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THANIDA TANSUBHAPOL AND ANUCHA CHAROENPO
The aftershocks of the Preah Vihear controversy dominated the cabinet meeting yesterday when Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej named the Thai delegates to the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Director-general of the Asean Department Vithawas Sivihok surprised the cabinet when he revealed the Foreign Ministry's plan to sign five important documents at the meeting in Singapore next week.
But after the briefing, the official was told that Thailand is not in a position to be signing any agreements, as the choice for the head of the Thai delegates has not yet been settled.
The government has to assign a cabinet minister to lead the Singapore contingent after Noppadon Pattama quit as foreign minister last week due to his handling of the Preah Vihear listing issue.
"It seemed that no minister dared to take the leading role for the Thai delegation this time. Thailand does not have to sign any agreements because the head of the delegation [Mr Noppadon] was scrapped," Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said.
The prime minister referred to Mr Noppadon as a "victim" of the temple issue.
The point which led to his resignation was the Constitution Court's ruling that the joint communique needed Parliament approval. It did not pass this process after the ministry's Treaties and Legal Affairs Department concluded that it was not an international treaty. However, the court thought differently.
The prime minister said all the cabinet ministers agreed that any future international agreements made in Asean meetings would need endorsements by Parliament, even though they were told by the Asean department chief that doing so was unnecessary.
"Today we spent a lot of time discussing the issue of the international agreements," Mr Samak admitted.
Mr Vithawas described the sentiments of the cabinet members yesterday as over-sensitive to the issue.
"The department has been fulfilling this role for decades without any problems," he said, referring to its authority to decide the status of international agreements.
It is now worried that a reluctance to sign any agreement at the Asean meeting will damage Thailand's reputation with other countries, especially as it will chair the regional grouping once the Singapore gathering has concluded. The Asean chairman is rotated alphabetically.
Mr Vithawas said that since the verdict of the Constitution Court was delivered, "[Thailand's] credibility in the international arena has been diminished.
"Many countries have expressed concerns over Thailand's future commitments, as they are not confident such commitments will not be retracted later."
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