Best charters were prior to 1947 coup, Nitirat claims
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Nitirat academics yesterday proposed three, pre-1947 coup constitutions to be used as templates for a new, improved charter.
Worajet Pakeerat, Thapanan Nipitthakul and Piyabutr Saengkanokkul praised the three charters during a public discussion at Thammasat University to mark the second anniversary of their group and the sixth anniversary of the 2006 military coup.
Worajet said the three constitutions written before November 8, 1947 had set the relations between the monarchy and politics in line with international standards but such appropriateness was destroyed by the 1947 coup.
Following the 1947 coup, the new charter established the Privy Council to represent the king and gave veto power to the king, and these conditions were inherited by later constitutions, he said.
The country would not realise real reconciliation without reforms to the monarchy, Privy Council, political organisations, courts, independent organisations and the armed forces, he said.
The government and the public should allow the Nitirat group to hold public hearings on charter amendments to let the people decide which form of the charter should be the best for the country, he said.
Although the Yingluck Shinawatra government took power via an election, it dared not push for real reform and allowed the “unjustified” power to prevail, he said.
At the end of the seminar, the Nitirat scholars also discussed the final report of the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand.
They questioned the report on grounds that the TRCT was set up by a government that was the product of the 2006 coup, so its study was unreliable.
