Ukrit: Give amnesty to coup-makers, political prisoners
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Former Parliament president Ukrit Mongkolnavin has recommended amnesty for the 2006 coup-makers and for political prisoners once a section of the Constitution that relates to them is changed, in order to create an atmosphere of reconciliation.
Rewriting the entire 2007 Constitution would result in the automatic cancellation of Article 309, which is the provision protecting the 2006 coup-makers. Therefore, amnesty should be given to them and to political prisoners, while the criminal justice process should go on, he said.
Ukrit, who was Parliament president ex-officio and is now chairman of the government-appointed Independent National Rule of Law Commission, |issued a statement saying the amendment of the 2007 Constitution is necessary as the charter was not linked to the people, who are the holders of political power.
A national referendum on whether a wholesale rewrite of the charter is necessary should also be held, he said. However, the third reading of the draft amendment to Article 291, which is now in the Parliament, should be dropped, he said.
Ukrit last week proposed that the new charter be based on the 1974 constitution.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra declined to discuss the government’s stance on how to change the charter.
“Regarding the third reading [of the charter-amendment |bill] in Parliament, many |sides have asked about the government’s stance; I am also waiting to hear. All the mechanisms must be resolved in Parliament. At the same time, we have to listen to the ruling of the Constitution Court. We haven’t received it [as of] today, so we have to see that first and let the legal experts interpret it clearly,” she said.
Pheu Thai party-list MP Watana Muangsook said yesterday that a national referendum is a choice being considered by the party, adding that changing the charter on an article-by-article basis is another option. There are only seven key issues that need changing – lawmakers would not have to amend all 300 or so articles of the Constitution, the MP said.
He said the issues are: checks and balances on the judicial branch; Article 67, which currently puts communities’ interests over the public interest; Article 190, which requires parliamentary consideration before the government makes an agreement with a foreign country; Article 237 on political party dissolutions; the subjecting of independent agencies to scrutiny; the election of senators; and Article 309, which legitimises the coup-makers.
