Democrats urge PM to put South on House agenda

Thaworn Senneam, a Democrat MP from Songkhla, said yesterday that party MPs from the five southern border provinces were writing to the prime minister encouraging her to seek a general debate on the matter.

The Democrat MPs met for over an hour yesterday to discuss the car-bomb explosions in Yala and Songkhla, which killed more than 10 people and severely injured hundreds of others. 

Thaworn, also a deputy Democrat leader for the South, said this matter was urgent and warranted a parliamentary debate even though the current session was for legislative matters only. 

“If the government says this issue cannot be discussed during this legislative parliamentary session, I will ask them why they want reconciliation to be discussed in this session,” Thaworn said. He was referring to the government’s recent success in pushing for parliamentary debate on reconciliation proposals during this session even though it is a non-legislative issue.

The Constitution’s Article 179 states that if there is an important problem in state affairs that requires the opinion of MPs and senators, “the prime minister can give notice to the National Assembly president requesting that a general debate be held at a joint sitting of the Houses. In such cases, no resolution can be passed by the National Assembly on the issue put in the debate.”

Thaworn yesterday called on the prime minister to get more closely involved in dealing with the insurgency problem, noting that Yingluck is, after all, director of the Internal Security Operations Command.

“The government will be not be able to solve the problem if it tries to do so from an ivory tower. It needs to be sincere about solving the problem and not look at it as a local problem,” he said.

In the previous Democrat-led government, Thaworn served as deputy interior minister dealing with insurgency-related problems in the southern border region. He said that responsible ministers then worked with local authorities in successfully preventing violent incidents.

Jeh-aming Tohtayong, Democrat MP for Narathiwat, called on Yingluck to be more open to views on tackling the insurgency.

Prasert Pongsuwansiri, Democrat MP for Yala, said an incident that left almost 20 people dead and nearly 50 people injured would immediately force a government leader to cancel her overseas trip and call an urgent Cabinet or parliamentary meeting to seek advice on dealing with the situation. 

“But, instead of trying to restore public morale, the prime minister has left for Cambodia,” he said.

Yingluck was in Cambodia to attend the Asean summit, which wrapped up yesterday.