The first day of the no-confidence debate yesterday saw sparks fly as Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung and his arch rival, Rak Prathet Thai Party leader Chuwit Kamolvisit, traded jibes over personal issues and allegations over illegal gambling dens.
Intending to indirectly accuse Chalerm, who oversees the police force, of receiving bribes from den owners, Chuwit said a brand-new Bt3.8-million Mercedes was presented to an unnamed recipient based at the Royal Thai Police headquarters, where Chalerm's personal office had undergone a Bt2-million major upgrade in a rush one-month job.
Chalerm said the renovation work was not paid for out of the National Police budget, but did not go into details on the source of the money.
He said he was ready to be given evidence and then take action against the recipient of the luxury car. As was his fashion, he also dared Chuwit to take an oath over whoever, including an opposition MP, received money from den owners facing a downfall in life.
Chuwit said a police housing project, consisting of 396 apartment buildings worth Bt5.84 billion, had been abandoned and was far from completion, due on January 13.
The 660-day project was approved by the previous Democrat-led government but made little progress during the 510 days under supervision by this current Pheu Thai Party-led government.
Chalerm said he was not in office when this project was approved, and the father-in-law of a politician had won the construction contract in exchange for a large sum of "tea money" given to his "evil son-in-law", resulting in it being neglected and stalled. He vowed to look into this case and bring the perpetrators to justice.
On gambling dens, Chalerm said the video and graphic evidence from Chuwit collected from many dens across the country during his campaign a few months ago, showing activities, gamblers, money, playing paraphernalia and tables, was not sufficient to prosecute suspects under the criminal procedural code.
Chuwit later said in an interview that this comment by Chalerm, which was cited in many public interviews, had contributed to the continued operation of the dens.
Chalerm said the footage or images must show gambling in progress and the key content - activities that were meant to challenge for gamblers' money placed as bets. He said the police, under his supervision as of October, had cracked down on 48,501 cases of betting or gambling of all kinds.
Chuwit also accused Chalerm of practising double standards by being lenient with police stations that had dens operating in their precincts and choosing to enforce regulations that would not find those officers involved guilty while failing to take even the lightest disciplinary actions against them.
Chalerm was given more flak by Democrat MP Sathit Wongnongtoei for failing to strip off the police rank of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra under a court order and a Council of State ruling, saying Chalerm had had one year and three months to do so.
Chalerm said he was powerless, as the rank issue was the responsibility of junior officials to initiate and process.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/11/26/chalerm-and-chuwit-trade-accusations/
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