Paddle the right boat

Re: “PM ‘won’t let anyone off the hook’”, (BP, March 11).

I agree with those Democrat MPs who hold that the party’s members should vote on whether the party should join the opposition or not, saying that the party should stop paddling a boat of “thieves”.

Under PM Prayut Chan-o-cha’s watch, voters have seen a steady erosion of rule of law: (a) against established procedures, DPM Prawit Wongsuwon wasn’t moved to an inactive post while his 21 ultra-luxurious watches were probed, allowing him to influence the outcome; (b) Deputy Agriculture Minister Thamanat Prompow denies that he’d pleaded guilty of smuggling 3.2 kilogrammes of heroin into Australia and served four years in Parklea Prison, NSW, for it — despite the Future Forward Party’s producing copies of the related court documents to that effect; and (c) Future Forward Party’s been dissolved for a loan from its founder — despite other parties’ having done so, without penalty.

Now, an ex-close aide of sinister minister Thamanat is accused of illegally seeking to broker up to 200 million surgical masks abroad despite a critical local shortage. Gen Prayut insists he “won’t let anyone off the hook” in this case; but given that Gen Prayut has said that Capt Thamanat’s heroin smuggling was “a minor matter”, wouldn’t he consider the masks be even more trivial?

Why would our longest-established, most prestigious party want to be a part of a government that is so dismissive of rule of law?

BURIN KANTABUTRA