'Charter to ensure that reforms are enacted'

THE NEW constitution has some mechanism that can help ensure success of the national reforms, the chief charter writer has assured.

Chairman of the Constitutional Drafting Committee (CDC), Borwornsak Uwanno, said yesterday that the charter’s provisions have been drafted to ensure the continuity and fulfilment of reform areas laid out by the National Reform Council (NRC). 

The charter drafting chief was responding to critics who said the reform plans may not be embraced by future administrations after the junta allows an election to bring back democracy. But Borwornsak explained that post-coup administrations would be obliged to adhere to the charter’s rule of law and carry on the task of national reform initiated by the junta administration. 

He said various organisations would be established under the new charter to monitor and support the progress of reform, such as the National Reform Assembly and the National Strategic Reform Committee.

Borwornsak, along with other CDC members, were taking part in a joint CDC, NRC and King Prajadhipok’s Institute forum in Chiang Mai yesterday to gather and exchange ideas with the public. 

CDC member Choochai Supawongse said citizens would be given responsibilities and powers under to new charter to ensure the monitoring of the reform process undertaken by post-coup governments. That would include the establishment of the Citizens’ Assembly. 

Those who oppose the charter or national reform can be given a regulation and examination role, he said.

The forum was attended by representatives of various sectors of the public, including media representative Ubonudha Supawan, the managing director of Chiang Mai newspaper Thai News. 

She said she would like the CDC to ensure that the organisation established to monitor and control the media would be inclusive and have local media representatives take part in discussions because they had largely been ignored in the past.

Another CDC member at the forum, Tawilwadee Bureekul, said the event had been largely successful because it managed to draw a variety of social groups and sectors of the public to attend and many ideas had been floated and exchanged. Chiang Mai is considered one of the most important provinces in northern Thailand – and the fact that locals were enthusiastic and aware of the charter drafting process pleased her.

Democrat Party deputy leader, Nipit Intarasombat, a critical voice of the drafting process, said a good constitution should consist of 55 per cent principle and 45 per cent reality.

However Nipit, who did not attend the forum, said some of the proposals drafted in the new charter lacked practicality, such as open party lists in which citizens will be empowered to vote for preferred candidates on lists. Such a proposal would create confusion, he said, as many Thais can’t read or write. Nipit also urged charter drafters to keep in mind that they were not representatives of all Thai people, meaning they should at least consult with the people’s representatives for charter drafting advice.