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Sukampol welcomes court showdown with opposition leader
Minister defends decision to retroactively dismiss Abhisit from military; says it was based on false documents
BANGKOK: -- Defence Minister Sukampol Suwannathat yesterday shrugged off Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva's threat to sue him in the Central Administrative Court over a ministry committee's decision to strip Abhisit of the rank and salary given to him when he worked as military lecturer.
Sukampol said he was ready to explain his decision to endorse the ministry's decision to the court.
"It's good that Abhisit will file a suit with the Administrative Court," Sukampol said.
Abhisit said yesterday that his legal team was drafting a lawsuit to be sent to the Administrative Court because he regarded the decision to strip him of his rank as politically motivated.
Abhisit said the ministry committee had planned from the beginning to penalise him with the goal of undermining the Opposition's planned censure debate against the government.
"I've sent Sukampol a letter opposing the decision; it should reach him today. But he has signed an order to penalise me, so I will have to seek help from the Administrative Court," Abhisit said.
The committee set up by Sukampol concluded that Abhisit used falsified documents to apply for the position as a military lecturer, so it recommended stripping him of his military rank and salary retroactively.
The Defence Ministry would take action to dismiss Abhisit from military service retroactively, effective June 2, 1988, Sukampol said.
The minister said he would gradually issue the necessary orders to strip Abhisit of his rank, adding that the investigative panel had yet to calculate how much Abhisit would have to return to the state.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said Abhisit should take responsibility for the issue and show the appropriate spirit by resigning as an MP right away, now that the committee had found that he had committed an offence.
Meanwhile, Opposition chief whip Jurin Laksanawisit said yesterday the Opposition had submitted a motion of impeachment against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and no-confidence debate motions targeting three individual ministers to House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont.
Supported by 155 Democrat MPs and two MPs from the Rak Thailand Party, the Opposition proposes impeachment of Yingluck on grounds of malfeasance. It proposes that Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva replace Yingluck. The Opposition also proposed a censure debate against three of her Cabinet members. They are Sukampol, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung and Deputy Interior Minister Chatt Kuldiloke, Jurin said.
Jurin said 10-20 speakers had prepared information to scrutinise the PM and the ministers but would not reveal the speakers' names for the moment.
He said the reason Commerce Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was not among the censure targets was that there was insufficient information to scrutinise him separately.
Asked what would happen if Yingluck asked Boonsong to clarify the government's rice-pledging scheme on her behalf, Jurin said that in principle, Yingluck should clarify the issue by herself.
Jurin said the Opposition was confident of providing checks and balances on the government.
However, it was up to the people to decide whether they would continue to place trust in the government, he said.
Cases of corruption or malfeasance raised in the debate will not die in Parliament if the Opposition loses the no-confidence votes, as they would be submitted to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the impeachment process would continue, Jurin said.
If the NACC decides to indict someone, the case would be brought to the Senate, where a three-fifths vote would be needed for impeachment. The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders would handle related criminal cases.
The Constitution requires that cases against the premier be submitted to the NACC if key points in the censure debate against the leader involve corruption or malfeasance.
-- The Nation 2012-11-10
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