House Speaker Chuan Leekpai says he supports members of parliament, both male and female, wearing Thai silk or other garments made of Thai fabrics, but they must be appropriate to the occasion and venue.

“I think this is a matter of appropriateness. For instance, wearing a beautiful dress to a funeral is not ‘beautiful’. Everything depends on appropriateness and there should not be any problem because all MPs are adults and they should know what is, and is not appropriate,” he said on Sunday.

He cited a recent case when a disabled MP came to him to ask whether he could wear shorts to attend parliamentary meetings because it was difficult to wear long trousers, adding that he granted him permission to wear shorts.

Mr. Chuan said he was awaiting House regulations about the dress code for the MPs, which will be passed to the members of the lower House.

The dress code for MPs has become an issue after a group of Future Forward MPs, led by the party spokeswoman Ms. Pannika “Chor” Wanich, wore traditional attire, modelled after costumes in the TV drama “Gasalong”, when they attended the House meeting last week. Their colourful dress code began a heated debate on social media, attracting mixed reactions from the participants.

Asked whether the MPs must wear formal, western style suits, he said that most male MPs were already wearing suits while the female MPs were wearing different attire.

When it was suggested that the House should pay more attention to the performance of the MPs, rather than their mode of dress, he shot back by asking whether it would be alright for MPs to wear loincloths.

He stressed that MPs must do their jobs and, at the same time, must know what to wear which must be appropriate and suit the occasion.