Call for urgent action in charter change process

Chaturon said the government should pave a way for the formation of the Constitution Drafting Assembly by sponsoring the amendment of the charter’s Article 291 to transfer the parliamentary mandate for the charter change to the CDA.

“The CDA should be activated within this House session, otherwise the government might not be able to meet the one-year deadline to bring about the charter amendments,” he said.

In the face of time constraints, the government might need to convene an extraordinary session in order to activate the CDA, he said.

He said the debate on the extent of charter amendments should take place after the CDA came into existence.

Senator Direk Thuengfung, in his capacity as former chair of the reconciliation committee, said the charter rewrite should start off with a debate on Article 237 of the Constitution which prescribes for punishment by party dissolution and a ban of party executives.

Direk said the provision was seen as the thorniest issue causing the political divide. In his opinion, it was unfair to penalise all party executives, he said, arguing that punishment should be confined to those executives convicted of electoral fraud.

The defunct reconciliation committee had proposed six charter amendments and this should be addressed before activating the CDA which would be responsible for rewriting the entire charter, he said.

The 2007 Constitution should be changed because it was not a people’s charter, he said.

He said the CDA formation would be a key link between the people and the charter drafting process. The idea of forming a panel to take charge of charter amendments would not be acceptable to all sides because the panel was not linked to the people, he said.

Pheu Thai secretary-general Charupong Ruangsuwan said the Constitution, sponsored by the 2006 coup, was prone to trigger turmoil unless it was amended to be in line with democratic principles.

Article 237 was undemocratic because it undermined political parties, he said.
He said the CDA should be formed and based on the model responsible for drafting the suspended 1997 charter.

Democrat Party MP Niphon Bunyamanee said the country saw the charter rewritten several times. At issue was not whether the charter should be rewritten but how the writers should be chosen and the scope of rewriting, he said.

Niphon said the rewriting process should involve non-partisan academics because politicians tended to design the political system to serve partisanship if they had a free rein in the matter.

Bhum Jai Thai MP Suphachai Jaisamut said he saw no urgency in rushing the charter change, arguing the charter amendments should not be enacted at the expense of political stability.

Suphachai said the charter rewrite should be delayed until the time was right.

Chart Thai Pattana Party adviser Nkorn Chamnong said he supported the idea of entrusting the CDA to take charge of the charter rewrite. He said he deemed it unnecessary to hold a referendum vote on the charter draft since the people had already elected the CDA to work on their behalf.

Senator Tuang Untachai said the charter rewrite should be carried out in connection with bringing about national reconciliation.

Tuang urged the government to take the lead role in spearheading the charter change.