Charter change opponents to rally on Friday

Former senator Prasarn Maruekapithak said his United Siam (Sayam Samakkhi) group would hold the rally at Lumpini Park on Friday evening, from 5.30pm.
There would be a panel talk by leading academics who are critics of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, including former senator Chirmsak Pinthong, Seri Wongmontha, Kaewsun Atibodhi, and Banjerd Singakaneti, who is also a leader of Siam Reformation academic group (Sayam Prachapiwat), Prasarn said.
At least 3,000 people were expected to take part in the rally against moves by the Pheu Thai Party-led government to rewrite the post-coup Constitution, he said.
The latest bid to change the charter would bring back together groups that had campaigned against such attempts before, Prasarn said, including the yellow-shirt People’s Alliance for Democracy and royalist groups who fear that changes to the constitution may adversely affect the monarchy institution.
“The democratic forces will unite against the dictatorship of parliamentary majority by the evil political capitalism. A CDA under supervision of the Pheu Thai Party would be just a political farce that fails to win public trust,” he said, referring to a Constitution Drafting Assembly to be elected and appointed after the government pushes its amendment bills through Parliament.
On Friday, three separate bills proposed by the Cabinet, the ruling Pheu Thai Party, and the coalition Chart Thai Pattana Party sailed through the first parliamentary reading following two days of heated and emotional debate.
A vetting committee is set to assess the bills within 30 days before two more parliamentary readings. The bills seek to amend Article 291 of the Constitution to allow the setting up of a CDA consisting of 77 elected members from each province and 22 appointed members who are experts in law, political science, and public administration.
Prasarn said yesterday that he believed the main goal of the latest attempt to amend the Constitution was to “whitewash the wrongdoing of some convict who does not feel remorse or accept any punishment against him”.
With such a goal, he said, changing the charter would severely affect the country’s justice system. “This is something Thai society should not allow to happen,” the ex-senator said.
Prasarn also warned that flagrant abuse of power would lead to accumulative anger among people in society. “Eventually the Thaksin regime will have to pay back in a bruised and battered way that is even worse than before,” he said.
Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday repeated his call for the government to assure that charter change was not aimed at helping reverse court verdicts in the past or benefiting any particular politician.
Abhisit, also Democrat Party leader, said the government had not made this matter clear. “The standard response by government people is that the CDA will decide which clauses are to be amended. Our concern is that [the ambiguity] could lead to conflict. If we can make it clear in the beginning, why don’t we do it?”
Abhisit said there was also fear that chapters about the monarchy would be amended and would result in reduced power for the head of state. He suggested the government draft clearly state which chapters will be kept intact. He spoke in an interview to Blue Sky Channel, a satellite outlet run by Democrat supporters.