\u201cDebate like a lion, vote like a mouse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The phrase hit social media as last night (2 June), the parliament voted 268 to 201 in favor of the first reading of the 3.1 trillion baht budget bill for the 2022 fiscal year starting 1 October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the two-day debate, coalition partners Bhumjaitai and Democrat went at the government as if they were representing the people\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highlight was Bhumjaitai\u2019s Chada Thaised, who criticized the reduced budget for the Health Ministry headed by his boss, Anutin Charnvirakul. He said in parliament:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Budget Department thinks General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the prime minister, no longer loves Mr. Anutin. That\u2019s why the reduced budget. I would like to say, boss krub, if they don\u2019t love [us], then let\u2019s go home. With respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it was time to vote, Bhumjaitai didn\u2019t go home but instead chose to stay in the hot-and-cold embrace of General Prayut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often, we read names and words of a politician, only to go, \u201cWTF.\u201d But it doesn\u2019t take much digging to understand their motivations. In a 28 May 2017 report, The Nation stated that Chada was on the police list of \u201cmafia-style\u201d figures. He was arrested on weapon charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But of course, in a country like our beloved Thailand, what\u2019s the point of being an alleged \u201cmafia-style\u201d politician if two years later you don\u2019t become an MP. And what can the people expect from such a figure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take a look at Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Thammanat Prompow. Following the 2014 military coup, he was on General Prayut\u2019s list of \u201cinfluential figures” that needed to \u201chave a chat with.\u201d Five years later, he became a Palang Pracharat MP and government minister. Two years after that, he became the second most powerful man in the government party, General Prawit Wongsuwan\u2019s trusted right-hand man. We don\u2019t even need to mention the \u201cfleur\u201d thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then two days ago, upon entering parliament, the Deputy Minister\u2019s entourage, which included two police officers\/bodyguards, got into an argument with parliament police. Only one bodyguard is allowed in parliament, and no guns are allowed. That\u2019s the rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later on that day, Thammnat summoned the parliament police \u201cfor a chat\u201d and, according to reports, to have the parliament police apologize by kowtowing at his feet. After news broke, Thammanat said his entourage did not carry any gun, and the summoning was just \u201cto have a chat\u201d and form \u201cunderstanding.\u201d There was no kowtowing at anyone\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So now, everything is \u201csabaai sabaai, mai pen rai.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, folks, it was just another week of parliament, which is best capped off by another delicious quote from General Prayut:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am not a dictator. I work with politicians, ministers, and MPs. I\u2019ve changed a lot, but my voice is still loud. It\u2019s because sometimes [emotions] are bottled up, so I want to apologize. I have no intentions against anyone. Everyone, please follow the plan, it will be fine. If this year isn\u2019t good, then hopefully, the next year will be. If that isn\u2019t good, then we still continue. That\u2019s all there is to it. Do the best. Some people say this is not the best. Then I don\u2019t know how to do more. Day and night, I\u2019m not happy. As long as the Thai people are not happy, I\u2019m not happy. I\u201dm not blackhearted. I
don\u2019t want any benefits. This is me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s pretty much sums up our beloved kingdom. It ain\u2019t good, but let\u2019s do the same. Promised to return happiness, seven years later, admitted no one is happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cDebate like a lion, vote like a mouse.\u201d The phrase hit social media as last night (2 June), the parliament voted 268 to 201 in favor of the first reading of the 3.1 trillion baht budget bill for the 2022 fiscal year starting 1 October. During the two-day debate, coalition partners Bhumjaitai and Democrat went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136,12,14,13],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thisurpt","tag-thai-parliament","tag-thailand","tag-thisrupt","tag-whatshappeninginthailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":396,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisrupt.co\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}