Palang Pracharath (PPRP) party-list MP Watanya Bunnag, aka Madam Dear, announced her resignation as a member of parliament (MP) and the party this morning (Tuesday), apparently to show her responsibility toward the “saddening” incident in the parliament yesterday when the joint sitting of the parliament was adjourned due to lack of quorum.
She said in her Facebook post today that parliament should be a place where the people can depend upon, but it was used as a ground for political games which has ruined public trust because it cannot respond to the aspirations of the people.
She said that she respects the difference in the opinions of individual MPs over the method of the calculation of party-list MPs by the use of 100 or 500 as the divisor, adding however that parliament should be the proper channel through which they settle their difference.
The government MP said further that, during her 1,168 days, as an MP, she had performed her duties through parliamentary mechanism although, occasionally, she might disagree with the opinions of her Palang Pracharath party.
Ms Watanya shot to public spotlight when she and a small group of PPRP MPs, known as the “Dao Roek” (Fixed Stars), abstained from voting for Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob of the Bhumjaithai, a coalition party, following a censure debate in February last year, in defiance of the party’s resolution to vote for ministers of all parties. The group’s move has angered the Bhumjaithai party.