CDC considers merging reform and reconciliation bodies
THE CONSTITUTION Drafting Committee yesterday decided it might accept a recommendation from the Cabinet to merge the National Strategic Reform Committee and the Independent Committee to Promote National Reconciliation.
CDC spokesman Lertrat Rattanawanit said the new body would, if approved, be named the National Reform and Reconciliation Commission.
He said the CDC had yet to decide the composition of the commission, the number of members and its authority.
Each CDC member was instructed to draw up a few alternatives for the commission’s power structure and its roles and responsibilities.
Lertrat said the authority of the commission would be written in the charter’s organic laws.
He said the question over whether the commission members would have the authority to issue a royal decree to seek a royal amnesty for individuals would be a matter for the commission’s members to decide.
The spokesman said the commission would have nothing to do with the National Strategic Committee that the Cabinet had earlier decided to establish.
Meanwhile, Lertrat said the CDC had cut from 15 to four the articles featuring 10 reform topics such as justice, administration, anti-graft, education, public health, social and culture, economics, natural and environment management, city planning, energy, science and technology.
The CDC will discuss further whether to put the details of those reform topics into legislation. If the CDC accepts a recommendation from the National Reform Council and puts the details in the charter’s organic laws, NRC members must draft the reform bills, he said.
The CDC amended Article 303 of the draft charter by stipulating that once the constitution has been in effect for five years, the Parliament president must appoint one specialist for each of the following bodies: the Lower and Upper houses, the Cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Constitution Court, the Supreme Court, and other organisations established under the charter tasked with checking the administration.
The appointed officials would work for six months to evaluate the charter’s enforcement and report the results of their study to Parliament and the Cabinet.
The CDC has so far cut the number of articles from 315 to 303.
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