Senate ‘should not select PM’

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday remained firm on his call for selected senators during a five-year transitional period, although he said they should not be authorised to vote for a prime minister.

Suggesting that MPs should be exclusively authorised to pick the prime minister, as has been typical in the past, Prayut said the new charter draft should empower senators to “take care of the charter so it won’t be stripped out by politicians”.

A selected Senate should also promote good governance, national strategies and the junta-led reform agenda, he said.

Prayut said elected senators had led to problems due to a lack of good governance in the past, adding that the Senate could be elected when voters were ready.

“I possess the power now but I have no intention of holding this power for the rest of my life. I want this power to come from the people directly. If you can choose MPs and senators well and are ready for that, I will give back the power. Are you sure we will not go back to the same old point?” Prayut asked, referring to the political conflict before the May 2014 coup.

“In my opinion, senators should not be involved with selecting a prime minister,” he added.

Prayut said selected senators were necessary to make sure the new constitution would not be amended “incoherently” by an elected government. Also, selected senators would have the duty of ensuring that the new government implemented national strategies and followed good governance guidelines, he added.

The premier, however, did not reveal how senators would promote reforms and national strategies in practice. A source close to the prime minister said Prayut had only provided a conceptual outline of the idea while relying on the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) to consider and strengthen the concept.

At a meeting Monday of four of the “five rivers” of power – the Cabinet, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA), with the CDC being absent – Prayut did not comment on the Senate issue.

“The only thing I am concerned with is how to keep the country from returning to chaos again,” the prime minister said.

“And it should be questioned if the old pattern was ever able to keep things in order,” he added, apparently referring to elected senators as part of the “old pattern”.

Prayut’s ambiguity contrasted, however, with the approach of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who on Friday revealed a clear advocacy for a selected Senate to “help drive national reform agendas”.

Even given Prayut’s remark that the Senate should not have authority to select future premiers, chief drafter Meechai Ruchupan has remained quiet on the matter, saying only that the CDC had not had further discussions about the Senate yesterday. Another source at the CDC said the commission stood firm on its original plan of indirectly electing senators as was stipulated in its initial charter draft.

The CDC’s draft constitution calls for senators to be elected by representatives of 20 occupations.

Meanwhile, a source at the NRSA expressed confidence yesterday that the CDC would eventually agree with the government’s call for selected senators. The source said he did not think Meechai would have a problem with the idea, having himself been an appointed senator earlier in his career. 

He said the current regime wanted to balance the power of elected MPs in the next Parliament. 

The source concurred that selected senators would not have the authority to select a prime minister, saying such a power would be too extreme given the current situation while key figures such as Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam had already opposed the idea.

He added that the Senate would be crucial in picking the commissioners of independent organisations including Constitutional Court Judges, whose influential role in Thai politics would be strengthened by the charter draft.

Selected senators would also play an important role in carrying out the 20-year national strategy plan being formulated by the current regime, the NRSA source said, adding however that in reality it would be difficult to implement the national strategies in a rapidly changing world, and difficult to resist public opinion in the case of controversy.

Also yesterday, another source familiar with the constitution drafting process said Meechai had opted not to take part in Monday’s meeting of the core “five rivers” bodies because he had not wanted to be asked about the issue of selected senators.

Prawit yesterday also defended Meechai’s absence from the meeting on Monday, saying it was nothing unusual as the CDC is preoccupied with finishing the charter draft. The deputy prime minister also insisted that the CDC still works well with the rest of the “five rivers”.

“The absence could be good. If the CDC came, people might say that they came to receive orders from the NCPO,” he said.

Future meetings of the “five rivers” would be possible if needed, including before the national referendum, he said.