Reds to push for amnesty law
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The red-shirt movement yesterday unveiled its New Year plan to push for the amnesty law and amendment of the Constitution to bring justice to its members who struggled for democracy, leader Thida Thavornseth said yesterday.
The group will continue its efforts to free on bail red-shirt members who were detained after an uprising against the previous Abhisit Vejjajiva-led government, she said.
She said the amnesty law proposed by the group would help protesters of all colours, not only the red shirts.
However, persons responsible for ordering the murder of people should not qualify for the amnesty, she said.
The red-shirt leader insisted that her group wanted to amend the military-sponsored Constitution as it empowered some elite groups to have an influence over the politics.
The group supported the idea of going ahead with the third reading in Parliament of the charter amendment bill to enable the government to set up a charter drafting council to write the new constitution, instead of having a national referendum, she said.
The constitution amendment process was delayed in Parliament, pending the final vote, after the Constitution Court ruled on the need to have a national referendum first.
Only Parliament has the authority to amend the Constitution and the judicial branch has no power to intervene in the process, Thida said.
“Which direction does this government want to move towards – aristocracy or democracy?” she asked, and added: “It might be an uphill task, but we have to move towards democracy.
“We have to take the people’s interests into account, and real democracy is our objective,” she said.
The red-shirt group called for the government to listen to the voice of the people rather than the voice of the aristocratic elite, she said.
Thida said the major challenge for the red-shirt movement next year would be from conservatives and royalist groups such as the People’s Alliance for Democracy and the Pitak Siam group who fear elite power diminishing after amendment of the Constitution for real democracy.
The red-shirt group, which is the main mass support for the current government, will help it carry on its task of protecting democracy, she said.
Pheu Thai Party MP and red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn said the group would push for the amnesty law for the red shirts. He also called on the Foreign Ministry to champion the ratification of the Rome Statute to enable the International Criminal Court to try cases of the red shirts.
