Thailand's Constitutional Court Tuesday fired the country's prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, for violating the constitution by hosting a TV cooking show while in office. Tuesday's ruling against Sundaravej, who has faced weeks of violent street protests, also forces the resignation of his cabinet. Ministers are barred from working for private companies, and Samak's opponents filed the case hoping that a conviction will compel him to step down.
In theory, analysts say, Samak can return as prime minister in days -- if the ruling coalition nominates him again and a parliament vote is taken. Samak appeared in court Monday, and argued that he had not violated any rules. His work for the television company, he said, was as a freelancer and not an employee. Further, he said, the show was not on the air any more and that he received just $2,300 for his appearances. The 73-year-old Samak continued to appear sporadically on the show "Tasting while Grumbling" after he became prime minister in February. On the show, he served up personal favorites and dished on topics that struck his fancy. Soon after taking over, he said that there was no reason for him to stop what he was doing. Professor Suchit Bunbongkarn, an expert on the constitution disagree with him and said the document clearly bans prime ministers from being employed by a private entity.
The court case is another attempt by Samak's opponents who have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at him. Samak was already facing charges of corruption, appealing a three-year prison sentence for defaming a deputy governor and dealing with an election commission decision last week that his party committed electoral fraud in the December elections and should be dissolved. In adition, thousands of protesters have camped outside the Government House, the government's headquarters -- blocking Samak from entering since August 26. The protesters are demanding that Samak step down. They accuse him of being a proxy for his ousted predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra. Samak has strongly denied the allegation and has refused to resign.
The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) -- which is heading the protests -- contends Samak is trying to amend the constitution so Thaksin does not have to face charges. Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006, returned to England last month just as he was to appear in court in a corruption case. [End of report]
The situation in Thailand is getting interesting now. It is getting from bad to worse for Samak. Just when I thought it couldnt get any worse after the clashes between his supporters and anti-government demonstrators, it just did. First of all, I dont understand why any leader of a country would want to host a cooking show when he should be thinking about ways to improve the country. Its fine if you want to showcase your talent once in a while, but I dont think hosting a TV show is a good idea, much less a cooking show. I heard today that Mr Samak has a notoriously big appetite, which could explain why he has a cooking show. Here is the problem. According to the Thai constitution, the P.M. may not accept compensation from a private company while in office. The Thai company, Face Media, that made the shows, says it paid Samak around $2,300 for several appearances, an amount that the Samak maintains was used to buy ingredients and cover transportation costs. But the court didn't buy that argument, ruling that Samak and his entire cabinet must resign.
You can just imagine how happy his opponents were when they heard the news. They were still camping outside the Government House when they heard it and they greeted the court decision with loud cheers and claps. Their celebrations could be shortlived though as Samak could still be the Prime Minister in theory. The judges might have fired him but they didnt ban him from politics, so he could still return as the Prime Minister. Thailand's ruling coalition holds the right to reinstate him as Prime Minister, something party officials have already vowed to do. Key leaders in the six-party PPP-led coalition government met Wednesday to discuss the next move, while parliament prepared to hold an emergency session to vote in a prime minister. It is expected that he would retain his position as the Prime Minister because there are not much people in the government that are interested to take over the job. I do hope that he will get his position as the PM back because I know that he has not anything wrong since he took over from Thaksin. Ive spoken on a great length regarding the issue in my previous post so I wont touch on that any further.
I am not foolish enough though to say that everything will be over if he is back in power because his opponents will continue to call for him to step down. I just hope that Mr Samak wont bow down to their request since he has not done anything wrong. But sometimes, he doesnt have the choice to make the decision to step down. Even before this whole incident, he was already facing charges of corruption, appealing a three-year prison sentence for defaming a deputy governor and dealing with a fraud charges that are related to his party for the election last December. One thing for sure, he will still have a lot of problems to deal with whether he managed to retain his PM post or not and it is not likely going to end anytime soon.
*The report was taken from CNN.
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