Yingluck calls on MPs to maintain peace during debates
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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday insisted she viewed reconciliation as a legislative issue, distancing herself from the fracas between Democrat and Pheu Thai MPs.
“I just want to ask for the cooperation of all MPs to abide by the rules, because the House is a venerated institution,” she said in reference to the unruly incidents on Wednesday and yesterday inside the House chamber.
Yingluck said all sides should debate the bill in accordance with legislative procedure instead of assuming the outcome before vetting the draft provisions.
Reconciliation could be compared to charter amendment – no one should predict the outcome before relevant parties had the chance to debate and thrash out their differences, she said.
She conceded she had not studied the details of the reconciliation provisions, saying she was in no position to judge whether the bill was a fiscal issue. The 35 House committees appointed were in charge of ruling on the issue, she said.
She said she would abide by the decision of the committees. If the bill had been deemed to have fiscal impacts, the draft would have had to be vetted by the government ahead of parliamentary deliberation.
After the prime minister’s interview, the 35 committees decided by a majority of 22 that the bill was non-fiscal, giving the green light for its deliberation.
The prime minister said differences over the reconciliation process should be thrashed out by peaceful means because the country had already suffered political strife.
She voiced optimism that the political divisions could be resolved through democratic means.
She said foreign investors would understand the political situation and that there would be no adverse impacts on the investment climate if all sides exercised restraint and did not resort to violence.
She also said she was unaware that certain draft provisions might result in legislative infringement on the judiciary, saying she believed there was no intent to usurp judicial power.
