FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Public views on the charter still blurred

Public views on the  charter still blurred

Judging from the current public awareness, the August 7 referendum on the draft constitution is not as exciting as the previous one a decade ago, when people voted whether to approve the draft charter of 2007.

Many people are still unaware when the national vote takes place and whether August 7 is a big day.
Many people have just started to pay attention to the upcoming referendum following the news of voter lists displayed at polling stations being damaged or stolen – in some cases by some unexpected perpetrators, such as little children and macaques.
Interestingly, despite the low level of public awareness, opposition to the draft constitution seems to be higher than it was ahead of the vote on the 2007 charter. At that time, the charter’s opponents mainly consisted of politicians from former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party, as well as activists and academics close to the red-shirt movement. In the previous referendum, 14 million people voted to approve the draft, written after the coup of September 2006, compared to 10 million who voted against it.
This time around, many people have come out against the draft written by the Constitution Drafting Commission. They include politicians from the Pheu Thai Party, which is linked to Thaksin, and leaders of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). There are also academics from the Nitirat group, the student activist group New Democracy Movement, and a network of 43 groups of academics, students and public members. A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also made it clear that they would vote against the draft.
A high-powered group Platform of Concerned Citizens is not clearly against the draft charter but they disagree with a number of points in the draft. The group consists of people from several circles including some government supporters and many well-known politicians from different political parties. They include Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, Pheu Thai key figure Sudarat Keyuraphan, Chart Thai Pattana heavyweights Somsak Prisanananthakul and Nikorn Chamnong.
Some political observers have played down the opposition to the draft charter. They are not convinced the draft’s opponents will be able to turn the size of their supporters into actual majority votes against the draft. For them, the opposition to the draft comes mainly from Pheu Thai and the red shirts, which are essentially the same group of people.
Unlike Pheu Thai and the red shirts, the observers are not convinced NGO activists and academics who are against the draft will be able to influence people to vote the way they like.
As for the Democrat Party, Abhisit and his faction may not be totally pleased with the draft charter. But Suthep Thaugsuban, the leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, has retained his influence among many Democrat politicians although he left the party as secretary-general after leading a street protest against the previous government. 
Suthep is an avid supporter of the draft charter, having spoken in his daily Facebook Live broadcasts about what he describes as benefits of the “anti-corruption constitution” draft.
Some critics have described the seeming lack of decisiveness among the Democrat politicians as a “two-faced strategy” to ensure that they can go with the flow whichever side wins in the referendum vote.
It should be reminded that we still have not heard the views of many ordinary people what they think about the constitutional draft. Due to the strict Referendum Act and Election Commission regulations, many people have been too afraid of legal consequences to speak publicly in the run-up to the referendum. These people certainly will make their view known when they cast their ballots. 
Their fear was reflected in the results of recent public opinion surveys, which showed that no more than 10 per cent of respondents said they would vote against the draft. However, in many polls, up to a third of those surveyed said they remained undecided – although it was likely that several of them in fact had already made up their minds.
Some people involved may be happy with the poll results that show only a small percentage of eligible voters are against the draft charter. That may turn out to be a big mistake for them, when the referendum results actually come out.
 
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