Parliament president Wan Muhamad Noor Matha pledged to encourage Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra via the government whip to respond to growing calls for her to answer interpellations in parliament in person.
He was responding to renewed calls by some opposition MPs who now expect the PM to respond to their interpellations after she did not directly do so last year.
Addressing Friday's parliamentary meeting, Mr Wan pledged that the government whip would relay this feedback by the opposition to Ms Paetongtarn about her not coming in person to respond to interpellations intended for her.
While the opposition has a duty to raise questions in parliament about any matters concerning how the government works, the government is responsible for answering these questions, said Mr Wan.
"To keep ignoring these questions could do more harm than good to the government," he said.
Based on his experience serving in a previous government, he said he usually found interpellations to be an opportunity to communicate directly with the public against opposition accusations.
The opposition may or may not be satisfied with the answer, while it is actually the public that judges whether what the government says is convincing or not, he said.
"Don't be afraid to answer an interpellation. Just try to answer it to the best of your ability," he said.
After all, Mr Wan said, the opposition should never attempt to get the PM to answer all their questions, especially when it is a question that directly concerns particular cabinet ministers who may have first-hand information and could possibly respond better to the question.
Ultimately, he said, it could take longer for the PM to assign the ministers concerned to respond to these questions on her behalf, meaning the questions raised would then be answered too slowly and would be a waste of time.
Previously, opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut had vowed to closely scrutinise the role of Pheu Thai's alleged de facto leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, in the government as questions continue to mount over whether Ms Paetongtarn is the country's real prime minister.
