The Opposition has identified Prime Minister Prayut as the main target of its no-confidence debate because he is the head of the Government and its economic team and in charge of national security, Mr Phumtham Wechayachai, advisor to the Opposition leader said in his Facebook post today (Friday).

Thailand is now beset by several crises. Some were caused by external factors while others were caused by the Government’s incompetence in handling crucial problems, such as drought, economic problems, the PM2.5 dust pollution and the novel coronavirus, said Phumtham.

“What Thai society is facing today are the risks confronted by the country, which is under the administration of an incompetent government in which the majority of people have lost confidence,” said the former Pheu Thai secretary-general, adding that it does not matter what the outcome of the vote is because the Opposition will be outvoted anyway.

“What matters more than the result of the vote is that the people are informed about the Government’s failure in various respects,” said Mr. Phumtham.

He assured that the Opposition will do their best, both in and out of parliament, to keep the public informed about the Government’s poor performance.

“What I am most concerned about is the future of the country.  We are in the middle of many crises and we want a competent leader who can lead us through these difficulties, but this Government appears to be non-existent,” said Phumtham.

The opposition is due to submit its censure motion against five ministers to the House of Representatives today, including the Prime Minister, who doubles as the defence minister.

The other four ministers are Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngarm, Interior Minister Gen Anupong Paochinda, Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompao.

Informed sources said that the Opposition has decided to shortlist 5 ministers to be censured, down from 9, because it wants to concentrate on individual ministers against whom they claim to have solid evidence.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who used to head the Government’s economic team, is off the hook because the Opposition believes that he will be able to answer their queries better than the Prime Minister, who has taken over as head of the economic team.

“With Mr Somkid’s name deleted from the list we can concentrate on the Prime Minister, who is well-known for his short temper and his responses during the debate will lack credibility,” the sources explained.