Senators accused of committee carve-up

Minority senators have cried foul over a “seat grab” they claim was engineered by unfair and unsuitable seat allocations for Senate standing committees.
Senators with fewer affiliations said they had been sidelined by bloc voting organised by fellow senators with strong ties to take seats on 21 standing committees that should have been fairly distributed.
During Monday’s meeting, Tewarit Maneechai, a senator from the media profession, asked that he and the rest of the Senate be mandated to review and approve the selection of members of the 21 committees.
To illustrate his point, he asked why senators from the agriculture group, namely Seranee Anilbol and Kanlaya Yaiprasan, were not chosen to represent the Senate committee on agriculture.
In reply, Senator Sawat Thatsana, chairman of the committee supervising the process, responded that Sen Seranee and Sen Kanlaya failed to make it onto the agriculture committee as more senators applied for the panel than there were seats for.
At least 11 committees were rated as competitive. In some cases, lots were draw to decide on the memberships of such committees, according to Sen Sawat.
Sen Kanlaya conceded that even though the selection of agriculture committee members was in line with regulations, she thought it unfair for someone like her who is passionate about organic farming to have missed the opportunity to serve on the panel.
“The only mistake here is that we are in the minority,” said Sen Seranee.
“So, choose whoever you want, go ahead. I’ve done my job, and that’s it. You always called a vote to decide on matters. But how on earth could we ever win?” he added.
Even before Monday’s meeting, Sen Nantana Nantavaropas also claimed the selection was less than fair. She insisted it lacked transparency and that chairs of the 21 committees may have been pre-selected quietly before the vote after failing to win a place on the political development committee.
“I have been working on political development for a long time, but I lost out to a pork vendor,” she said.
She also accused Sen Wutthichat Kanlayanamit, the selection committee secretary, of belittling Sen Seranee when Sen Wutthichat said the agriculture committee would be fine without him.