September 3, 2021 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News There is no bigger news than Politics news today Top of the list on the news was the revelation by maverick single MP of Thai Civilized party – Mongkolkit Suksintharanon, who came out to say that Phalang Pracharat party’s Secretary General – Thammanat Prompao, was looking to depose 2014 coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha from the position of Prime Minister. To top this off Wisarn Techateerawat, Phue Thai’s MP from Chiang Rai, came out to blast in the parliament that the Prime Minister was dishing out 5-million baht for each MP who was willing to support him to remain in the Prime Minister’s position in his reception room on the 3rd floor of parliament. MPs of Pheu also asked for the recording of the CCTV on 3rd floor reception room and corridor to be stored as evidence. Prayut later came out to deny the allegations and said that he would not repeat the mistakes of the past, in reference to 2008 when an MP supposedly representing Thaksin Shinawatra, was giving away 2 million baht to each MP as ‘cookies’. Seksakon Atthawong, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, came out to say that he was going to consult the legal department to file a lawsuit against Wisarn even if the MPs has the right to protect he may not be able to prosecute as a criminal, but there is a matter of ethics, therefore he will submit a complaint to Parliament speaker Chuan Leekpai, to check today which would then be submitted to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). Local media have all reported that the conflict in the PPRP as both sides are lobbying MPs in their party to be with them. The fact that there are reports coming out and even the drug dealing convict and current Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat and Prayut. Prayut called all his supporters and talked to them even though he has never talked to them since the elections in March 2019. Prayut’s person has been calling all the MPs who were supporting him and Prayut saying that he will give them the ticket to contest the elections next time the elections are held if they support him. He said that he would ‘take care’ of those who support him before and after the voting in the parliament. Meanwhile those who are supportive of drug convict Thammanat are ready to move on and may have the support from Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon. To tackle this issue the expensive watch ‘borrowing’ Deputy Prime Minister Prawit has called for a general meeting of the party on September 3rd at 13:00 hrs before the voting. As many as 40 of the MPs are supportive of the drug convict Thammanat and the government whip - Wirat Ratanaset. The usual flip flopping - Sammitr group, has almost 30 votes While the group of Santi Prompat, the Deputy Minister of Finance has about 10 MPs in his bag. The ongoing debate in the parliament enters its 4th day today Supachai Phosu, the 2nd Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives came out to give details of the ongoing discussions Discussion time spent was 25 hours 47 minutes 34 seconds. The opposition parties have taken up 21 hours 29 minutes 31 seconds They have another 18 hours 30 minutes. 29 seconds remaining The coalition has used up 29 minutes 36 seconds They have 2 hours 24 seconds remaining The cabinet took 2 hours 55 minutes 16 seconds While the Speaker of the house has taken up 53 minutes 11 seconds. Questions were also raised on why Prime Minister Prayut was sounding as if he had running nose and was stuffy and sounded as though he had cold and why was he allowed to be present in the parliament. Prasertpong Sornnuwat, Move Party’s MP, protested saying that the Prime Minister kept sniffing all the time, and that he had counted it to be 98 times, protesting the chairman of the meeting for letting people with colds enter the meeting room. Supachai Phosu, the 2nd Deputy Speaker of the house, as the chairman of the meeting, suggested that the prime minister take off the mask and go to explain the podium that has been prepared. Move Forward party came out to debate in the parliament on the procurement of aircrafts and also on parts of these aircrafts from South Korea. The allegations are that initial procurement was in 2015 with 4 aircraft then 8 more were purchased 2-years later in 2017 at a price that was 14% higher than the 1st lot of 4 aircraft and then again in 2021 (August 30 just 1 day ahead of the no confidence debate starting) at 8% higher. Move Forward said it was not just the aircraft that were in excess of 30% higher than 1st purchase but also 19 other purchases of parts & equipment. Meanwhile street protest continues, and more are planned today. The Thammasat United Front and the Thammasat Rally and the Thalu Fa group are scheduled to rally today at 16:00 hrs at Ratchaprasong intersection. Redeem group is slated to hold their rally on September 4 at 16:00 hrs (well after the vote counting at 10:00 hrs) and they plan to gather in front of the Swiss embassy in Thailand, then move to the front of Lumpini Park by reiterating the call for institutional reform, liberation of democracy expel the military from politics and create a universal welfare state the state must provide the mRNA vaccine to everyone at no cost. At the same time, yesterday saw a good turnout of protesters at Asoke intersection, where former Red Shirt leader - Nattawut Saikua, secretary-general of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) and Sombat Bun-ngamanong, or editor-in-chief Laijot, held a rally for people's power to oust General Prayut to resign. Mr. Sombat said will discuss with new generation groups such as the Thammasat Coalition and the Assembly, and Redem will use this area as a fortification of an eviction camp. COVID-19 News Yes, the numbers are important but the debate in the parliament is more interesting than just the numbers so the numbers for today’s infections. The debate in the parliament was clearly focused on the issues about the failure of Thailand in procurement of vaccines. Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward party blasted the mismanagement of the vaccine procurement by the Ministry of Public Health and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as the head of the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Pita said that every effort by parties including joining the Covax program and efforts by Pfizer to sell vaccines to Thailand were ‘dumped in the Gulf of Thailand’. Pita showed the email correspondence with embassies and bodies such as Covax to Thailand that Thailand needs the vaccines, and all these correspondences were done in December 2020, well ahead of the 3rd wave outbreak that started off in March/April 2021. He said that the request for vaccines by Thailand to United States of America for up to 10 million doses of AstraZeneca that the US was not going to use, was turned down and the US asked Thailand to go through Covax. Covax last correspondence with Thailand was on December 9th, 2020, after which Thailand went quiet and never got back to join Covax. Responding to the various allegations Public Health Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, came out to make his plea at around 22:30 hrs. Anutin came out to defend Said that the country has 60 million booster doses of AstraZeneca Another 30 million doses of Pfizer And also ‘Sinova’ which he said was developing its own booster doses Said that there was no corruption and Sinovac was there to help when no other vaccines were available Said that he did not buy reserve the other vaccines as the developers did not specify if these vaccines were tested and usable but the response from the vaccine developers was that it was a trial and error and if the vaccines work then Thailand will be lucky if not then you will lose the money. Anutin came out to say that the country would have close to 140 million doses of vaccine by the end of the year as the pipeline of arrival of vaccine is set to pick up in the next couple of month ahead of end of 2021. Today’s infection numbers are down but then so is the testing numbers Take a look at the testing numbers over the past 7-days Infection data for today are as follows Total New Infections = 14,653 Community Infection = 14,397 Prison Infection = 256 Total positive cases (ATK/Antigen) = 2,327 Total New Death = 271 Total New Recovery = 18,262 Total Infection including ATK = 16,980 Total infections so far since outbreak = 1,249,140 Total deaths so far since outbreak = 12,374 Total in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) = 4,740 Total number on life support (ventilator) 1,011 Details of data for each day can be found @ https://ddc.moph.go.th/covid19-dashboard/ As of September 1st total average for the 7-days until September 1st showed that RT-PCR Tests undertaken as per data from govt. = 45,664 Total testing positive under in these tests for the 7-day = 15,931 % Of testing positive = 34.89% The world is now watching out for a new variant called Mu or B.1.621 This is a new variant that reportedly no vaccine is effective against it.