House will vote on censure motions today
MONGKOL BANGPRAPA & ANUCHA CHAROENPO
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej turned against Commerce Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan in the House censure debate, taking him to task for mishandling the government's rice policy.
Mr Samak's reaction added to speculation Mr Mingkwan could be dropped from the cabinet along with Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama, who is facing the opposition's wrath over the Preah Vihear issue.
The fate of Mr Samak and seven other cabinet members, including Mr Mingkwan and Mr Noppadon, will be decided today when MPs vote in the censure debate.
Mr Mingkwan was questioned by the Democrat party yesterday but its claims about the failure of the government's rice policy were mostly answered by the prime minister, which did not do his minister any favours.
Mr Samak told parliament he had to step in to manage the rice policy himself while Mr Mingkwan was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Peru early this month.
Rice farmers from several provinces had started protesting, he said.
Mr Samak said the commerce minister had made a mistake by trusting government officials too much. ''Conflicts over the rice issue involved officials inside the Commerce Ministry. The minister must stand on the government's side,'' he said.
''I can't have him [Mr Mingkwan] sitting there and letting his subordinates do whatever they wanted.
''I had to step in to solve problems,'' said the prime minister.
Mr Samak was evidently unhappy about the way civil servants handled arrangements to sell rice to Malaysia, after he promised to sell the neighbouring country stockpiled rice.
Mr Samak said he negotiated with Kuala Lumpur to initially sell 200,000 tonnes of rice stock to Malaysia for US$850 (28,900 baht) per tonne but three days later the Malaysian government informed him that the price quoted by Commerce Ministry officials had jumped to $940 a tonne.
''They [the officials] did not save the face of the prime minister,'' he said.
Mr Samak said he needed to scrap the cheap rice scheme under the Blue Flag campaign launched by Mr Mingkwan because it dampened grain prices in the domestic market.
Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat was taken to task by the opposition party for abusing his authority. Democrat MP Peerapan Saleeratthawipak said Mr Sompong lacked legitimacy to run the Justice Ministry as he had exercised his authority without ethics, morality and law, by unfairly transferring officials to inactive positions.
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| Targeted cabinet members in various moods during the censure debate. From left: Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej; Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Suebwonglee; Commerce Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mingkwan Sangsuwan; Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung; Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama; Justice Minister Sompong Amornwiwat; Transport Minister Santi Promphat and Deputy Transport Minister Songsak Thongsri. |
Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban traded words with his rival, Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, over land in Surat Thani's Khiri Ratthanikhom district.
Mr Chalerm insisted the land was illegally seized by Srisuban Farm Co and he was under responsibility to return those plots of land to the state.
But Mr Suthep, who has family ties to the firm, argued that the firm did not encroach on state land as claimed.
The government coalition partners will hold talks on their positions today ahead of the voting session.
Puea Pandin, one of the coalition parties, was likely to leave its MPs to decide whether they would vote to support cabinet members targetted in the censure debate.
M.R. Kittiwattana Pokmontri, a list MP from Puea Pandin party, said she will not disappoint voters in Bangkok during voting.
''During the meeting, if we have good reasons to back our decision, the party leader would agree with us,'' she said.
She added her party had not pressured its MPs to vote in any way.
Ruamjaithai Chartpattana party leader Chettha Thanajaro said the targetted ministers had answered the claims made against them in the censure debate, except for those concerning the Preah Vihear temple issue. He would wait until the debate is over to decide which way to vote, Gen Chettha said.
The prime minister said on Sunday he was confident that his coalition government would hang together, and that he would survive the censure motion vote.
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