Opposition chief whip Sathit Wongnongtoey said he would file a petition to the House speaker today calling for due recognition of the importance of the legislative branch's role in examining the executive branch.

Sathit said the administration's proposed motion and rules for the session were inappropriate. The speaker and his deputies, whose impartiality has been questioned, will decide what topics will be debated.

Article 213 of the Constitution says the joint meeting, as initiated by the government, can only discuss administrative problems and not the prime minister's behaviour, he said.

The session is restricted to advising the government and does not allow questioning the premier, he added.

Sathit accused the government of having a hidden agenda. It will let ministers tout their achievements while passing the blame [for failures] to civil servants, he said. The motion cites the Finance Ministry but the word "corruption" will cover only civil servants, not politicians, while the real problem is politicians having too much power, he explained.

He said the petition would inform the speaker that Parliament should not be used as a pawn by the executive branch in a political game.

Government whips will meet with their counterparts in the opposition and Senate on Wednesday. The opposition will oppose the proposed motion, which it dismisses as a farce, Sathit said.

It would be unfair for time limits for speakers to be based on the number of members of each party as government MPs will be able to steer the debate away from the premier, he said.

"The government will have time for 374 MPs to debate while the opposition gets time for 124 MPs, or one-third the time excluding senators. What will happen on that day? If government MPs debate fairly and assess the prime minister's performance, there will be no problem. But how many Thai Rak Thai MPs in the past five years have dared to challenge the premier?" Sathit said.

Nerisa Nerykhiew

The Nation