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Published on August 10, 2007

Their conspicuous absence shows that Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's government might have underestimated the insidious undercurrent in the NLA in its attempt to pass the Foreign Business Act.

Commerce Minister Krirk-krai Jirapaet originally thought the government could easily pass the act during the NLA's Wednesday session. This despite the attempt by a group of six NLA hard-liners who proposed that the assembly include wording on management control over inspecting the second or third tier of shareholders, in order to ensure no nominees.

Early on Wednesday morning, the Commerce Ministry still thought the law would pass easily. About 100 NLA members were supposed to vote in favour of the draft authored by the Commerce Ministry if the government's whips had their way.

However, the whips seemed to underestimate the situation, especially since the relationship between the government and the Council for National Security has become less than cordial lately.

The government wanted to amend the Foreign Business Act to clarify the ambiguities that provided loopholes for Temasek Holdings' takeover of Shin Corp in January 2006. The law was aimed at tackling the question of nominees, but the small group of NLA members went ahead in their proposal by advocating restrictive requirements on management control.

Early in the morning, the government thought they had all of the votes. But when some NLA members started making their case in the afternoon, the government whips looked around anxiously, uncertain about the vote's result.

Earlier estimates by the government side showed that at least 90 NLA members should have voted in favour of the draft of the version authored by the Commerce Ministry.

But around 6pm, when the chairman started to cast the vote, about 30 NLA members mysteriously disappeared from the room.

The rest is history: the government lost the vote, 76-64. No one knows the whereabouts of the 30 NLA members.

A government official speaking on condition of anonymity said, "We're still wondering where all those 30 NLA members have gone."

Anyone who knows the answer, please send it to the Commerce Ministry.

jeerawat@nationgroup.com