Yongyuth not eligible for exoneration: NACC's Wicha

Wicha’s panel found Yongyuth abused his duty in the land case, by allowing the land to be sold from a temple to be used as a golf course.

 

The Civil Service Committee decided to expel Yongyuth as demanded by the NACC but the panel claimed that the order was retroactively overruled by the 2007 Exoneration Act.

 

But Wicha said Yongyuth had to be punished before being eligible for leniency under the exoneration act. If the ministry disagreed with the NACC decision, it should have submitted its disagreement to the prime minister. Eventually, the disputes could be settled in the Constitution Court, he said.

 

Wicha said Yongyuth, who graduated from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, should not distort the laws to his own benefit.

 

He said the Interior Ministry’s Civil Service Committee had yet to send its official decision on the Yongyuth case back to the NACC. The law requires the ministry to inform the NACC about action against Yongyuth within 15 days of any decision by the committee. The committee made the decision on September 20.

 

Meanwhile, a group of red-shirts from Surin submitted a letter to the Election Commission yesterday, urging EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond, who is the political party registrar, to investigate if Yongyuth is still qualified to be Pheu Thai leader and an MP. The group is led by Thepphanom Namlee.

 

Thepphanom said red-shirts in several northern, central and northeast provinces feared that Yongyuth would cause Pheu Thai to be dissolved if he remains as party leader after the Civil Service Committee issued the expulsion order against him.

 

He said red shirts in these provinces would pressure Yongyuth to step down as party leader and would give him a resignation to sign wherever they encounter him.

 

“Red-shirt people have sacrificed a lot of lives but now an old man will cause the party to be dissolved. So, we have to come out to protect the party,” Thepphanom said.

 

Mongkolkit Suksitharanon, secretary-general of the National Anti-Corruption Network, said the expulsion order retroactively took effect on September 30, 2002, so Yongyuth should have been disqualified as a Pheu Thai member and leader before the 2011 election.

 

As a result, Mongkolkit said Yongyuth’s endorsement of Pheu Thai candidates for the election should have been null and void.

 

On Monday, Yongyuth vowed to chair the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday as assigned by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is in the US. But the Deputy PM skipped the meeting and assigned Deputy PM Chalerm Yoobamrung to chair the Cabinet session instead. The meeting lasted only 45 minutes and did not consider the annual reshuffle of provincial governors as Yongyuth planned.

 

Critics said the expulsion order caused Yongyuth to be disqualified as a Cabinet member as well. If he had chaired a Cabinet meeting, any decisions it reached may have been at risk of being disqualified later.

 

Chief opposition whip and Democrat Party MP Jurin Laksanavisit said the opposition would submit a motion to Yingluck to question her about Yongyuth’s case.

 

Jurin said the opposition would like the prime minister to explain what the government would do next about Yongyuth now the Civil Service Committee had decided to expel him, as sought by the NACC.

 

Jurin said if the prime minister failed to come up with a clear explanation, opposition MPs would seek a Constitution Court ruling on Yongyuth’s qualifications as an MP and Cabinet member.

 

Appointed Senator Wanchai Sonsiri said Yongyuth should immediately resign as deputy prime minister and interior minister following the expulsion order. He said the Exoneration Act could not automatically clear Yongyuth of the expulsion so he could no longer hold positions in the Cabinet.