80,000 sign up to oust Prawit
Former National Reform Council member Thicha Nanakorn yesterday submitted an online petition with more than 80,000 signatures calling on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to fire his deputy Prawit Wongsuwon from the cabinet over the luxury watches scandal.
Ms Thicha, a human rights advocate and youth specialist, submitted the petition at the Public Service Centre near Government House. The names were gathered on the www.change.org website from Jan 31-Feb 15.
Ms Thicha said 80,000 supporters were more than the number stipulated to remove a politician from their post by the referendum law under the 1997 Constitution, which required at least 50,000 names.
She also called on the National AntiCorruption Commission (NACC) to be transparent in its investigation of Gen Prawit, who failed to declare his pricey wristwatches, estimated to be worth about 40 million baht.
She compared the NACC to a “detergent used to help whitewash” Gen Prawit’s name in the matter, even though the anti-graft agency was set up ostensibly to scrutinise the actions of politicians.
During his address on International Anti-Corruption Day on Dec 9 last year, Gen Prayut said himself that Thais would not tolerate corruption and, at the time, Thais really believed Gen Prayut was serious about tackling corruption, she said.
“If Gen Prayut was not serious about it, this means none of the country’s leaders can be trusted,’’ she said.
But after what has happened over the past several months, there is now a severe lack of confidence, Ms Thicha said. There is no way to discuss the matter in parliament, so the people have to resort to online channels such as change.org to air their grievances, she added.
Regarding reports of hundreds of thousands of people signing a petition supporting Gen Prawit, Ms Thicha said it is not difficult to understand how such a petition has been “arranged”.
She insisted that the online petition submitted by her group has no ulterior motive.
In reaction to the campaigns to remove Gen Prawit, a campaign supporting him received 726 signatures at Change.org, and 150,233 at https://konrakpa.org.
On Feb 3, a website named konrakpa. org (which means “people love forests”) opened, praising Gen Prawit for his mission to conserve forests in his capacity as chairman of the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation which sponsors conservation projects in the eastern region.
On Feb 1, a small group of people showed up at the Defence Ministry to give moral support to Gen Prawit. The group said that the expensive wristwatch scandal which has dogged Gen Prawit for weeks was politically motivated.
NACC secretary-general Worawit Sookboon said yesterday Gen Prawit has sent a letter to request an extension of the deadline for him to explain to the NACC how he acquired 25 of the expensive watches and a diamond ring.
The deadline for him to provide an explanation was on Thursday.
Gen Prawit said that he could not meet the Feb 15 deadline because he has been busy with other engagements, Mr Worawit said.
However, Mr Worawit said Gen Prawit must submit an explanation to the NACC by March 2 and another extension will not be permitted.
Mr Worawit admitted that with the latest extension of the deadline, the NACC will not be able to wrap up its probe into the case by end-February as earlier stated.