Five vie to be panel chair
Today's contest for the posts of chairman and vice chairmen of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) will be a battle among five commissioners, all of whom, coincidentally, are military top brass.
The two heavyweight candidates for the chairman's post are Air Chief Marshal Thares Punsri and General Sukit Khamasundara.
The NBTC comprises 11 commissioners. The frequency allocation law requires that two come from an economic background, two from a legal background, and two from a consumer-protection background, with one from each pair sitting on the commission's telecom and broadcasting committees.
This leaves the five commis-sioners with telecom, broadcasting and social development backgrounds to vie for the posts of chairman and vice chairmen. The five are Thares, Sukit, Colonel Natee Sukonrat, Colonel Settapong Malisuwan and Lt-General Peerapong Manakit.
A political source said a group of commissioners convened informally last Sunday to seek consensus on who should be chairman and vice chairmen.
Natee and Settapong are two heavyweight candidates for vice chairman in charge of the telecom committee, while Peerapong is expected to sit on the broadcasting committee and is a strong chance to take the vice chairman spot heading that committee.
One key role of the chairman is to chair a panel managing the fund for developing the broadcasting and telecom industries for the public benefit.
The six commissioners re-|quired by the frequency alloca-|tion law to sit on either the telecom or broadcasting committee ac-cording to their backgrounds are Supinya Klangnarong, Prawit Leesatapornwongsa, Thawatchai Jittrapanun, Suthiphon Thaveechaiyagarn, Pol Colonel Taweesak Ngamsanga and Prasert Silpipat.
After the selection process is complete, their names are expected to be submitted to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by September 19.
The Council of State - the administration's legal advisory agency - will convene for the first time tomorrow on Tuesdayto examine how Yingluck should proceed with the name list of the 11 commissioners, in the wake of Tuesday's decision by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to probe alleged irregularities in the NBTC selection process.
The prime minister last week denied that her government had instructed the DSI to investigate the complaint. She said the government would wait for advice from the Council of State before seeking royal endorsement of the list of commissioners.
The Senate nominated 11 commissioners last Monday. The DSI is expected to take six months to complete its in-depth probe.
According to the DSI's preliminary probe, seven factors provide grounds for suspicion that the selection process was unlawful. These include a possible conflict of interest between the selected candidates and the selection panel members; the doubtful legal status of organisations whose members sit on the selection panel; and the doubtful qualifications of some final candidates.
Broadcasters and telecom firms have pinned high hopes on the NBTC, Thailand's first broadcasting and telecom regulatory body, to further liberalise the sectors, promote fair competition and issue new spectrum licences, especially the long-awaited 3G-2.1GHz spectrum licences.
