New public information bill will still not support Thailand 4.0: Meechai
The new public information draft bill, which was amended from the previous version promulgated in 2007, would still not support the new social and economic Thailand 4.0 model, chief charter drafter Meechai Ruchupan told a forum Wednesday.
He said the initiative was part of a move made by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA), which want to come up with a more up-to-date bill that facilitates free access to public information in line with people’s rights addressed in the draft charter.
Meechai said the idea of boosting public participation came about in 1997, but the law on access to public information only came into effect a decade later. However, since the system mostly relied on paper communication between the state and the people, it put the country in the 1.0 era, Meechai said.
He added that even after the amendment of the law was put forward by the NLA in line with the country’s 4.0 upgrade, the country is still at 2.0.
He explained that this was because information channels through which public information flows are still owned by the state, which means the country cannot move into the information and innovation-based Thailand 4.0 yet.