Opposition leader Move Forward backs Bhumjaithai’s plan to annul NCPO orders
Coalition partner Bhumjaithai Party has submitted a bill seeking to annul “undemocratic” orders issued by the 2014 coup makers that are in violation of basic human rights.
This move immediately won the support of opposition leader Move Forward Party, which said it had its own version of the bill too.
Saritpong Kiewkong, a Bhumjaithai MP from Krabi, told Parliament on Monday that he and other Bhumjaithai MPs backed a bill seeking to annul orders issued by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) that are deemed undemocratic and in violation of basic human rights.
Saritpong said the bill had been filed via the House of Representatives online platform on January 31, and they had come to Parliament on Monday to hand the paper version over to Areepen Uttarasin, secretary to House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.
The NCPO, led by then-Army chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha, seized power by toppling the government of prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22, 2014.
Saritpong said his group has studied all 240 orders issued by the NCPO and 71 had been turned into law, so they can only be annulled by enacting a bill.
He added that the bill submitted by his group has seven articles and needs to be passed urgently to guarantee people’s rights, including the right to assembly, now that the country is back to being a full democracy.
“We are not criticising the coup orders. We realise that some are still necessary, but most of them will keep foreign investors away,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Move Forward party-list MP Karoonpon Tienasuwan, who is also deputy party spokesman, said he believes the bill should go through smoothly if both the government and the opposition wanted to abrogate unfair orders that violate people’s rights.
Karoonpon said his party has drafted a similar bill that might differ slightly from Bhumjaithai’s bill. “But it’s a good sign that Thailand will have laws that match international standards,” he said.
