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The Nation
BANGKOK: -- Party will meet today to discuss whether to put controversial draft at the top of parliamentary agenda
A reconciliation bill submitted by the man who led the 2006 coup against Thaksin Shinawatra is set to heat up politics this week.
The bill, seen as designed to help former prime minister Thaksin, is item No 27 on the agenda for the weekly House meeting on Wednesday.
If the House wants to debate the bill, which was sponsored by Matubhum Party leader General Sonthi Boonya-ratglin in his capacity as the chairman of the special House committee on reconciliation, it would have to vote to move the draft to the top of the House agenda.
This would require votes from Pheu Thai MPs, who command the majority in the House.
Pheu Thai has been trying to keep a distance from the bill, as it apparently fears it would be attacked of moving to "whitewash" Thaksin.
Political observers said Pheu Thai cancelled its earlier plan to sponsor the bill and left it to Sonthi and other MPs to sponsor the draft so that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra would not be attacked for seeking to help her brother with Pheu Thai's House majority.
The possibility that the bill will be debated by the House on Wednesday has spurred the People's Alliance for Democracy - Thaksin's bitter foes - to plan a protest against the draft on the same day.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said the party would meet today to consider its stand toward the bill following reports it would be moved up the agenda for deliberation on Wednesday and Thursday.
Prompong said the meeting would prepare Pheu Thai MPs in the event the bill is moved up the agenda.
He said he personally thought the bill should be left to the House to consider without intervention by the government. Pheu Thai would give priority to national and public interests, he said, when considering its stand toward the bill.
The bill would not seek to help Thaksin as alleged by the Democrat Party, he claimed.
If the Democrats adhered to parliamentary rules, as claimed by Democrat chief adviser Chuan Leekpai, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva should cancel his plan to seek a Constitution Court ruling against the bill, he said. Abhisit should instead use the House debate to explain to people why the Democrats oppose the bill.
Prompong said reports that Pheu Thai MPs were divided over the bill were not true.
The spokesman also called on the PAD to postpone its rally and hear the debate on the bill in the House before planning a demonstration.
Chief coalition whip Udomdej Ratanasathien said whips would meet tomorrow to discuss the bill's principle and make a decision on the coalition's stand. Udomdej said it was normal that Pheu Thai MPs might not agree on a bill, but they would eventually have to comply with the party's stand once it was decided.
Udomdej also called on the PAD to wait and see the results of the House debate and resolutions before holding its rally.
Democrat MP Thepthai Senpong said he regarded the bill sponsored by Sonthi as a test of the political waters to gauge the strength of the bill's opponents.
Thepthai said the bill was sponsored mostly by coalition MPs, who are not Pheu Thai members, because Thaksin reportedly told ruling party MPs not to sponsor the bill to avoid creating the perception that the party was seeking to help the former PM.
Thepthai called on the prime minister to express a clear-cut stand on the bill because her Pheu Thai commands the majority of seats in the House.
Meanwhile, Suriyasai Katasila, a Green Politics co-ordinator, alleged Sonthi was about to stage another coup through the bill and this time he would do it for Thaksin.
Suriyasai said the new coup would be worse than the 2006 one in which Sonthi toppled the Thaksin government because this time the coup via Parliament would go as far as overruling the justice system. He said the bill would seek to help politicians have more power than the judiciary, which would affect the entire political system.
Suriyasai called on Chart Thai Pattana chief adviser Sanan Kachorn-prasart and Chart Thai Pattana de facto leader Banharn Silapa-archa to get their parties to withhold support for the bill so that they won't held responsible for a possible civil war following the bill's passage.
Chaturon Chaisaeng, a former caretaker Pheu Thai leader, declined to comment on the reconciliation bill yesterday, saying he knew nothing about it.
He said the bill would have nothing to do with the 111 former Thai Rak Thai executives because they would emerge from their five-year political ban on Thursday.
-- The Nation 2012-05-28
