Chavalit: Govt restraint, court prudence needed

In a statement, Chavalit also called on the Constitution Court to be prudent in its ruling in the case against charter amendment, saying a wrong judgement could lead to political crisis. The statement was handed to reporters yesterday by Anusorn Som-on, deputy secretary-general of the New Aspiration Party.
Chavalit said he had sympathy for  judges because the country could stand to lose, no matter what ruling the judges made. He said conflict and violence could flare up after the ruling and a lot of people would be affected.
He also had sympathy for the parliamentarians and government and other sides concerned as he believed nobody would like to see more conflict.
He said such conflict would occur because an on-going struggle had been waged towards the wrong goals and the same mistakes had been made in Thai politics for 80 years.
Chavalit said he disagreed with allegations that the charter amendments would violate Article 68 of the Constitution as the amendments would be tantamount to efforts to topple the democratic system.
He said Thailand has had no democracy so far – so the amendments could not be regarded as efforts to topple the democratic system.
Chavalit said if the court made a wrong ruling, it would be regarded as a tool of the dictators. Although he disagreed with complainants who opposed amendments, he said the government should heed polls showing deliberation on the amendments and reconciliation bills should be delayed.
Also yesterday, the Suan Dusit Pollster announced that most respondents in a recent survey said they were not sure whether the charter amendments could be seen as efforts to topple the ruling system or not. The survey was among 1,389 residents of Bangkok and nearby provinces.
Asked whether they thought the amendments would violate Article 98 or be designed to topple the ruling system, 46 per cent said they were not sure, while 24 per cent said yes and 30 per cent said no. Up to 59 per cent of the respondents said they believed conflict would remain at the same level after any charter amendments, while 26 per cent said the conflict would worsen. The remaining 14 per cent said the situation would improve.
Meanwhile, chief coalition whip Udomdej Ratanasathien said Pheu Thai would make a closing statement in the court today. He said the defendants clearly challenged arguments by complainants against the amendments during hearings last week.