Some unofficial advice from Cabinet to charter drafters

And as its government head is Prayut Chan-o-cha, the Cabinet’s voice certainly deserves due attention from the constitution’s drafters.

One of the Cabinet’s key suggestions was for the charter to help restore peace and bring about unity. Its proposed revisions were aimed mainly at satisfying every group, rather than agreeing with all the CDC’s ideas in the draft constitution, many of which it viewed as “extreme”.

The Cabinet suggested that the establishment of certain new bodies proposed under the draft, such as the ethics assembly or the provincial monitoring council, should be mentioned in an organic law rather than in the constitution.

The government ministers were concerned about the budget burdens that might be caused by new bodies like these. Critics say they might prove to be obstacles to the government and local administrations in the future and there’s no guarantee they would work. They point to possible intervention by those bodies that could lead to conflict.

The Cabinet also suggested there should be no recognition of political groups in the new constitution. The drafters wanted political groups rallying in the streets to become part of the formal political system. However, the government ministers concluded that this could do more harm than good. “There could be more chaos. Some political parties may set up political groups as their nominees,” was a comment by the Cabinet.

Also, the Cabinet suggested that the phrase “under this constitution” be added to the clause that prohibits politicians impeached or deprived of electoral rights from contesting to become an MP or a senator.

That in effect would exempt from the ban more than 200 former executives of political parties who were stripped of their electoral rights by the court, as well as former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was impeached by the National Legislative Assembly. Those politicians were banned under the previous constitutions, and not this new one.

Moreover, the Cabinet suggested that a screening committee to select senatorial candidates for voters should be dropped in order to prevent criticism.

The proposed removal of the Senate’s power to check the background of ministerial candidates also would help prevent possible conflict between the future government and the future upper House, which is not directly elected by the people.

The Cabinet has hinted that its members disagree with certain points in the new electoral system. The Cabinet called for a review of the mixed-member proportional representation voting and suggested the system used under the previous constitution of 2007 should be re-adopted. The new voting system has been criticised for being too complex.

Suggestions from the Cabinet indicated that they preferred to compromise rather than cause conflict in the future. 

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s legal expert, had some words for the constitution drafters. He said that it was fine already for them to write the new charter as assigned by the powers-that-be. But he saw no need for them to be too obsessed with the details.