Clean sheet likely for new charter

The new charter to be written by the Constitution Drafting Commit-tee (CDC) is likely to be fashioned from scratch and not be a modified version of former constitutions. 

The CDC held its first official meeting yesterday, with its chairman Borwornsak Uwanno proposing the key talking point on whether the committee will use the 1997 and 2007 constitutions as prototypes when drafting the new document or whether the drafting process should start from scratch.

Borwornsak said that the first option would involve using some parts of the 1997 and 2007 charters and dropping elements that were no longer effective. Alternatively, he said the deliberation of the drafting process could start afresh, beginning with the most important issues such as monarchy, public, courts, the administration, the parliament and the Cabinet. This would be done bearing in mind the country’s key problems such as political conflict and reconciliation, economic inequality and corruption. 

CDC spokesman General Lertrat Rattanawanit supports the fresh-start, saying if charter drafters used past constitutions as a model it would mean “we didn’t learn anything new”.

Lertrat said the CDC members expected to form a consensus on this matter by next week.

He also pointed out that the drafters must deliberate on the 10 mechanisms in the interim charter’s Section 35 on the new constitution’s drafting process. 

A CDC source said most members believed the 1997 and 2007 charters had good content and focused on protecting people’s rights, but their implementation was problematic. Hence these members believed the focus of the new charter should be on its effectiveness and practicality.

CDC member Paiboon Nititawan said most of members agreed that the drafting process should start from scratch and this issue occupied a large part of yesterday’s meeting.

The media has raised questions about the CDC meeting behind closed doors and the prospect of public participation in the drafting process.

Borwornsak said the purpose of the closed-door meetings was to encourage charter drafters to let go of their past political stance and speak decisively.

Paiboon said all the members had a lot of ideas to contribute to the process, but if the meetings were not closed they might be encouraged to express themselves in “great detail and descriptiveness”. He said the absence of the media and the public could lead to shorter discussions and a better outcome.

“The purpose is to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the meetings in the early stages to set structures before the public participates,” the former senator said. 

Commenting on suspicion that the CDC is dominated by people with strong ties to the junta, Paiboon insisted that all the members were well qualified and had contributed ideas and proposals without any particular person dominating the sessions so far. 

He said he was very satisfied with Borwonsak’s leadership as he was open-minded and possessed the ability, experience and work ethic to steer the committee.