House chaos hurts govt

House chaos hurts govt

ANALYSIS: Pheu Thai to blame for quorum mess

A parliamentary session to debate the policy statement delivered by the government was thrown into chaos on Wednesday night before it was cancelled for a lack of a quorum.

House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranon appears worn out as he takes a break from his duties in parliament yesterday. Mr Somsak has had his hands full trying to deal with a commotion during the debate on the government’s policy statement. CHANAT KATANYU

This does not bode well for House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranon, who is likely to find it tough to keep MPs under control.
The cancellation of the session indicates there is no guarantee that the Pheu Thai-led coalition government can always benefit from having the majority of the House seats and a House speaker known for his strict approach to maintaining order. The session concluded yesterday.
As the ruling party with the majority of House seats, the onus is on Pheu Thai to ensure there are enough party MPs present when the House meets.
Whenever a House session has to be called off because of a lack of quorum, the Pheu Thai Party is entirely to blame. Half of the MPs have to be present to constitute a quorum and the party controls more than half of the House.
Pheu Thai cannot underestimate the opposition Democrat Party which is skilled at using parliamentary regulations to its advantage.
The Democrats have a sense of timing and can take advantage of missteps in parliament to throw the government off balance.
They always come up with a reason to do so.
Their protest against House Speaker Somsak during the policy debate on Wednesday is a case in point.
Mr Somsak has earned the nickname "The Hammer Man" for his strict approach to ensuring MPs behave themselves during House sessions.
However, Mr Somsak's ability to maintain neutrality when he chairs House meetings has been called into question and he will be forced to deal with the tough task of handling protesting MPs during future House sessions.
During the policy debate on Wednesday, the Democrats fiercely protested against Mr Somsak's rules barring them from debating the government's policy on protecting the royal institution, and from criticising former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The Democrats also protested against a government proposal for a motion to end the policy debate despite the fact there was still time for the opposition to question government leaders.
They said the House Speaker was showing bias against the opposition.
Yet Mr Somsak called off the meeting after he called a quorum count twice and found the meeting lacked enough bodies despite efforts to call government MPs into the House to fill out the numbers.
As a result, the two-day policy debate which was supposed to end on Wednesday, had to be deferred to yesterday.
House Speaker Mr Somsak yesterday insisted he would strictly enforce the House regulations to ensure that politics will be more constructive.
Democrat MP for Nakhon Si Thammarat Chinnaworn Bunyakiat criticised Mr Somsak for lacking neutrality, failing to enforce House regulations correctly and being overly protective of the government.
Observers said that future House meetings will be anything but plain sailing for the government as long as Pheu Thai's primary aim is to protect Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Thaksin from criticism by the opposition.
And that's despite the fact that it has Pheu Thai MPs acting as the Shinawatra's "bodyguards" and a mass of supporters outside parliament.