No ‘absolute power’ panel in charter
THE constitution draft will not include a panel endowed with “extraordinary power” to steer the country through crises, as existing mechanisms and bodies are sufficient, said Chartchai Na Chiangmai, a Constitution Drafting Committee spokesman.
The idea of a crisis panel with absolute power was borrowed from Article 16 of the French constitution, which gives the country’s president supreme power during critical times.
A similar clause had been included in the previous unsuccessful charter draft written by Borwornsak Uwanno’s panel.
Speaking after his daily press briefing Thursday, Chartchai said the situation facing Thailand was not as critical as the one which once confronted France, which was in a post-war period when the stipulation appeared in its constitution.
“We’ve figured that problems facing the country are rooted in agencies not doing their jobs right, “ he said. “So, we’ve been thinking that we’ll just get them to task properly.”
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