Parliament, “Sorachat”, Senator, opposes the increase in the Senate Standing Committee because it does not meet the needs of the remaining 200 Senators. He said that he understands that many people want to be the committee chair, but he must understand the reality. He also confirmed that there is no fixed quota for the chair.
Mr. Sorachat Wichaya Suwannaprom, Senator, mentioned the case of the proposal of the Senate meeting regulations to increase the number of standing committees to 28, saying that he did not agree with the increase in the number of standing committees because the number of senators had decreased from 250 to 200. According to the original regulations, 1 person could be a member of 2 committees. If the number of standing committees was increased, there might not be enough people. Therefore, he drafted the Senate meeting regulations by combining the committees that worked in a similar manner to create 23 standing Senate committees, each consisting of no less than 9 but no more than 17 members
, which is similar to the Senate meeting regulations in 2008. He has now sent the draft to fellow senators to study. If there is a consensus, it will be submitted to the Senate President. He believes that it should be considered in 3 consecutive meetings without wasting time and setting up another committee to study. However, if there is still a disagreement, the original Senate meeting regulations should be used for 1-2 years.
‘I calculated that if we don’t unlock the issue of how many committees one person can be in, if one person can be in many committees, how will we work? We won’t be able to run back and forth anymore. We are locked in by the number of people, only 200 people. If we think that we can set up 1 committee with only 7-8 people, it would be inappropriate. There are 500 MPs, but they only have 36 committees. Therefore, it would be impossible for us to have more. It is to please our fellow members who want to be committee chairmen. We understand that we want to play a role, we understand the n
eeds of our fellow members who want more. But we have to look at the reality of our work,’ said Mr. Sorachat.
As for the position of the chairman of the standing committee, Mr. Sorachat said that it should be appointed by someone with real specialized knowledge, while new people should study first, which he believes will not take long. However, he confirmed that there is no lock on the chairman of the committee and emphasized that the Senate is currently preparing new senators who must develop their potential to perform their duties because it must be admitted that many of them, even though they have a higher education, have not worked in politics and have never been an MP or a senator. However, he believes that it should not take long to adjust.
Mr. Surachat also said that in order for the committee to be able to perform its duties to support the mission of the Senate in carrying out its legislative work and monitoring the administration of the country effectively, he requested that the provisions regardin
g the House’s special committees be revised and two new House special committees be established: the Special Committee on Poverty Alleviation and Inequality Reduction to consider and find ways to solve poverty and reduce social inequality, which are important problems that have been accumulating in Thai society for a long time; and the Special Committee on the Study of Amendments to the Constitution to consider and study appropriate approaches to support proposals to amend the constitution that may occur in the future.
Ms. Nantana Nanthawaropas, a leader of the new generation of senators, revealed that the new generation of senators proposed two drafts of a resolution to amend the Senate meeting regulations. The first draft proposed to amend the committees according to the missions, goals, and the number of committees in each committee, proposed by Senator Prapas Pintabtaeng and his team. The
other draft was to amend the recording of votes via electronic media, proposed by Senator Thewarit Maneechai and his
team. Both drafts were included in the Senate meeting agenda for consideration on Monday, August 5.
Source: Thai News Agency