Time for public to start asking some vital questions

Many of the provisions drafted so far appear to be granting more power and responsibilities to bureaucrats and reducing the influence of elected officials, both at the national and local levels. 

For instance, the responsibility of organising general elections will be taken away from the Election Commission and handed over to the Interior Ministry. 

Another provision is to set up a committee to deliberate on the transfer, appointment or dismissal of ministries’ permanent secretaries or heads of public offices. This panel will be made up of public officials, including former permanent secretaries and representatives of ministries and those of civil servants. 

In other words, elected officials will no longer have the power to move or appoint high-ranking public officials, with this power handed instead to other public officials. 

Clearly, elected officials will lose the power and influence they enjoyed under the 1997 and 2007 charters. 

The CDC is also scheduled to draft provisions on the country’s political system next month. 

Charter drafter Paiboon Nititawan said his fellow CDC members were planning to go ahead with the proposal to introduce the mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system for general elections. As proved in Germany, this electoral system will produce many medium-sized parties, instead of a handful of large and powerful parties seen under the past charters’ mixed-member majoritarian system. 

This provision can also be seen as a measure to curb the power of politicians from dominant parties who may have the most seats in Parliament, taking away their negotiating power. 

It is also highly likely that the proposal to have the entire Senate appointed will be approved. The CDC wants senators to be chosen from the “Five Pillars of Power” – small but powerful social groups that require an “official stance” in Parliament. These “power groups”, consisting of former prime ministers, high-ranking public officials and former top military brass, will get to select their representatives for the upper house. 

Also, the Senate will be granted a “super power” to regulate elected officials by such things as proposing laws and scrutinising the qualifications of ministerial candidates. This will be in addition to their already existing power under the 2007 Constitution.

Another provision drafted last week focuses on strict regulation of government spending and elected officials’ ability to design public policy. The clause on state spending stipulates “financial boundaries that will not affect the country’s fiscal discipline, and must consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the spending and the necessity of the government agencies’ spending”. 

However, these drafted provisions are not final. The CDC is scheduled to submit its first draft for the National Reform Council (NRC) to examine on March 17. Then from March 26 to April 25 the NRC, the National Council for Peace and Order and the Cabinet will submit their recommendations for modifications and amendments. 

All these developments make this an important period for members of society to take note of and discuss the changing trends, as well as to raise pertinent questions, such as whether we want a bureaucratic state or want to move towards a smaller, but more effective, civil government. 

Do we want to centralise the country’s administration or decentralise it by empowering local administrations? Do we want elected officials to be the key force of Thailand’s progress or would the country’s future be better placed in the hands of bureaucrats?