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Published on April 11, 2008

 Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap is likely to lose his portfolio for failing to meet the legal deadline for reporting his and his wife's financial assets.

However, the Sasomsap clan, which has dominated the Nakhon Pathom constituency, has a Plan B: to give Chaiya's Cabinet position to his brother, Padoemchai.

This may even come to fruition. The ministerial position is likely to be passed from one brother to the other, as the plan has received endorsement from the People Power Party.

Chai Chidchob, the government chief whip, on Wednesday said, "The two [Chaiya and Padoemchai] are brothers and thus interchangeable for ministerial appointments."

While Chaiya was trying to delay the decision to give up his Cabinet seat for failing to report his wife's shareholding in a private company, there was talk that elder brother Padoemchai would become the leading candidate to replace him.

They are both from a family of politicians. There are four brothers in the Sasomsap family and they are all in the political arena.

Padoemchai, 59, is the eldest, followed by Chaiyos, 58, Chaiya, 56, and Anucha, 54. All except Anucha have served in past Cabinets.

Their family business is in construction. Four years ago, their company, Group 79, won a 10-year garbage disposal contract from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.

Chaiyos was the first of the brothers to venture into the political arena. In 1986 he contested a general election in the family's home province of Nakhon Pathom and got elected. Four years later, he was appointed as an adviser to the then prime minister.

In 1990, he moved to the Solidarity Party to serve as its deputy leader, and became its leader five years later. Then in 2001 he joined the Thai Rak Thai Party as a deputy leader.

He is currently one of the 111 former executives of the disbanded party who are banned from politics for five years.

Chaiyos, in 2005, was appointed deputy finance minister in the Thaksin Shinawatra administration. Before that, he served as adviser to Somkid Jatusripitak when he was finance minister in 2001 and deputy premier in 2003.

As he was the first of the Sasomsap brothers to enter politics, Chaiyos is sometimes mistaken as the eldest sibling.

In fact, Padoemchai, the eldest, entered politics

after his younger brother.

Padoemchai graduated with a bachelor's degree from St Louis University in Missouri. He entered politics in 1988 by joining a now-defunct political party. Later, he moved to the Thai Rak Thai Party and is now a Nakhon Pathom MP for the ruling People Power Party.

Padoemchai once served as deputy transport minister in the Chuan Leekpai government. He also served on House of Representatives committees.

Chaiya, the third brother, began his political career as a local administrative council member. He shifted to national politics in 1995. Then he followed his brothers by joining TRT and later the PPP.

He became deputy transport minister in 1999. A deputy PPP leader, Chaiya is a party-list MP from Zone 7. He was among the early candidates to become interior or justice minister, but due to the tough competition for those posts, he finally had to settle for the public health portfolio.

However, Chaiya has slipped on a banana skin. The National Counter Corruption Commission (NCCC) are going after him for his failure to submit reports of his and his wife's assets by the deadline.

Although Chaiya is desperately trying to hold on to his position, perhaps he realises that his days are numbered.

The next in line is the youngest brother, Anucha, who was elected a senator in 2006. However, the coup of September that year shattered his dream of serving in the upper house. In last December's general election, he stood in Nakhon Pathom and became a People Power MP.

The Sasomsap brothers are set for a long road in politics, if only they don't slip on banana skins, like Chaiya has done.

The Nation