The Nation 04/01/2010
The current House will face a major challenge when the Parliament session opens on January 21, as the opposition party plans to file a no-confidence motion as soon as the House convenes.
During the past year, the House faced a lack of quorum on many occasions, forcing the termination of Parliament sessions. According to House Speaker Chai Chidchob, during the session that ended in November, the House saw its meetings collapse 10 times due to a failure to assemble a minimum number of members.
The repeated lack of a quorum forced Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to hold some meetings at the Parliament building instead of the House, in case a call was made to check attendance - despite the Democrat-led government having a majority of 80 seats over the opposition.
PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtaey admitted the problem could shake the government's stability and has asked for unity and cooperation from coalition parties.
"This year, some groups would try to taint the House's image. As you see, they use the House as a tool to attack the government through debates - so MPs should be careful when they debate in order to avoid conflict," Satit said.
He believed the year would be a tough one for Chai, the House Speaker, because two deputy House speakers are members of opposition parties whose neutrality Satit questions because at times he is frustrated by their decisions.
However, the ruling Democrat Party boasts this House has successfully passed 22 pieces of legislation within the year.
"In some of the past years, when I was opposition whip chairman, Parliament passed less than ten items of legislation a year," Satit said.
Apart from the lack of quorum problem, the performance of ministers in the House has also been questioned by the prime minister.
A concerned Abhisit discussed the issue at his last Cabinet meeting at the end of last year, asking his members to improve their performance this year.
Abhisit also complained about ministers refusing to testify before parliamentary committees, with some ministers refusing to attend even after being summoned ten times. The premier was concerned their failure to testify might be unconstitutional and he asked them to cooperate with the committee.
The premier asked his ministers to be prepared for the upcoming Parliament session, especially consideration of the decree of Bt400 billion in loans as part of its stimulus package, for which the Senate planned to change the agenda. The decree was very important for the government, Abhisit was quoted as saying.
Abhisit also asked his ministers to prepare their performance reports to Parliament following the completion of the government's one year in office.
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