Don't judge charter based on just a few provisions: PM

If the NRC votes to endorse the charter draft, a national referendum will be held around early next year.

“I have set the rules as if I am preparing this food for you to eat but you choose not to eat. If you want new food to eat, you can find it elsewhere,’’ Prayut said.

He said the fate of the charter was not dependent on him giving an order but on Thais’ vision for the country and whether they could learn to live together.

“Do you want to live amid political conflicts as before?’’ he said.

“Has anyone said after an election is held, ‘The country will be peaceful. There will not be protests, street massacres and bomb attacks?’ Has anyone guaranteed elected governments can solve these problems,’’ he said.

He said the public had to be assured there would not be deadly incidents of civil unrest during the administration of future elected governments.

“An elected government should answer to society in terms of how it can stop such incidents from repeating and what reforms it is planning to do. Do not quarrel over whether we should reject or accept the charter draft,’’ he said.

The PM urged people not to rush to the conclusion that the whole charter must be undemocratic if they perceive a few of its provisions to be undemocratic.

“Do not single out a few provisions as undemocratic because that is not the democratic way. But was evil and maliciousness rife when the country had a fully-fledged democratic constitution?’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Privy Council chief General Prem Tinsulanonda said yesterday that he wished the new charter had included a provision that required all Thais to pay back the debt of gratitude to the country.

Prem – speaking before 117 Muslim students from the four southern border provinces taking part in the project “Thai youth with the same heart” – said all Thais, regardless of their religion, had a duty to pay the motherland a debt of gratitude.

He said all the previous charters had failed to state that a sense of gratitude to the country was a duty for all Thais. “The easy thing that you can do right now to pay back the country is being a good and moral person and do not cause trouble,’’ he said.

Also yesterday, National Reform Council members known to be opponents of the charter draft denied that the junta had lobbied them to vote it down.

NRC member Seree Suwanpanont said the National Council for Peace and Order had shown its stance in support of the charter draft so it did not make sense that they would want the NRC to vote down the charter.

He said among the NRC members who opposed the charter, there was only one military official, Major Anan Vacharotai. He said only the NRC members who supported the charter had been lobbying for their colleagues to back it.

Pongthep Thepkanchana, legal adviser to the Pheu Thai Party, said the NRC voting down the charter would be best for the country. 

He said if the NRC did that, the country could get back on the democratic path sooner and save Bt3 billion on holding a plebiscite.

If the NRC rejects the charter, the junta would select a new |committee that would have 180 days to write a new charter.

In a related development, the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) sent representatives to seek approval from the NCPO to hold a press conference to express its views on the charter draft.

UDD spokesman Thanawut Wichaidit yesterday said the alliance wanted to show its stance on the charter and would not cause any turmoil. 

He said there would not be a large crowd, only UDD leaders such as Jatuporn Prompan, Nuttawut Saikuar, Weerakan Musikapong and Thida and Weng Tojirakarn.

He said the alliance had followed the rules set by the government and the NCPO. He hoped it would be allowed to hold the press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel – the same place that Suthep Thaugsuban of the rival People’s Democratic Reform Committe met the press to back the charter draft earlier this week.