Vagueness not among charter's deficits
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Re: "Charter's lack of clarity invites abuse", Letters, April 25.
Burin Kantabutra labels the draft charter as full of vagueness by citing two examples: the word “crisis” as expressed by the drafting chairman to justify a non-elected prime minister, and Article 44, which he warns could impose a “legal dictatorship”.
First, there is no reference in the draft to the sort of crisis in which a non-elected prime minister would be appointed. Article 172 provides for this event if the House of Representative openly approves it by two-thirds majority. There is no vagueness. The hot issue is whether we want to have a non-MP prime minister at all.
Second, Article 44 is not in the draft but in the current provisional constitution, which will disappear once the draft with subsequent modifications has become Thailand’s 20th constitution.
The current draft consists of 315 articles and is full of goodies, but also many items worth debating. Because of its length, I can assure Burin that vagueness is not its major weakness. If you cannot sleep, you can find this draft online both in Thai and English. The committee has rectified the past baddies.
Songdej Praditsmanont
Bangkok
