Support the charter drafters, Prayut urges

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha has called for national unity and support for the constitution drafters so that they come up with a new charter that ensures political transparency and good governance while adhering to international democratic principles.

“Even with good intention from the government and the NCPO, we will not succeed without love and unity from all Thais. We must have love towards our motherland in order to ensure that our country will be reformed and become stable, wealthy and sustainable,” the PM said in his message to the country yesterday.

His message, described as something from his heart, was read in a live broadcast by government spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

“We all must offer moral support to the people who have good intention and are honestly determined to work for the country. Don’t let them to be pressured or discouraged by people who don’t really love the country,” General Prayut said in his message.

The prime minister said that his government and the National Council for Peace and Order sought cooperation from all groups of people, including politicians, political groups, academics and members of the public, to provide their suggestions to the Constitution Drafting Committee as to how the country’s new charter should look like.

He said direct suggestions to the CDC would be better than making their views through the media, which could cause confusion.

The PM also suggested that the new constitution should also aim to tackle the problem of “parliamentary dictatorship” and corruption. He called for mechanisms for checks and balances between the three branches of government – the legislature, administration and judiciary.

 

‘Help prevent more coups’

He said the new charter should also attempt to prevent a recurrence of the country’s severe political conflict, which had continued for many years. Also, the bureaucracy should be protected from intervention by ruling politicians who wanted to make personal gains from their office, he said.

The new constitution should also help prevent situations in which the military would have to stage a coup again.

“The mechanisms should be able to tackle the problems that happened before May 22, 2014,” he said, referring to the day when he led a coup to overthrow an elected government following months of political unrest.

“The NCPO and the government are well aware that most people and different countries do not like it when the military take control of the government. So the NCPO and the government hope that all groups of people will cooperate as the new constitution is being drafted. It’s good that the military will not have to solve the problem the way they did before,” the PM said.

Sansern, the government spokesman, said separately yesterday that the prime minister issued his message because he was concerned about the new CDC facing much pressure in doing its work.

“The prime minister wants people to contribute their suggestions in the writing of the new constitution,” the spokesman said.

A source said General Prayut wrote the message himself by hand. The spokesman was assigned to turn it into a typed version and a complete statement for reading to the public.