House meet collapses as MPs quarrel

Charoen Jankomol, the first deputy House speaker who was chairing the meeting, adjourned the session at around 1pm – less than four hours after the meeting began.
The opposition Democrat Party blamed the adjournment on a disagreement among MPs from the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
At yesterday’s meeting, Democrat MP and former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij was to pose a query about the government’s plan to sell shares of the state-owned petroleum giant PTT. The query was meant for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but Charoen insisted that Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong should answer on the premier’s behalf. But since Kittiratt was away on an overseas trip, Charoen asked for the query to be postponed to the next meeting.
However, Korn insisted that his query be answered immediately, and Deputy Finance Minister Thanusak Lek-uthai agreed to respond.
While Korn was posing the question, the state-run NBT television station stopped its live broadcast of the meeting, much to the anger of the Democrat MP. Charoen then decided that Korn’s query should be deferred to the next meeting and asked for the House to continue with other items on the agenda.
Pheu Thai MP Cholnan Srikaew protested against Charoen’s decision, saying that if Korn’s query was postponed, there would be as many as five queries on the next meeting’s agenda, which would exceed the agreed number of three queries per meeting.
In response to this, chief coalition whip Udomdej Ratanasathien, also from Pheu Thai, said there would be no problem as the extra queries could be postponed further. However, Cholnan insisted that Charoen decide whether Korn’s query should be dropped – a move that was backed by other party MPs.
The meeting chairman then asked his fellow coalition MPs to stop insisting on this matter and allow the meeting to continue. “I have made my decision and I see no reason why you need to defeat the meeting chair,” he said.
He then adjourned the meeting at about 1.20pm, several hours ahead of the usual closing time of 6pm.
After the meeting, Democrat MPs Warong Dejkitwikrom and Boonyod Sukthinthai told the press that the meeting had collapsed due to a disagreement between Pheu Thai MPs.
Warong said the prime minister was also to be blamed for frequently failing to respond to queries by opposition MPs. “The prime minister has to respond to queries by the representatives [MPs]. I don’t know why she wants to escape the Parliament,” he said.
Boonyod said the prime minister should stop setting up appointments on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the two days when the House of Representatives convenes, because she should be around to respond to questions.