Govt asked to withdraw fresh amnesty bill

BANGKOK, March 17 (TNA) - The opposition Democrat Party has urged Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to ask members of her ruling Pheu Thai Party as well as MPs of partners in the coalition government to withdraw a fresh amnesty bill submitted to the House recently. A group of Pheu Thai Party MPs recently submitted the new amnesty bill for debate by members of the House of Representatives while four other reconciliation bills are still pending in the House. The MPs are trying to push the new bill for debate before the parliament is temporary closed next month. Ongart Klampaiboon, a party list MP of the Democrat Party, opined that it needs majority of votes in the House to push the new bill for debate in the House while his party stands firms on postponing it because the debate would only create a new round of social divisiveness in the country. While those four bills are still pending in the House and there is no outcome, the new bill will also meet the same fate. Ongart said his party believed the new bill should have a “hidden agenda in solving problems for only one person”, therefore, the prime minister who is the leader of the government which has responsibility in keeping peace in the country should ask the MPs to withdraw the bill in order to prevent the conflict from erupting. If the conflict occurs, the prime minister as the national administrative leader must be taken responsible, he added. (TNA)