Talk of charter rewrite keeps political heat up

Pheu Thai secretary general Phumtham Wechayachai has been quoted as saying that the party remained committed to writing a brand-new charter. This has come as a little surprise, because recent messages from Pheu Thai’s real patriarch Thaksin seemed to be that, to avoid a potentially disastrous social confrontation, the current Constitution would only be amended, not annulled. Whatever the real plan is, the ruling party’s strategy when charter rewrite is concerned is to “box” rather than “fight”.

The issue of charter change, however, can blow up in anybody’s face regardless of whether he is “boxing” or “fighting”. On one hand, Pheu Thai deserves sympathy for having to do something to help its real leader, Thaksin. On the other hand, the party will only have itself to blame if things go bad as a result of it doing so. Shaky as it is, Thailand’s democracy has let Pheu Thai implement any contentious policy if it is within the proper scope of its popular mandate. To be perceived as trying to help Thaksin through a new charter will push the limits.

The latest reports on Pheu Thai getting ready to re-launch its bid to neutralise the existing “military-installed” Constitution will re-invigorate the party’s political enemies. They have attacked the controversial rice price pledging policy but the government seems unfazed. They hoped that last year’s catastrophic flooding would wipe away Yingluck Shinawatra’s popularity but they were disappointed. A series of contentious high-level bureaucratic reshuffles bordering on nepotism have taken place with little or no resistance. Whatever this Pheu Thai government has wanted to do has been done, as long as it involves exercising democratic powers to run the country.

Just a mere mention of Thaksin’s name brought some 20,000 protesters to the Royal Turf Club last weekend. That was before Phumtham was quoted on the front page of a newspaper as saying that the party was stepping up a strategy to win public support for constitutional changes. With an all-out charter campaign, that number can easily double or triple. In Thai political context, though, it doesn’t take that many protesters to cause serious political tension. We have learned the hard way how zealous, well-organised anti-government demonstrators can plunge the nation into a crisis.

Can an elected government initiate a charter amendment? Of course, it can. Can it introduce structural or rule changes concerning the executive, legislative and judicial branches? Absolutely. After all, Thailand has tried and tested appointed and elected Senate, form new ministries and create the likes of Constitution Court or Election Commission. If the people vote you into office, they entrust you with deciding how things should be run.

It can get a lot more complicated when “things that should be run” involve matters that democratic powers of the government don’t usually or can acceptably deal with. For example, if parliamentary strength asserts its power to decide which act is a crime and which act is not, what do we need the judiciary for? Can an elected government whitewash someone of a crime? In theory, yes. But that government must also be prepared for consequences and be sport enough not to blame a “conspiracy” if its plans are sabotaged.

Pheu Thai has its reasons, but its action also feeds its enemies with reasons – or pretexts if you will – to oppose it. The reported bid to re-launch the charter campaign is giving what happened at the Royal Turf Club last weekend some sense of justification. From people “fixated” unreasonably on Thaksin, the Pitak Siam demonstrators now can claim they are not just being paranoid. They can point at what Phumtham said and proclaim “See? This is why we have to do it.”