House chairmen should hang their heads in shame

Democrat Members of Parliament have misbehaved at House meetings, although whether they were doing the wrong thing for the right reason is a tough question in an extremely divisive political atmosphere. Members of Thailand’s oldest party, however, could not be faulted when they lambasted senior Pheu Thai figures who chaired the acrimonious final readings of the amnesty bill last week. Somsak Kiatsuranont and Charoen Chankomol were called ‘a disgrace’ by opposition lawmakers, and they provided strong reasons why.

Time given the opposition camp by House Speaker Somsak and Deputy House Speaker Charoen to debate the highly sensitive bill was nowhere near enough. That was the truth that the two cannot deny. 

The Democrats, who were numerically overwhelmed during the vetting process, registered their right to speak up at the full House against major and politically explosive changes made to the bill by Pheu Thai MPs, who dominated the vetting panel. Somsak and Charoen did not allow them to exercise their reserved rights.

It was, of course, a Democrat tactic. The opposition MPs made scores of reservations against changes made during the vetting process, hoping to prolong passage of the bill as long as they possibly could. 

But tactical or not, Somsak and Charoen were not supposed to judge the opposition’s moves. The House speaker and deputy House speaker were constitutionally bound to allow the MPs to express their opinions. Such basic duty of the leaders of the legislature became even more crucial when a bill that had been initially designed one way was stretched very possibly beyond its original principles.

Former Democrat leader Chuan Leekpai was right when he said it was not up to Somsak and Charoen to judge how many opponents of the bill should be allowed to speak. And it was hard to argue with other Democrats when they accused Somsak and Charoen of forgetting their roles, of stooping so low in dubious attempts to rush the bill through.

Granted, no House speakers or deputy House speakers have ever been entirely neutral. But while party affiliation has always come into play more or less, the two men sank to new lows on Wednesday night. The opposition was right in asking the two why they refused to adjourn the House debate at 3am.

 The Democrats claimed only “dictatorial” parliaments would pass such highly delicate laws in just one day, with so few opponents allowed to debate against them and everybody too exhausted to effectively scrutinise sensitive points. 

“Why the haste?” the opposition asked, and it was the question that was ringing in the heads of many Thais monitoring the fate of the controversial bill.

The Democrats boycotted the final proceedings when it became clear the ruling party would exert numerical superiority to wrap up debate and pass the drastically altered in just one day. They chanted “Slaves, Slaves” as Somsak oversaw the speedy passage of key articles of the bill, with ceremonial, if not pathetic, “debate” by some government MPs. It was nothing short of a political farce, which materialised on a day when Thai lawmakers, ironically, begged each other to give Parliament a chance to play a leading role in tackling a national crisis without prejudice.

On Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, Somsak and Charoen oversaw a badly malfunctioning House session which they themselves were largely responsible for. 

They should hang their heads in shame, having done the parliamentary system a great disservice by choosing to ignore sacred obligations to ensure democratic fairness and transparency.