the Prime Minister supposedly said the bodies of red shirts killed by security forces should be quickly taken away and the news suppressed.

The contents were hugely inflammatory and, in the context of Thailand's tense political conflict, had the potential to spark bloodshed on the streets, and possibly the resignation of the Premier. But only if they were genuine. On close scrutiny, the recording contains some unnatural pauses, jumps and odd sentence constructions.

Asked for his opinion late on Wednesday night, government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn did not deny it was the Prime Minister's voice - but said Mr Abhisit had never spoken in that manner, and, for a range of reasons, the content was both out of character and illogical.

Separately, an expert linguist and translator who asked not to be named, checked the recording with Adobe Soundbooth software, and declared it a fake. 'The background hiss is not constant. Speech rhythms are not normal,' he told The Straits Times. 'When you look at it as a voice print, you can see clearly that it is a patchwork stuck together; there are literally hundreds of edits.'

Mr Abhisit has dismissed the tape as a 'dirty trick' that could be 'used to stir political unrest', and said police were investigating who was involved in producing and distributing it.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times

nirmal@sph.com.sg