The festival (or the circus) continues.
After Interior, IT and Deputy Commerce ministers, who have resigned over the shareholding scandal… Natural Resources and Environment Minister and Deputy Foreign Minister resigned too( Nation).
According to the NCCC, 3 other are under fire : Deputy Finance Minister, Public Health Minister and Education Minister ! (Bangkok Post)
At that point, the question should be : which minister doesn’t have shares in private companies ? 
Surayud, the Prime Minister who came back to Bangkok last saturday from New York, has eventually understood the scale of the problem : “Therefore, I have to reshuffle the cabinet. But I am well aware of the remaining time left beforre the country has the national election scheduled in December 23, I will make a minor reshuffle“.
But still, no one is asking the NCCC why they release thoses informations now…
The manipulation is obvious.
But still, no one is asking the NCCC why they release thoses [sic] informations [sic] now…
I’d say the NCCC has bigger fish to fry than the petty indiscretions of a few temporary/caretaker ministers.
It makes for good headlines & political point scoring, but IMO it’s a storm in a teacup or making mountains out of molehills, particularly as most of the ministers and their advisers did not seem to understand the rules.
But I am pleased it sets a precedent for future ministers who will now have no excuse.
You’re saying that basically the NCCC is doing like an “education work” ? So that in the next governments, the members of the cabinet will take seriously the rules ?
It might be possible.
However, i’m not convinced -anymore- of the good intentions of the NCCC.
Since the Aree case, the (ex) Interior Minister. He owns shareholdings in 2 companies… since a long time.
And you should remember that Aree held a minister position, before the Coup, in Thaksin’s government…
What was doing the NCCC then ?
And a that time, no interim constitution… It was the 97 constitution and the anti graft law of 2000.
So why the NCCC didn’t try to enforce the rules ?
So why the NCCC didn’t try to enforce the rules ?
I’m not saying they should not enforce the rules, but you have to put things into perspective, and whilst they don’t look good, these private company shareholdings are minor indiscretions.
If anything, it is the NCCC that has done the wrong thing by not pointing out the rule breaches immediately, especially as it seems most of the ministers had disclosed the shareholdings and were not aware of the problem – a simple letter early in the piece would have given the ministers a chance to rectify things before they even had any chance to be in a position of a conflict of interest.
My guess is that the NCCC has only just got around to looking at the asset declarations, because unfortunately, most enforcement & investigation agencies have to prioritize, and IMO these matters would have been one in a long list of things they have to attend to.
Realistically, they would be low on the list compared to the larger scale deceitful corruption cases that they should be investigating.
As for what happened under Thaksin’s government, I thought everyone knows by now the difference between rule of law, and rule by law.