Sombat defends his proposal for directly elected premier, Cabinet
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National Reform Council (NRC) member Sombat Thamrongthanyawong yesterday criticised Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) chairman Borwornsak Uwanno, saying he had distorted the truth by claiming the direct election of the prime minister and cabinet woul
Sombat – who serves as chairman of the NRC political-reform panel that came up with the proposal of having a directly elected PM and cabinet – has submitted a document with the CDC in an attempt to clear up doubts over five contentious issues surrounding the proposal.
On the question of whether the 36 cabinet candidates would lose the chance to become MPs if they did not win election to ministerial posts, he said the solution was to have separate MP and cabinet elections on different dates.
He said the election of the PM and the cabinet should be scheduled first and once the results were revealed, the parliamentary election could be held.
In response to concerns that the proposal would intensify vote-buying because candidates were expected to inject a huge amount of funds into election campaigns, Sombat argued that several foreign countries used this system despite the higher cost because people got the politicians they wanted.
Sombat also claimed that the system would help block capitalists from financing political parties.
As for the concern that the cabinet and PM would have too much power and might abuse that power by interfering in independent agencies and the media, Sombat said cabinet reshuffles and other mechanisms such as those used in the United States could be deployed to curb such problems.
He also tried to allay fears over the premier having the power to sponsor budget bills directly, saying Borwornsak should inquire with the White House because
the US president had been doing that without problems.
He said the proposal was based on the principle of balance of power, as a directly elected prime minister could sponsor a budget bill and while MPs could sponsor financial bills, but must get the PM’s approval first.
Critics of the proposal have argued that the checks-and-balances mechanism presented was not efficient enough. However, Sombat said his reform panel had designed a system that checks the executive branch, which was different from the checks-and-balance process under the parliamentary system.
The CDC will today decide whether to accept the proposal.
Sombat rejected speculation that if the CDC did not accept any aspect of his panel’s proposals, this would affect the decision on whether to approve the charter draft.
He said the CDC must explain how it believed accepted provisions would solve political problems that had paralysed the country in the past.
