People’s party leader, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, called today for Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to review the government’s plan to hold a plebiscite to gauge the opinions of the Thai public over the proposed termination of controversial MOUs 43 and 44 with Cambodia.
Meanwhile, former senator Rosana Tositrakul said she wonders whether the government sincerely wants to terminate the MOUs, or actually wants to buy time by holding a referendum.
Natthaphong cited the outcome of a recent NIDA Poll, which shows that 70% of the respondents had admitted that the two MOUs are too complicated for them to understand, adding that the referendum should reflect the true wishes of the people, which means that they must be able to understand the two instruments to a certain level.
He also claimed that terminating the two MOUs should be the sole responsibility of the government, because it has already earned the trust of the people to make decisions on complex international political issues, without the need to pass the burden on to the people.
In her Facebook post on Sunday, the former senator insisted that the government could terminate the two MOUs with Cambodia immediately and should not pass the burden on to the people through the holding of a referendum.
She pointed out that, since the signing of the two MOUs, in 2000 and 2001 respectively, Cambodia has committed hundreds of violations and the only thing that the Thai government has been doing is lodging protests, which have been ignored.
Moreover, she said that Cambodia had submitted petitions to seek intervention by the International Court of Justice to resolve the border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand.
Hence, there is sufficient justification for Thailand to terminate the two MOUs unilaterally, without the need to seek consent from the Thai public, Rosana opined.
