September 30, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News 2014 coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha has been on a tour of various provinces in what many political pundits believe is a pre-campaign for a possible snap poll. General Prayut, who seized power and became prime Minister in 2014, was in Chayaphum province where the floods have been not as serious as those in Lopburi or other regions around the country. During the visit when he was asked if the floods will be like those seen in 2011 his answer was “I can’t ask the sky about this issue, can I”. Meanwhile during this trip some people gathered to chase him away by shouting ‘I hear Tuu’ a play on the word ‘Aye Hea Tuu’ (Hea - in Thai means monitor lizard, a reptile considered to be among the lowest of the creatures as it lives on rotten flesh of fishes etc in various water bodies be it canal or ponds. Tuu is Prayut’s nickname).
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September 30, 2021
Thai Enquirer Summary
Political News
2014 coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha has been on a tour of various provinces in what
many political pundits believe is a pre-campaign for a possible snap poll.
General Prayut, who seized power and became prime Minister in 2014, was in
Chayaphum province where the floods have been not as serious as those in
Lopburi or other regions around the country.
During the visit when he was asked if the floods will be like those seen in 2011
his answer was
“I can’t ask the sky about this issue, can I”.
Meanwhile during this trip some people gathered to chase him away by shouting
‘I hear Tuu’ a play on the word ‘Aye Hea Tuu’ (Hea - in Thai means monitor
lizard, a reptile considered to be among the lowest of the creatures as it lives on
rotten flesh of fishes etc in various water bodies be it canal or ponds. Tuu is
Prayut’s nickname).
Today General Prayut is set to go to Nonthaburi to check on the plans to tackle
the flooding
The coalition partners are starting to see some rumbling after the fiasco earlier this month
and the aftermath erratic decision by the hot tempered and foul mothed coup leader
Prayut.
Democrat party’s leader Jurin Laksanawisit has come out to warn General Prayut
that his decision to give the management of the Deputy Agriculture Ministry to
Palang Pracharat party’s leader – Prawit Wongsuwon, has created a conflict as the
Ministry of Agriculture is under the management of Democrat party’s Secretary
General - Chalermchai Sri-on.
Jurin warned that the assigning of the ministry that is controlled by his
party to be under the powerful PPRP’s leader could lead to ‘more
problems’ than Gen. Prayut foresees.
He recommended PPRP to try to sort out its internal problems before it
creates a bigger problem for the coalition members.
Questions were fired at Jurin asking if this was an indication that PPRP
was looking to take back the Ministry of Agriculture from Democrat party,
he said that he could not answer questions that has not happened yet.
The rumbling in the Democrat party is far deeper than just Commerce Minister Jurin’s
comments as more than 160 MPs and former MPs of the party have been grumbling
about this issue in the LINE chat group.
Thepthai Senpong, former Nakhon Si Thammarat MP for the Democrat party,
posted on Facebook that members of the Democratic party have discussed and
exchanged ideas widely and most are uncomfortable with the move by Prayut as
they feel this is disrespectful to the coalition member - Democrat party.
Thepthai said that even the likes of Sathit Wongnongtoey, MPs of Trang, thinks
that the orders for the Deputy Prime Minister Prawit to look into the Ministry of
Agriculture is probably not correct and an order like this has never been done
before. This he said was not etiquette of joining the coalition government.
While the future of General Prayut is in doubt whether he will be pushed forward by
PPRP in the next polls, Gen Prayut has managed to secure a spot to be nominated the
Prime Minister.
A new party is being set up which may be called - Sethakit Thai party, which will
support Prayut, so says its founder.
Col. Suchart Chantarachotikul, former chairman of the Southern Strategic for the
PPRP has said that he would set up a new party for the south Thailand voter base.
This party is likely to have Chatchai Phromlert, the incumbent Permanent
Secretary of the Interior Ministry, who is on his last day of work today.
The party will focus on the MPs from the south where the Democrat party had a
strong voter base but lost most of its voters to PPRP.
In an interview this morning Suchart came out to say that in March 2021 he had held
talks with Prayut and at that point Prayut had said that ‘Wait and we will find a new party
very soon.’
Opposition Pheu Thai party held a meeting with the various opposition parties and Phue
Thai’s Secretary - Prasert Chantaruangthong, the opposition coalition parties have agreed
to sign a motion to file a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission
(NACC) on October 4 at 10:00 a.m.,
The cases field are set to be against
The Cabinet (cabinet)
Prime Minister
Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public
Health
Chalermchai Sri-on, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
The issues for the filing of the petition is to investigate the administration of
vaccines, including issuing resolutions Cabinet encourages rubber stock
corruption.
On the issue of the 8-year term limit of the Prime Minister – the opposition parties
meeting was of the opinion that the provisions of Article 158 are clearly written that the
prime minister has a term of office not exceeding 8 years in order to avoid monopoly on
power for too long.
And it is an issue in the future that may be submitted to the Constitutional Court
for interpretation whether the Palang Pracharath party (PPRP) could or cannot not
nominate General Prayut again.
If one counts the tenure starting from the 57th
constitution, he can no longer hold
office.
Protest –
Daily protests are continuing but at a much smaller scale and in some places
violence is evident on both sides.
A protestor goes bare naked during a recent protest.
Economic News
Locally people are starting to call out on the government to look at why the retail price of
gasoline and diesel is so high and why is the excise duty not being lowered on the retail
of diesel and gasoline.
With the impact of Covid-19 and the flooding, the economy is in deeper puddle
than most expect and a possible rise in oil prices could spur inflation and push the
general public to further dissatisfaction with the incumbent government.
Retail oil prices rise again and so far this month alone (September) diesel prices
have risen by 2.50 baht and 1.90 baht per litre for benzene.