The Thai lawmakers have decided not to appoint an ultra-royalist as one of a new commissioners of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) due to his tainted financial records.
On Thursday, 20 August 2015, the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) voted to approve five of the seven new candidates to the new batch of the NHRC members. The five candidates who have been approved by the NLA are Aungkana Neelapaijit, Chatsuda Chandeeying, Surachet Satidniramai, Wat Tingsamid, and Prakayrat Tonteerawong.
The NLA have turned down the candidacy of Baworn Yasinthorn, and ultra-royalist who is a leader of an ultra-royalist group who called themselves Citizens Volunteer For Defence Of Three Institutes Network, and Supachai Thanomsap, a part-time lecturer of the Medical Faculty of Ramathibodi Hospital.
According to Matichon, the NLA decided not to approve Baworn’s candidacy because there have been legal complaints on financial cases against him. As for the medical lecturer, he was not selected because there have been reports about his immoral behaviors.
118 NLA members voted against Baworn’s candidacy to the NHRC while 37 voted in favor of him and 21 abstained from voting.
In late July, many eyebrows were raised over the fact that Baworn was nominated as one of the new NHRC candidacies by the the committee responsible for screening new batch of NHRC.
However, For many human rights defenders and researchers, the fact that a prominent ultra-royalist, who has pressed charges against others under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, or lèse majesté law, struck them as little surprise since two third of the committee responsible for screening the NHRC candidates are high-ranking military officers.
According to the leaked document, Gen Oud Buangbon is chair of the NHRC screening committee while three other four-star military officers, namely Gen Sophon Silpipat, Air Chief Marshal Siwakiat Chayema, and Admiral Taratorn Kajitsuwan serve as first, second, and the third deputy chairs.
The chief advisor of the committee is Gen Lertrit Wechsawarn. As a Senator and chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Studying and Monitoring Problems Concerning Law Enforcement and Measures for the Protection of the Royal Institution, Gen Lertrit last year was reported by the Bangkok Post to have agreed with a group of ultra-royalist senators to build up a strong network of pro-monarchists using social networking to protect the monarchy.
The list of the approved new candidacies of the NHRC will be resent to the selection committee and the two new candidacies will be selected in replacement of Baworn and Supachai.