An assistant to a Bhumjaithai Party member of parliament, the second biggest party in the current coalition government, was fired from his position by the head of the party and health minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, for criticizing desperate citizens.
The assistant, Second Lieutenant Boonguer Putsatewo, on Tuesday posted on his Facebook about a group of people who went to the Ministry of Finance’s complaint center yesterday to ask for an explanation for their ineligibility to receive compensation from the government’s cash handout scheme.
The ministry was forced to close down its public entrances yesterday to adhere to the government’s social distancing program after dozens of people showed up to register their complaints. The government has begun its 5,000 baht per month cash handout scheme to workers within the informal sector that have been affected by the coronavirus.
The number of people who have registered online for the scheme has already surpassed 27 million but the government said only 9 million are eligible.
Seeing the chaos at the Ministry of Finance, Boonguer criticized desperate people left behind by the government.
“Some of them were showing obscene behavior including the use of profanity against the government. Some even showed their behind to the government in front of media,” he wrote on his Facebook post. “I wonder if these people should be compensated at all,” he added.
After seeing the post, Minister Anutin has relieved Boonguer from his position on Wednesday with the party for his “inappropriate” comments against fellow citizens.
“As people are in trouble, we have to help each other to fix the problem, not criticizing them, no matter who they are,” he said. “Everyone in the party is helping people out and there is still this person who is tarnishing our image and he has to be punished.”
It is not the first time that a member of the ruling coalition has had to apologize after criticizing the population. Palang Pracharath MP Satra Sripan had to tearfully and publicly apologize and backtrack in March after he called Thai citizens, “stupid.”