A minority group of senators calling themselves "New Breed" voiced concerns over the possibility of the majority group of senators, allegedly linked to the Bhumjaithai Party, dominating the 21 Senate committees to create an "Upper House dictatorship".
Senator Nantana Nantavaropas, the leader of the New Breed group, said on Tuesday the group's concerns were heightened after most senators voted to approve the amendment of meeting regulations and establishing 21 committees on Monday, down from the original 26. They supported only one proposal drafted by the majority group of senators and rejected four other drafts from the minority senators.
"This reflects that we, the minority senators, are unimportant and not respected. It will be difficult for us to work or to win any resolutions. Pushing agendas in the Senate's meetings will also be difficult. This shows how the Senate's future deliberation of a constitutional rewrite proposal will go," she said.
In addition, a Senate committee, comprised mostly of senators from the majority group and none from the New Breed group, on Tuesday discussed the Senate's scrutiny of nominees for the appointment of the new Attorney-General and Supreme Administrative Court judges, said Ms Nantana. However, that discussion had been behind closed doors, so her group was left in the dark as to what conclusions were drawn.
She called on the majority senator group to implement a quota so all senators to have a chance to sit on a sufficient number of the 21 Senate committees to be formed next week.
"I still hope they [senators in the majority group] won't entirely ignore how members of the public will feel if they grab all the seats on all these 21 committees," she said.
The Senate is close to becoming a parliamentary dictatorship, said Sen Norasate Prachyakorn.
"If things continue this way throughout the five years to come, how can it [the Senate] be called anything else?" he said.
There are 56 senators who are in different minority groups, a number which accounts for one-third of all 200 senators, said Sen Pornchai Witayalerdpan.
"The minority senators ought to lead six or seven committees if the decision was based on a system of proportional representation. However, we will have to wait and see what kind of strategy the other side will use to prevent minority senators from being committee members. We now have a duty to keep a close eye on what happens next week," he said.