FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Draft charter motivated by distrust of politicians, fear of voting public, veterans say

Draft charter motivated by distrust of politicians, fear of voting public, veterans say

VETERAN politicians joined in a chorus yesterday, saying the draft constitution would pose more challenges in the future because it is motivated by fear of corrupt politicians and circumvents the will of the people by trying to control such figures.

The new charter – if it passes the upcoming referendum – would create a “controlled democracy” in which politicians are strictly controlled by a new political system erected by the current regime, Sudarat Keyuraphan, a prominent Pheu Thai Party member, said yesterday.
At a public talk titled “How the Constitution Draft will Direct the Government” at Mahidol University, Sudarat said the charter draft had been designed to take control of regimes that demonstrate “poor governance”, so the powers-that-be were trying to find “decent” people to govern under the new charter.
“They have no confidence in the judgement of the people,” Sudarat said, adding that the country’s current leaders do not believe the public will elect the right leaders. “So they try to find a way to redirect everything. And there is the Senate, which will be the biggest party, although not elected by the people, as well as the independent agencies and the courts.”
All of these institutions would pose problems in the long run, she said.
Sudarat said a system of checks and balances would be absent. Political parties would not be able to compete based on policies because a “super board” would restrict them, and they would not be able to deal with economic issues.
The proposed constitution, she said, would not fix administrations that have poor governance. Instead, the draft was only an attempt to rearrange the power structure and give central authority to the bureaucracy, Army and independent organisations.
Sudarat stressed that if the perceived problem was politicians, they must improve themselves. But she said no one understands the public as well as politicians.
Somsak Prissananantakul, a veteran politician with Chart Thai Pattana Party, expressed a similar opinion about the constitution draft, saying it had been written based on mistrust of politicians.
He cited the contemporary political discourse of “bad politicians and rampant corruption” used as justification for two coups in the past decade. Constitutions written after each coup attempted to tackle the perceived problem based on coup-makers’ negative opinions about politicians, he said.
However, Somsak said, the regimes had not foreseen how such constitutions could cause more problems, especially when they have no connection with the public and are apparently devoid of of democratic spirit. People would increasingly distrust the constitution if they do not feel like they are included in the political system, he said.
Nipit Intrasombat, Democrat Party deputy leader, also slammed the charter draft, saying it had been spurred by a fear of “the voice of the majority”, especially when that voice favoured Pheu Thai. The coup-makers have since sought to exert control over the majority, Nipit said, pointing to the example of the Senate handpicked by the junta.
Aside from junta-selected Senate’s influence, the panel yesterday also discussed the 20-year strategy proposal, with many saying the plan would become another mechanism to overrule future elected governments. Nipit said the charter’s content constituted a great scheme planned by the current regime, which eventually would influence future governments’ policies.
He said amending the charter would not be easy and would probably take two to three years because a civilian government would not have the sweeping powers granted by Article 44 of the Interim Charter. As such, it would probably be easier simply to tear up the constitution and start over, he said, adding that it was quite probable that someone would do just that.
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