THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

PM considering reconciliation panel

PM considering reconciliation panel

Abhisit not in favour of panel provision in new charter.

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that he had acknowledged a suggestion from chief charter drafter Meechai Ruchuphan that he exercise his special power under Article 44 of the interim constitution to set up a reconciliation panel.
Prayut said he has asked legal specialists to consider the proposal. He said his deputy, Wissanu Krea-ngam, who is in charge of the country’s legal affairs, would offer his opinion on the necessity to have a reconciliation panel. Prayut said he agreed that the country needed national reconciliation to curb political conflicts. If there were a reconciliation panel, there would not be a granting of amnesty during the initial periods.
“I believe it is necessary, otherwise he [Meechai] would not have made the suggestion. I will find a way to make it happen, as I do not want to be branded as being unfair,” Prayut said.
Prayut said the government has to identify who are the people that must be roped into the reconciliation process and what laws they had broken.
In a separate development, Prayut said that he would not yet allow the Democrat Party to hold a party meeting. “I won’t allow it for now,” Prayut said when reporters told him of the Democrat plan to request permission for holding a meeting.
It was reported that the Democrats planned to hold a party meeting so that it could take action against embattled Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who has been hit by a series of scandals.
Meanwhile, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said that he backed the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) decision to not include crisis-management bodies such as the National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee, as it would only renew fears about democracy being stifled. The previous charter-drafting body recommended the creation of this committee.
However, Abhisit said CDC chairman Meechai had promised the charter would include strong mechanisms to drive reform and reconciliation.
He also warned against some Cabinet members’ proposal to not hold a public referendum if there were public chaos, pointing out that not holding a plebiscite would only make the new charter illegitimate and create problems in the future. Abhisit has warned that some political parties had already decided to vote against the draft charter during the referendum even before the draft is completed. 
He also called on the government to clarify exactly how many votes were necessary for the draft to pass the referendum and what the next move would be if the draft were rejected. 
The issue of votes required has been debated due to the terminology of the 2014 interim charter. The charter stipulates that every new constitution has to be approved by a majority of “eligible voters”, not “voters who exercise their voting rights”. In the first case, some 23.5 million votes would be required, while in the second some 13 million votes would be needed. 
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