‘Nantana’ leads a team of new-gen senators to sue the media for keeping an eye on the selection of the 21 committee chairmen, fearing that they will be monopolized by the majority. They are demanding the quota of 6-7 minority senators, complaining that they have always lost votes. If it continues like this for the next 5 years, it will be called a parliamentary dictatorship.
Ms. Nantana Nantvaropa, Senator, as the leader of the New Generation Senator Group, emphasized the work of the majority of Senators in pushing for various agendas after the Senate meeting voted on the number of 21 committees with a majority of 140 votes or more. Although there were some minorities who objected, in the end, they did not see any diversity. In addition, the urgent oral motion to investigate the ethics of the Constitutional Court judges from the public lecture case was quickly rejected without opening for debate. The chairman ended it by voting. Whenever there is a voting game, we always lose. Therefore, it is considered di
fficult to push for various matters in the future. In particular, there is no need to talk about amending the constitution. Even amending the meeting regulations has not received any attention. In the end, it has no effect. It becomes zero. No matter what is voted in the House, it is all voted down. And of course, it must be a matter of hidden agendas.
As for whether there will be any demands or requests for investigation, Ms. Nantana said that there will probably be a call for the media to help communicate to the public that we have tried our best, tried everything, such as the meeting today (3 September) that considered the investigation of the candidates for the position of Attorney General and Supreme Administrative Court judges, with 15 members of the committee, not a single member of the new generation of senators attended. The meeting of this committee was a secret meeting, but the minority of senators did not attend at all. Even though there was an agreement beforehand to allow them to attend, in the
end, none of the 15 names were proposed. Therefore, we do not know what the meeting was about. We see it as a difficult matter to continue working on because it may be rejected by the majority in the upper house. She gave an example of the motion on flooding proposed by the minority, Dr. Premsak Piayura, Senator, which was included in the agenda and not considered. By the time it was included, the water level would have already receded. However, even though we are discouraged because what we are trying to push may not reach its goal, we still think that the media’s voices that we convey to the public will let the public know that we have tried our best, so we will continue to communicate to the public.
‘There will be 21 committees from the blue line, so we have to ask the public whether they agree or not. A majority vote does not mean that they have to monopolize everything. It does not mean that they have to be the chairpersons of every committee. There should be proportions. Those who will hold the positio
n must have knowledge and abilities that match the roles and responsibilities of the committee members they are going to hold. They should not come in to gain benefits, have an office, or request royal decorations. However, the public will not benefit from this because they will have committee members who are all from the same side and cannot push forward their work. Therefore, I would like to invite everyone to keep an eye on the establishment of the 21 committees. I hope that it will not hurt the public’s feelings to the point of lumping all 21 committees together to the same side. If the chairpersons are all from the same side, this will be a problem. The important thing is, what will the public gain from having chairpersons and committee members from the same side?’ said Ms. Nantana.
Mr. Naraset Prachayakar, Senator, said that he wanted to reflect on the current state of the Senate, which is getting closer to the word ‘dictatorship’ of the parliament. When a group of people seize absolute power in the pa
rliament, many agreements that were discussed before were not followed, such as the amendment of the regulations, which were initially discussed to accept all 5 drafts that were proposed and considered together, but in the end, they voted to accept only one draft, making it impossible to amend that draft at all. Meanwhile, the independent senators who went to amend the resolutions, hoping to change them to be consistent with the current context, including the duties and origins of senators who come from professional groups, were ultimately all rejected.
‘If it continues like this for 5 years, it can’t be called anything else but a parliamentary dictatorship. And working on various agendas for the people will be difficult because their side doesn’t agree with everything they want to push for because they’re afraid they won’t be able to control it. It will be quite difficult. But I confirm that I’m not discouraged, but it’s a pity that I can’t do my job for the people but have been blocked, blocked from expres
sing my opinions, and my work has been shut down by a certain group of people. So I would like to ask permission to sue the media to communicate to the people and help pressure or support us in another way,’ said Mr. Naraset.
Mr. Pornchai Witayalertphan, Senator, said that the next game is a game of 21 committees, in which the minority Senators are about 56 people or 1 in 3 of the House. According to the proportion, the minority Senators should be the chairmen of 6-7 committees. But we have to wait and see what kind of strategy the other side will use to not give in or allow the minority Senators to be on the committees. Therefore, we have to keep a close eye on it next week. He also asked to keep an eye on the agenda for the Senators to select Constitutional Court judges.
Source: Thai News Agency