Senate in chaos, voting to approve 14 joint committees of the Senate to discuss the draft of the referendum law, rejecting the minority vote. “Nantana” clashed with “Phisit”, slamming that there is no proportion, there are only us, it is a dictatorship, not democracy. “Phisit” explained that it is not a dictatorship, but viewed that people who are joint committee members must have different opinions from MPs.
The Senate meeting, chaired by First Vice President of the Senate, Gen. Kriangkrai Srirak, had an agenda to announce the establishment of a joint committee to consider the draft Referendum Act (No….) B.E…. After Mr. Suton Klakhalai, Senator, announced the names of the 14 joint committee members as proposed by the Senate Affairs Special Committee (Senate Whip), consisting of 1. Pol. Lt. Gen. Boonchan Nuansai, 2. Mr. Thawat Suraban, 3. Pol. Col. Kob Atchanakit, 4. Mr. Wuttichai Kalyanamitra, 5. Mr. Niwet Phancharoenworakul, 6. Mr. Aphichat Ngamkamol, 7. Mr. Prapon Tangsrikiattikun, 8. Pol. Maj. Gen.
Chatwat Saengphet, 9. Mr. Kamol Rodkhlai, 10. Mr. Chiwaphap Chiwaphatham, 11. Mr. Anek Weerapachananan 12. Mr. Phisit Apiwatanapong, 13. Mr. Pichan Phonsiriprathan, and 14. Mr. Sitthikorn Thongyot appeared to protest in the meeting room.
Mr. Naraset Prachayakar, Senator, stood up to protest. As one of the minority who voted against the two-tier majority, he wanted to propose two members to join the committee in proportion, which is a minority member, so that democracy can proceed completely, respecting the majority and not neglecting the minority. Therefore, he proposed Ms. Nantana Nanthawaropas and Mr. Prabhas Pintadub to join the committee, since both of them are already members of the Senate referendum committee.
Senator Thewarit Maneechai said that he was not bothered by the qualifications, knowledge, and abilities of the 14 candidates who were proposed from the beginning. However, when looking at the list of all 14 committee members, they agreed to change back to a two-tier majority. However, when calc
ulated according to the number of 200 people, it would be 14.28 people, which means that out of the 19 people who are in the minority, there must be 1 person who is a quota to be in the joint committee. In the current situation, on the MP side, there are 3 people from the party that abstained from voting, and another 14 people who were proposed by the Senate whip from the beginning, which tend to support a two-tier majority. This may cause a problem that it does not reflect the fact that there are no minority voices, and we must show the public that we respect every voice. Furthermore, out of the 14 people who are in the joint Senate committee, there is no representative from the Senate Political Development Committee. Therefore, he asked that this proportion be considered. He asked that at least 1-2 of the 14 people have minority voices.
While Ms. Nantana said that the list of 14 people came from the meeting of the Senate Whip that had been set, which was considered the majority, there was no minority who h
ad expressed their opinions, meaning that the Senate Joint Committee did not see the importance of the Senate proportion and did not see the importance of the minority at all, and she believed that the people who were listening to the debate were wondering whose Senate this was, was it not the people’s Senate? Every time there was a vote, the majority would win. In democracy, we follow the majority but also respect the minority. Therefore, in setting up the joint committee this time, it should be a proportion of the majority and the minority. Finally, when the committee was set up in a proportion of 14 to 14 and the vote was cast, it could be explained to the people that this was a proportion that included both the majority and the minority, not a proportion that came from the majority alone.
“When you said that the referendum must be strict, are you serious or do you just want to win and extend the time? If you truly see the importance of democracy, you must let all parties come out to express their opinion
s and reflect them through this committee, which should have both the majority and the minority, to go in and debate and express their opinions that we should do a single-tier referendum. But if the majority says they want a two-tier referendum, then let them debate their reasons. The people are waiting to listen. I don’t want the Senate to be gossiped about as being rushed and cut short, as a council with orders. Therefore, I would like to implore all members to consider the image of the new Senate that you are a member of, that this council is a council of democracy. Therefore, there should be a minority committee that will participate in expressing their opinions. I ask you to vote with your own identity and respect the voices of the people. This will not distort the image of the council and will not cause the people to lose faith in the Senate,” said Ms. Nantana.
Mr. Phisit Apiwattanapong, Senator, said that he wanted people to understand that when the Senate has to nominate a person to be a joint commit
tee member through the Senate whip, it must calculate the proportion of the representatives of the owner of the matter, the majority committee member, the minority committee member who reserves their opinion, and the members who amend the motion, which is the result of the amendment of the draft bill by the MP only. It does not include those who agree with the MP. Therefore, the people who have the right to be on the committee member must be those who agree with the amendment only.
Ms. Nantana stood up and argued that she thought that Mr. Phisit misunderstood the establishment of the committee without proportionality. In the democratic mechanism, we have both the majority and the minority. However, we will follow the majority resolution while still respecting the minority. When did you say that there is no need for proportionality and that only our group is involved? That is a dictatorship, not a democracy. Please understand this again. You are a senator who is in the democratic mechanism, but you refuse to
allow the proportion of people who think differently. This means that you are adhering to the principle of dictatorship, not democracy. This is very disappointing.
Mr. Pisit used his right to allude that he did not have a dictatorial mindset and believed that this parliament did not have any parties or groups. In this parliament, he respected everyone’s rights. What he said a moment ago was true. And to be a member of the committee, he thought that one must have a different opinion from the MPs.
While the majority of senators, such as Mr. Phisit and Pol. Lt. Gen. Boonchan, insisted on using the list of 14 people as approved by the Senate whip and saw that there was already a faction in the joint committee that did not approve.
Mr. Thewarit proposed a motion to temporarily suspend the use of the regulations in order to request a vote of 1 person per 1 choice so that those committees would truly represent the senators. Then the chairman ordered a break in the meeting because he had to have the officials make
ballots because there were 16 senators who wanted to be on the committee together, which was more than the specified number of 14. However, in the motion that Mr. Thewarit proposed, the meeting voted to reject it by 138 votes to 26, with 5 abstentions.
Then Mr. Boonsong Noisophon, the Second Vice President of the Senate, acted as the chairman of the meeting and announced the results of the vote count, which the majority voted in favor of the list of 14 people that the Senate whip had approved. The representatives of the minority Senators, Ms. Nantana, received only 27 votes and Mr. Prapas received 25 votes. Therefore, the names of all 14 people who were chosen were as approved by the Senate whip.
Source: Thai News Agency