Stakeholders 'should not have role in amnesty bill'
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Stakeholders with an interest in the outcome of the amnesty bill should not be allowed to take part in its deliberations, academics said yesterday.
A separate group also called for live broadcasts on deliberations of the vetting panel. The call came on the day the ad hoc committee vetting the amnesty bill met for the first time.
The group yesterday submitted a letter to Pheu Thai MP Samart Kaewmeechai, who has just been voted chairman of the vetting committee, calling for all the meetings to be broadcast live.
They said Parliament should be open to the people, so they can attend, or listen live to deliberations. Also, the group said victims and relatives of the 2010 political protests – as well as stakeholders – should be invited to give their opinions.
Pheu Thai’s Prayut Siripanich and Chart Thai Pattana’s Chada Thaiseth were both voted vice chairmen of the committee, while Matubhum Party leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin – leader of the 2006 coup – was named adviser.
At its first meeting yesterday, the committee resolved that members would meet every Thursday afternoon and let the media cover the meeting. However, there would be no TV broadcast, as it would conflict with broadcasts of House sessions.
The Democrats opted out of holding any position on the committee after MP Thaworn Senneam failed to get appointed as vice chairman.
Narat Sawettanan, director-general of the Rights and Liberty Protection Department, and red-shirt leader Sutin Klangsaeng, a former People Power Party executive who is still under a five-year ban from politics, resigned from the committee.
The group of academics, led by Charas Suwanmala, dean of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, said those with an interest in the bill should not be included in its deliberations.
“Anybody involved in political turmoil or any incidents since the September 19, 2006 military coup, must not be involved in deliberations of the bill, because it is directly related to their interests,” he said.
Academics who signed the petition included Thawee Surarittikul, political scientist from Sukhothai Thammatirat Open University; Jade Donavanik, a director of Siam University’s Graduate School; and Pirongrong Ramasoota Rananand from Chulalongkorn University.
