'Growing calls for referendum on charter'
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CALLS for a national referendum on the draft charter is growing, Surachai Liengboonlertchai, first vice president of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) has said, noting that the current climate is ready for a plebiscite.
Surachai said the NLA would meet on Friday and Saturday to deliberate on the draft charter and decide on amendments the assembly would propose to the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDC). He said it has not been decided whether the assembly will vote in order to arrive at decisions on various proposals.
Among 10 issues tabled for debate are a non-elected prime minister, how members of parliament and senators will be elected or selected, the merging of the National Human Rights Commission with the Ombudsman’s Office and whether to hold a referendum on the draft charter.
The NLA is expected to forward its proposed amendments to the CDC by May 25.
Surachai said although the call for a referendum is widespread, a decision needed to be made on whether the referendum should be only on certain Articles or the whole draft charter.
In a related development, Wiwat Salayakamthorn, a member of the National Reform Council (NRC) and deputy chairman of the council’s educational reform committee, cast doubt on the maturity of ordinary Thais to decide their political future.
Wiwat said a large group of NRC members met and debated the maturity of the people and whether they should be given full power or not, and were ready to shoulder such a responsibility.
Wiwat said people needed to change their way of thinking and reform their responsibility and morality otherwise the country could not survive, even with the best of laws and constitution.
Government spokesperson Yongyuth Mayalarp, meanwhile, said Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed all |ministries, departments and state agencies to come up with proposals to amend the draft charter by Thursday.
The focus, he said, was on how the new charter would affect their work.
Regarding a referendum, Yongyuth said the time had not arrived to make a decision on the matter as the draft charter was still to be amended.
