PM in full battle mode defending the appointment of Senators

PHOTO: The Nation

The Thai PM is showing his glass jaw again by asking critics and the media to stop criticising the manner in which the new Senate was selected, or the actual senators. PM Prayut claims that they had been screened and now have been royally endorsed.

Critics were claiming that many of the senators are “old faces”, relatives of people in the government or friends of Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan. An irritated PM said that the critics and media people are also “old faces”.

“Why don’t you separate? The politicians are also old faces. Why can’t old faces work when they come in to carry on with the work? I have to choose people who used to work, but not all the 250 senators.”

Viewed by political commentators and some media as a case of rampant nepotism, the newly Army-appointed Senators, some 250 of them, will be a house of review for any laws passed by the elected lower house of parliament.

Asked by a reporter why most of the old faces are siblings of people in the government, the PM fired back…. “Who are not brothers? Is there anybody who does not know me, not knowing General Prawit, not knowing General Anupong? We have known one another after having worked together for five years. Don’t you know me? You are all old faces.”

A reporter asked about the identities of the selection committee members, the PM was quoted to have said on Thai PBS: “Why? You already knew the selection committee chairman. I was not involved in the selection.”

And then about the criticism of his brother, General Preecha (also a new Senator), for his frequent absence from parliamentary meetings, the PM asked why the media kept asking, claiming that “the case was over”.

All in all we are none the wiser about the Senators or the selection process. But we do now know that many of the media are “old faces.”

SOURCE: Thai PBS