Move Forward MP for Bangkok, Tisana Choonhavan, has blamed her misreading of budget numbers during a parliamentary session on her distress and lack of sleep following the death of a former assistant.
During a televised budgetary debate last week, Tisana was criticising the proposed budget for the Internal Security Operations Command, when she repeatedly misread the budget amount of Bt768,601,800.
Despite several attempts, she was unable to read the number correctly and eventually moved on to a different subject.
Her blunder quickly went viral on all social media platforms and she faced widespread mockery.
Tisana is the granddaughter of former prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan and is the daughter of Thai scholar Kraisak Choonhavan.
On her Facebook page, Tisana apologised to everyone and promised to prevent such incidents from happening again.
She wrote, “I have never made such a mistake in the past. It was due to my inattention and inadequate rest caused by sleep deprivation. I have been feeling depressed lately due to the loss of an assistant, which likely led to this inexcusable blunder.”
Last week, Tisana called on the army to investigate the suspected suicide of a conscript in the toilet of an army barracks. The individual had previously served as her assistant.
