Thai House Ends Debate on Six Southern Unrest Motions Early as Deputy Speakers Absent

BANGKOK — Thailand's second deputy speaker of the House of Representatives said on Saturday that his absence from a shortened debate on unrest in the southern border provinces had been scheduled a month in advance, rejecting suggestions of political manoeuvring.

Lertsak Phattanachaikul was responding to criticism of the Sept. 3 sitting, which Speaker Sophon Zaram closed at around 8 p.m. while the House was still considering urgent motions on the deep south. Sophon said he could not continue presiding alone after chairing the session for about three hours, with both deputy speakers on leave.

Lertsak said he and first deputy speaker Mallika Jirapanwanich had been scheduled to attend funeral prayer rites for Princess Bajrakitiyabha at the Phiman Rattaya Throne Hall in the Grand Palace, an engagement entered in their diaries the previous month.

The three presiding officers had divided the day into three-hour shifts, with Sophon scheduled to chair from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., he said. Neither deputy knew that the southern motions would be moved up the order paper to be considered alongside the Election Commission report on the same day. Had they known the sitting would run late, Lertsak said, they would have arranged to return.

How the sitting unravelled

The Sept. 3 debate broke down over procedure rather than substance.

Opposition members called for a quorum count while the southern motions were being discussed. Rangsiman Rome warned that failing to finish the debate that night would prolong the issue and eat into the following week's scheduled debate on the Election Commission report.

Government lawmakers objected. Suphachai Jaisamut defended the speaker, accusing the opposition of showing no consideration and saying they would leave Sophon to collapse in the chair. Members complained that they had not eaten and needed to leave the chamber to take medication, while a proposal was made to conduct any quorum count by roll call. Amid the uproar, Sophon cut off proceedings and closed the sitting.

Opposition whip Pakornwut Udompipatskul said whips from both sides had agreed that the House would consider two reports and the urgent motion during the same sitting. He said he had asked Sophon to remain in the chair beyond 7 p.m., and that the speaker had agreed.

The dispute underneath

The procedural clash stemmed from a disagreement over what the House should have been debating in the first place.

Government parties moved the urgent motions on the south ahead of the Election Commission report. Opposition MP Rakchanok Srinork accused them of doing so to shield the commission from scrutiny in the chamber, and said ministers had not travelled to the southern border provinces because they feared for their own safety. Government MPs demanded that she withdraw the remark. Lertsak, who was presiding at the time, ruled that she should do so. She repeated and expanded on the accusation, prompting the sitting to be suspended while the voting system was reset before a vote could take place.

Six motions were before the House, tabled by members of parties including Bhumjaithai, Prachachat, Kla Tham, Pheu Thai and the Democrats. None was resolved.

What the motions were about

The issue left without debate was the long-running violence in Thailand's southern border provinces — Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala — where a separatist insurgency has persisted for decades under a state of emergency.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who also holds the interior portfolio, has said the response should improve because the two offices are now held by the same person. He has argued that agencies must work together more concretely and that local people should be involved in communication efforts. He has described the problem as one that has continued for 30 to 40 years.

Former prime minister and Democrat figure Abhisit Vejjajiva took a sharper view, saying Anutin lacked the political will to address the south and that this had allowed the violence to flare up. Abhisit said he supported negotiations conducted within the framework of the constitution.

These are contested political positions, not established findings, and the House sitting that could have tested them ended before reaching a conclusion.

What to watch

Whether the southern motions return to the order paper, and when. Six motions from five or more parties represent an unusual degree of cross-party support for a formal House study of the deep south. Whether they are promptly rescheduled or quietly displaced will indicate how seriously the chamber intends to treat them.

Whether the Election Commission report is debated as planned. Rome's stated concern was that a prolonged debate on the south would push the commission's report out. If the report is delayed, the opposition's original accusation about the order of business will become considerably harder for the government to dismiss.

Whether the presiding arrangements change. The immediate cause of the closure was that all three presiding officers were unavailable to chair a sitting that ran beyond its scheduled time. That is an administrative problem with a straightforward fix, and whether the House adopts one will show whether it views Sept. 3 as an accident or a convenience.

Originally published on IBTimes Thailand