National strategy draft won’t corrupt charter requirements: Peerasak
National Legislative Assembly (NLA) vice president Peerasak Porjit said on Sunday that the NLA was confident its 20-year national strategy bill draft would not corrupt the charter’s stipulation requiring rounded participation in legislation process.
Peerasak spoke after Democrat Party legal head Wirat Kalayasiri revealed that the party might ask the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the controversial draft, passed by the NLA last Thursday, could violate the charter’s Article 77.
Article 77 stipulates that any legislation needs to go through hearings from all related parties and must be publicly accessible.
The bill, once enacted, would authorise the premier-headed committees to monitor future governments for the next 20 years. As the would-be affect governments did not take part in the bill drafting process at all, Wirat was concerned that this could violate the Article 77.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva also said that the draft had only been open to limited participation despite its potential to creat burdens for future goverments.
Peerasak, however, insisted that the draft’s legislation has followed the Article 77. The government, which submitted the initial draft to the NLA, attached opinion papers to the document, he said.
“We also sufficiently listened to public via every channel,” he said. “I’m sure that [the draft] won’t be troublesome and won’t corrupt the charter.”
Regarding concerns that the bill would bind future authorities too strictly, Peerasak briefly said that the law has clear principles that there would be solutions in case the government did not follow the long-term strategy.
According to the bill draft, those failing to follow such or accomplish the set goals will be subject to examination by the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
