A Meechai charter is sure to match the junta's model

His appointment as chief came as no great surprise as he’d been the leading candidate from day one until shortly before his appointment.

Meechai, a former Senate speaker, seems to have been the junta’s first choice from the start. He became one of only two civilian members of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) shortly after it staged the coup in May last year. Although he had earlier kept a low profile, it is well known that Meechai is the NCPO’s chief law expert. He has been responsible for writing laws, orders and announcements for the junta.

In addition to Meechai, the other civilian member of the NCPO was Somkid Jatusripitak, who is now a deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs. After Somkid left the NCPO board to accept his appointment to the Cabinet, Meechai was the only civilian remaining.

Meechai obviously meets the qualifications the junta requires for the CDC chairman. He has a good understanding of the intentions of the NCPO; he is not just connected to the NCPO, he is actually one of them. 

The junta can rest assured that with Meechai at the helm, the new CDC will write a constitution it can be proud of.

And with the junta sending their “top player” to do the job, it appears it wants this constitutional draft to pass a national referendum. It had earlier been reported that Meechai did not totally agree with holding a referendum, but he has recently made it clear there would certainly be a national vote on the new charter draft.

“There must be a referendum. After the CDC completes its draft, there is no other body to screen it, as was the case in the past. Previously, the National Reform Council decided whether to approve the constitutional draft,” Meechai said.

“This time the 21 drafters work alone. If the new draft is promulgated immediately after being completed, I don’t know what will happen. So, I think a referendum is still necessary so that people can acknowledge the draft,” he said.

The fact that nobody from the previous CDC, including its chairman Borwornsak Uwanno, was appointed to the new panel may indicate that the junta wants the new CDC to work independently. The new CDC is supposed to base its new draft on the previous one rejected by the NRC, although it is expected to freely make necessary changes.

Four of the drafters chosen for the new charter took part in drafting of the 2007 constitution, namely Supoj Kaimook, Prapun Naigowit, Atchaporn Chatujinda and Atthaporn Charoenpanit. This could be interpreted to mean that the junta wants the new constitution to be a mixture of Borwornsak’s draft and the previous charter that it abolished after staging last year’s coup.

Also, the fact that two former members of the Election Commission – Prapun Naigowit and Apichart Sukhagganond – sit on the new panel may indicate that an election and other political party issues will be high on the agenda.

It will be interesting to see how the new charter draft differs from the previous one. The five essential points outlined by Meechai come from Article 35 of the post-coup interim charter, which consists of 10 issues the new constitution must cover.

Many NRC members voted against the previous charter draft, but not because of its content. Also, critics said some powers-that-be did not want the draft to be subject to a national referendum, due to some uncertainty on their part.

However, it is likely that the NCPO may push for passage of Meechai’s draft at the referendum. 

The prospect that the junta itself may write a fresh constitution if the new draft fails to pass a referendum is likely to force voters to prefer one they know in detail rather than a draft they don’t know anything about.

Within the next six months, the time allowed for the new CDC to complete its work, we will know what changes are to be made to the previous draft – and which provisions the drafters will remove and add to the new draft.