Sirichok criticized the new parliamentary rules for blocking the oversight system, pointing out that in the future, the chance to invite outsiders to explain to committees will likely be difficult. He vowed to continue exposing the online gambling operators and admitted providing information to Abhisit for use in government impeachment proceedings.
At 12:30 p.m. on 3 Nov 2026 GMT+7, Sirichok Sopa, former Songkhla MP from the Democrat Party, spoke about the case where Sopon Sarum, Speaker of the House of Representatives, set guidelines for including agenda items in the 35 standing committees of the House. He said that inviting representatives of organizations, agencies, or individuals to testify in committees now requires a majority vote of the committee members. He viewed this rule as allowing the government majority to control both the agenda and witness invitations. This approach was proposed by Supachai Jaisamut, list MP from the Bhumjaithai Party. From what Sirichok heard from Rangsiman Rome, list MP from the Move Forward Party and chair of the Legal and Justice Committee, and from following news, this rule counts votes from the entire committee regardless of attendance. For example, if a committee has 15 members but only 10 attend a meeting, at least 8 votes are still required to approve. Since opposition parties have fewer committee members, their chances of winning such votes are slim. Overall, opposition committee members make up less than half the votes, so Sirichok believes that in the future it will be very difficult to invite outsiders or organizational representatives to testify.
“It’s unfortunate that I probably won’t be able to present information about online gambling to the parliamentary Legal Committee anymore, because if a vote is required, the majority will certainly vote against inviting me. This clearly shows they are troubled by the online gambling issue, which makes us wonder who is really behind these online gambling rings. Why are they so desperate—willing to allow the whole country to criticize them and silence the opposition party? This motivates me to keep digging to find out who the masked operators are behind all this, because money from this gray business may be used in politics to buy votes. From the last election, vote-buying ranged from 1,500 to 2,000 baht per voter; if widely practiced, hundreds of millions of baht per constituency could be spent. We need to investigate clearly where this money comes from,” Sirichok said.
He admitted providing information to Abhisit for use in government impeachment proceedings.
When asked whether he would provide this information to the Democrat Party for government impeachment debates, Sirichok said he gave it when requested and they had some discussions. He shared details about online gambling two days prior to Abhisit Vejjajiva’s phone being targeted for hacking. He summarized that after he provided the information, Abhisit’s phone received warnings about potential data theft attempts but was not successfully hacked. He personally believes the government mainly suspects the Democrat Party because it is skilled in oversight and no-confidence debates, and likely views Sirichok’s outside-parliament work as coordinated with parliamentary efforts, implying a strategy involving the party, civil society, and parliamentary voices. However, he insists he works as a civil society member to monitor state power use and is willing to share useful information for the public interest.