Charter panel needs injection of young blood
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Re: "Key to new charter is a strong informed citizenry", Politics, November 12.
There is at least one big difference between the writers of the US Constitution of 1787 and the Thai constitution drafters of 2014: Their average age.
The ages of those who drafted the US constitution ranged from 26 (Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey) to 81 (Benjamin Franklin).
The combined age of the 55 US drafters was 2,435 years, making an average age of 44.3 years. Four were in their 20s, and the second-oldest after Franklin was only 66.
I don’t know the exact age of Thailand’s youngest constitution drafter, Jade Donavanik, but he looks to be at least in his 40s.
Thus, the average age of our current charter drafters must be around 55 or 60, or even higher.
That’s too old.
To remedy this imbalance I suggest we rejuvenate our charter-drafting panel with a few youngsters – aged, say, 12 to 16 – to make our next constitution more forward-looking.
After all, we are writing it for our future generations.
Vint Chavala
Bangkok
