The junta has a charter writer - and one chance to please the public
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WHEN any military regime seizes power, people generally expect the junta to have a desire to hold on to power for as long as it can.
But it does not mean they are always happy with this assumption about power.
The shooting down of the charter draft by the now-defunct National Reform Council last month resulted in Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and other National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) members having more time to stay in power, in this case until at least mid-2017.
While they might be satisfied at being able to retain power, there is always the risk that things will not turn out so rosy in these scenarios.
As the premier told the international community, before a general election is held, the country needs a constitution.
But the premier faced difficulty finding a new chairman to draw up a new charter. Only a few names of veteran legal experts popped up, as they do every time the country needs one to lead the writing of a constitution.
Prayut had to wait until the last minute of the deadline – yesterday – to have a complete list of 21 members of the new Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) after Meechai Ruchupan, a leading candidate, finally officially accepted the offer to chair the committee.
The list was finalised in an NCPO meeting yesterday.
Judging from the 77-year old veteran legal expert’s profile, the former Senate speaker was obviously the one and only choice for Prayut after Borwornsak Uwanno lost his job as chairman of the initial (and now defunct) drafting committee.
As chairman of the Law Reform Commission of the Council of State, Meechai has been a legal adviser to several coup-makers. He chaired the charter drafting committee after the coup in 1991 and headed another team that drafted the interim charter in 2006. He also played a vital role in drafting the 2014 interim charter and the amendments it underwent.
If the new charter draft passes as the 20th Constitution, it will be added to a long list of items on his extraordinary CV.
Despite being supported for the post in a recent poll, Meechai faced much criticism over his previous tasks and record of serving post-coup regimes.
To be optimistic, one good thing about having Meechai in charge is that the drafting process could be relatively swift. He was earlier appointed by the NCPO to monitor the drafting of the defunct CDC and to give suggestions to the regime on the rejected draft.
So, he will be well aware of controversial points that should not be added to the draft and may be able to avoid chances of the draft being shot down again.
Moreover, as he is now an NCPO member, it’s unlikely there will be any conflict between the military and the CDC about the charter’s content. He said yesterday he had been given a guideline from the NCPO to write the new charter.
But the key test is for Meechai to write a democratic charter good enough for the public to accept – as the amended 2014 Interim Charter requires the draft to pass a national referendum.
If the public, and notably the two major political parties – Democrats and Pheu Thai – oppose its content, the new draft will face an uphill task passing a referendum, because half of all eligible voters make up the two parties’ political support.
Thus, the fate of the next draft relies both on its content from the CDC, plus whether the public will vote to pass it or not.
And if the new draft is rejected again, the pressure would certainly mount on Prayut from both the domestic and international community.
So, the stakes are high for the junta as well, and their ability to move the country forward and head to an election as stated in their road map.
Otherwise, the road map may need to be delayed again – a prospect that carries that many are unlikely to relish.
