Charter showdown looms

The political temperature is expected to rise to boiling point today when the opposition and the coalition clash head-on over three bills seeking to amend four provisions of the Constitution.
The opposition Democrat Party has prepared at least 30 MPs to attack the amendment bills which it believes the coalition Pheu Thai Party wants to enact to help just one person – former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
But the Pheu Thai will argue that the amendments are necessary to make the charter more democratic. The Pheu Thai spokesman said some 60 Pheu Thai MPs would debate in support of the charter amendments.
The three bills seek to amend Article 68, Article 190 and Article 237 of the Constitution – as well as require all senators to be elected.
Democrat MP Jurin Laksanavisit, the chief opposition whip, held a meeting of opposition whips to prepare for the showdown today.
Jurin said the opposition whips have yet to reach an agreement with their coalition counterparts on how to fairly share debate time. He said it was not fair for the coalition to have 15 hours of debate time while the opposition would get only 11 hours.
Jurin said the Democrats had prepared 30 MPs to inform the public that the charter amendments would not help the people and the country, but would benefit only particular groups.
Jurin said elected senators have been wooed to support charter amendments with the promise that all senators would gain office from elections and they would be allowed to contest the elections without having to wait for one term.
Jurin said Democrat MPs would point out that the planned amendments relating to senators’ tenure and origin would run counter to the intentions of the 2007 charter.
Jurin said the opposition also disagreed with the plan to amend Article 68 to restrict the people’s rights to file a petition in the Constitution Court directly, and instead require them to submit their petitions to the attorney-general.
He said the planned amendment to Article 190 to remove the requirement for the government to seek Parliament’s approval before inking contracts with foreign governments would allow the government to sign free trade agreements without having to consult Parliament first. The Democrats also disagreed with the plan to lift the party dissolution penalties and political bans against party executives by amending Article 237, Jurin said.
But Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit said the three charter amendment bills were in the public interest and not aimed at benefiting the Pheu Thai and Thaksin, as alleged.
For example, the amendment to Article 68 was aimed at reducing the workload of the Constitution Court by having the Office of the Attorney-General screen petitions from the people first.
Prompong said all Pheu Thai MPs were told to attend the parliamentary meetings in full force from today until Wednesday.
The Pheu Thai spokesman said the coalition expected the three amendment bills would sail through Parliament.
“ThePheu Thai and the coalition partners will support charter amendments to make the charter genuinely democratic and return the power, which was seized in 2006, to the people,” the Pheu Thai spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Abac Poll of Assumption University announced that most people hope to see an end to the political conflict after the charter amendments – but doubt such an optimistic scenario would be possible, according to an opinion survey. Abac Poll carried out the survey among 2,153 people in 17 provinces from March 15 until Saturday. The provinces included Bangkok, Kanchanaburi, Samut Prakan, Chiang Mai, Sakon Nakhon, Buri Ram, Trang and Nakhon Si Thammarat. The respondents were at least 18 years old. Asked to state what they would like to see happen in the country following the charter amendments, up to 91.7 per cent said they would like to see peace returned to the country while 80.6 per cent said they would like to see bad politicians eliminated and 75.1 per cent said they would like to have a better quality of life.
Each respondent was allowed to name several wishes.
Up to 63.6 per cent of the respondents said they would like to elect the prime minister directly.
When asked if they believed the political conflict would end after the charter amendments, 83.8 per cent said they did not believe so, while 16.2 per cent believed they would.
Asked whether they thought more protests would occur, 41.7 per cent said they expected more protests while 32.9 per cent thought the situation would remain the same and 25.4 per cent said the number of protests would decline.
Some 56.1 per cent said they would like the government to dissolve the House after any charter amendments, while 43.8 per cent said they wanted the government to continue working.
The survey also found that 89.9 per cent of the respondents considered the Constitution would impact their lives, while 10.1 per cent said the charter was not an issue close to them.