Govt eyes letting political parties meet
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The government will consider whether political parties can resume holding meetings despite the current ban on such activities, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday.
On Monday, Kasit Piromya, a member of the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA), asked the assembly’s session to propose to the military-led regime that it permit political gatherings or meetings.
They were outlawed after Prayut led a coup in May last year and launched the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
About 10 NRSA members work with political parties. They should be allowed to meet with their blocs so that they can represent their party’s stance on issues in NRSA meetings or on proposals submitted to the government, Kasit said.
“However, I think their agendas for the gatherings should be made clear and obvious,” Prayut said during his weekly press briefing.
He would “immediately” approve the gatherings if the parties focused on reform agendas that promote people’s well-being rather than election agendas that “politically benefit themselves”.
The prime minister’s comment possibly reflects recent criticism from some political parties aimed at the new mixed-member apportionment election system proposed by the Constitution Drafting Commission.
“They [political parties’ members] shouldn’t talk backstage and then fight against each other again,” he said, citing how the country had faced political turmoil.
“Should people be taken as [political] hostages?” he said.
People’s decisions are crucial to the success of the drafting of the new charter, he said.
“It’s up to you how you want the country to be, whether you want it to be safe or want it be clean in politics.”
Kasit, a member of the Democrat Party, said he had asked NRSA chairman Tinnapan Nakata to seek Prayut’s permission to lift conditions on political meetings, which should be only for discussing national reform and restricted to party premises.
They must not disturb the peace, turn into rallies or create conflicts.
All sectors of society should participate in driving and realising national reform in 2017 and that includes political parties, Kasit said.
The Democrats are ready to let the NCPO observe its collective activities, he added.
