THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Frustration, sarcasm and exceptionalism

Frustration, sarcasm and exceptionalism

This Sunday, about 50 million Thais will be eligible to cast their ballots once again, this time to decide whether they endorse the constitution draft or not. It seems rather simple on the ballot. But things are much more complicated than that.

Officially, excitement should have been building up for months before R-Day. But we have mostly heard only from politicians and the military leaders. On the surface, the “professional politicians” appear to be saying that they will not vote for the draft while the top brass in power has been portrayed as pushing for its passage.
Somewhere in between sit the majority of the citizens who are not quite sure what to think, how to vote and what to expect.
Herein lies the sense of frustration of most voters who naturally want to see a real transition from the coup back to a democratically elected system. But not many have read the full text of the draft and even those who have been following the advocates and opponents closely have yet to decide how to mark the ballot.
For one thing, the voters are not sure what will happen if Question 1 gets a Yes and Question 2 is rejected by the majority who vote No – or vice versa.
Question No 1 is about the whole draft; and Question No 2 is a “special provision” that offers the “semi-appointed” senators the right to vote with the elected MPs in choosing the next prime minister – for a five-year period.
Then, there is the lingering doubt over what will happen if the draft gets thrown out in the referendum. Under the provisional constitution, if that should come to pass, power will revert to General Prayut Chan-o-cha in his capacity as head of the all-powerful National Council for Peace and Order.
Has he given the public any idea as to what he would do should that scenario become a reality? Nothing very specific. But nothing too vague either. “We will follow the road map – and elections will still be held in 2017 ...” has been his mantra all along.
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, in declaring his stand to not vote for the draft last week, suggested, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that if the draft charter fails to pass in the referendum, then Prayut would have the liberty of drawing up a “better draft”.
One might have thought the premier would have jumped at that suggestion. He knew better than to swallow the bait though. Prayut, who obviously did not consider Abhisit’s offer a very friendly gesture, countered that it was probably no more than a “sarcastic comment”.
All this public sparring has shed no light on the big question: What happens after August 7? That, in fact, has become an even more pressing question than what happens on August 7?
To be fair, voters should be told about all the possible post-August 7 scenarios before they cast their votes because the big dilemma for many eligible voters is that if they believe the “Yes” faction, how could they be sure that some of the clauses that they do not like will be amended after its passage.
On the other hand, if you are inclined towards the “No” group, how could you be certain that if the draft is rejected on grounds that it’s not “democratic” enough, then somehow a new draft could be drawn up that would show significant. improvements on the one up for vote this Sunday?
Nobody can offer that guarantee, of course. That’s not because none of the various “factions” in the political arena is ready to show its card. It’s more likely that the players in this game know all too well what “weapons” the other side has in their arsenal.
The supreme paradox in this whole exercise is that those who are against the current powers cannot decide whether it’s more effective to vote “Yes” or “No” if the ultimate goal is to ensure that the powers-that-be are unseated as soon as possible.
For the opponents, to endorse the draft would be tantamount to supporting a draft constitution that would prolong the tenure of the current powers. But to vote against it might be comparable to handing them unlimited power to produce a new draft – the third – that could be worse than the current one.
To add to that confounding perplexity, even those in favour of the current government have started to ponder the imponderable: Join the critics and reject the draft.
Yes, there may emerge at the last minute a sense of confidence among some voters that somehow the country will “muddle through” yet again because we are “unique” and “all the sacred beings up there” will protect us from any disastrous consequences. .
These are people who have told me that a third draft will exorcise all the evils from the country’s decade-long malaise. They believe we will be “third time lucky.” We are, after all, “exceptional”. We have somehow convinced ourselves that our political system is like no other. And no one can copy our “exceptionalism”.
If that’s the case, we will have to start praying through the referendum.

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