Government Covid-19 Responsibilities

[Rocketman]

Government sued by Opposition Party for Covid-19 failure

The Move Forward Party has announced that it is suing the government for its alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic now ravaging Thailand. They plan on launching a class-action lawsuit in the coming week to demand compensation for the government’s failure to sufficiently address Covid-19 as the third wave causes record infections and deaths every day. The MFP is a progressive party in opposition of PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and the ruling Palang Pracharath Party and their deputy leader has been gathering together a coalition of opponents who wish to sue the government over Covid-19. They had collected about 100 people to join in the class-action lawsuit and plan to file in Thailand’s Civil Court on Tuesday and have pledged to cover all legal expenses.

They say the government has bumbled many facets of the Covid-19 responses leading to needless death, suffering, and financial pain to the people of Thailand. They point to the failure to procure and distribute ample vaccine supplies to effectively inoculate the population and poor allocation of the medical and public health resources Thailand does have. MFP is suing for compensation for people economically impacted like companies that were shut down without aid or assistance, claiming that the Covid-19 pandemic’s negative effects were made far worse by government mismanagement.

Thailand was once viewed as a shining example for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic with immediate lockdowns and strong compliance with safety and health procedures like social distancing, mask-wearing, and contract tracing keeping the infections in Thailand nearly non-existent throughout the first and second waves in 2020. But in April the far more contagious Delta variant began spreading across the nation and many believe that the government had become complacent basking in their earlier success. They feel the overconfident government failed both to plan ahead by procuring vaccines early and to act quickly to curb the Covid-19 outbreaks with the same decisive actions that helped mitigate infections last year.

[Thunderbold]

At least 5 government ministers named in opposition no-confidence motion

At least 5 government ministers are named in a no-confidence motion being submitted by the opposition Pheu Thai party, including the PM and Health Minister. The Bangkok Post reports that the ministers targeted by the move are PM Prayut Chan-o-cha, Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Chalermchai Sri-on, and Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin.

The Pheu Thai party is submitting the motion based on a number of government decisions, including the controversial procurement of 8.5 million antigen test Kits from China, despite the kits being recalled in the US due to a high number of inaccurate results. Yutthapong Charasathien, deputy leader of the Pheu Thai party says the main target of the no-confidence motion is the PM, as a result of several matters, not least the attempted procurement of 2 submarines !! from China at a time when the country is facing its worst Covid-19 crisis since the start of the pandemic. In addition, Anutin is being targeted over his failure in vaccine procurement, including irregularities in procurement decisions, and the procurement of the Chinese antigen test kits. The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for the ATKs in the US, due to a significant number of false results.

Despite this, the Bangkok Post reports that the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation is going ahead with the purchase of 8.5 million ATKs from Ostland Capital. Yutthapong points out that the owner of 1 of the firms involved in the procurement deal is a former classmate of Anutin’s from the National Defence College. The firm in question, Nusasiri Plc, is a property development company, but has been appointed by Ostland Capital to act as a dealer of the ATKs.