Thai Charter Change Conflict Getting Dangerous

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE
Charter change conflict getting dangerous
Attayuth Bootsripoom

BANGKOK: -- You do not have to be a political guru to discern that the move to amend the Constitution will lead to severe conflicts and possible violence because the supporters and detractors will not budge from their trenches.

The opponents insist that the charter should be left intact. The opposition Democrat Party has been trying to use all tricks inside Parliament to delay the amendment bills. It has cited all sorts of legal technicalities to rock the boat.

For example, it was opposed to the chairing of the joint meeting of MPs and senators by Senate Speaker Nikom Waiyaratphanich on grounds that he lacked objectivity because he had sponsored two of the three charter-change bills. However, Nikom insisted on taking his turn to chair the meetings, prompting the Democrats to boycott the meeting chaired by him.

It came as no surprise that the three bills sailed through their first readings. But the Democrats again resorted to a legal technicality to try to delay the bills' deliberation by claiming that the time frame for vetting the three bills was not properly set. The Democrats said the meeting lacked a quorum and was adjourned before the vetting time frame was fixed.

The Democrats refused to work with the three vetting panels, prompting Parliament President Somsak Kiartsuranon to call another joint meeting to vote on the time frame. The Democrats' proposal for 60 days was rejected when the ruling coalition and some sympathetic senators voted to reaffirm the 15-day time frame. The coalition also ridiculed the Democrats for always losing parliamentary votes.

Because the Democrats would never win in Parliament, the opponents of charter change turned to seeking help from the Constitutional Court. A senator petitioned the court to consider the amendments, and the court took up the case for review immediately.

But the move raised the question of whether the court was encroaching on the powers of the legislative branch.

This prompted the ruling Pheu Thai Party and its academic and grass-roots supporters to urge the lawmakers favouring charter change to reject the Constitutional Court's authority over the review of amendments. They want the MPs and senators to go on revising the charter even if the court judges that the amendments are unconstitutional.

Pheu Thai has also launched an impeachment drive against the Constitutional Court justices by submitting a complaint to the National Anti-Corruption Commission, while an academic close to Pheu Thai filed a complaint with Crime Suppression police, accusing the justices of violating the law. So the proponents of charter change have also adopted the tactic of discrediting the judges.

As if the pressure on the Constitutional Court had not mounted enough, a group of red-shirt protesters has threatened to rally in front of the courthouse. This means that the day the court delivers its ruling, a crowd of red shirts will be there to pressure it. A serious problem might result if the ruling goes against the red-shirt masses. And red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua has not prohibited his followers from acting up, but has encouraged them to demonstrate their feelings.

The moves outside Parliament's chambers have infuriated the backers of charter amendments as they feel that they are being pushed into a corner.

It seems that a political storm is building up. The House of Representatives voted to move an amnesty bill to the top of the agenda for deliberation in the next session. Worse still, Pheu Thai has said it will go on deliberating pending reconciliation bills that seek to whitewash former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The opposition is losing patience because of pressure escalating on its side without a chance to vent its differences. It knows that its side has no chance of prevailing at Parliament.

So the proponents of the current charter will definitely rally their masses to oppose what the government is doing and the government will definitely rally its supporters to confront them.

Thailand could be heading inexorably to the brink of political violence again.


-- The Nation 2013-04-25

[A Member]

Another Nation " special ", it's not getting dangerous it always has been and something has to give since commonsense and reason will not apply. It's now becoming boring to say it but PTP are perfectly clear on their priority as dictated by the one man who will benefit so it's " get me back or else " the puppets have the blinkers on and can see nothing else. I think we should all worry that as Mr. T turns up the heat for action some of the puppets will to anything to keep him happy and for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction,

[OzMick]

"Pheu Thai has said it will go on deliberating pending reconciliation bills that seek to whitewash former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra."

Gosh Mutt, you told me this wasn't happening. Does this mean PTP (Paid by Thaksin Party) are selling their votes to a fugitive criminal?

[reiltin]

Pheu Thai supporters have rights too,they must be given the presumption of ignorance....

[Locationthailand]

It is a repeat expanded article of many others already in circulation. Probably another stringer journalist being paid by the word.

[chainarong]

I say put the charter change to the people , have a referendum, that out come will then be deciding factor , however, we all know, some will take the loss and continue to dummy spit, huff and puff, and behave badly, however the Thai nation has now spoken and what happens after that is their little baby, live with it.

[Thai at Heart]

One can only blame the arrogance of the constitution writing committee in continuing to formulate a constitution which doesn't embed the concept of super majority into the consitution. Instead, they beavered around and thought they could control the parliament through courts and removing the elected portion of the senate. Instead of giving more conditional democratic power to the parliament, they chose appointed bureaucracy as a way to "manage" the politicians, and manage the results the way they wanted.

They arrogantly believed that by now the Shinawatras would be politically buried and so never ever considered that putting more faith in the parliament instead of the courts was the way forward, believing that if the Dems were in power, they would be "their kind of people". Their lack of faith in democracy is going to come back to haunt them.

[rubl]

"red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua has not prohibited his followers from acting up, but has encouraged them to demonstrate their feelings."

I'm sure Pheu Thai party list MP and UDD leader Nattawut knows how to split his personality. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" comes to mind

[OzMick]

"red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua has not prohibited his followers from acting up, but has encouraged them to demonstrate their feelings."

I'm sure Pheu Thai party list MP and UDD leader Nattawut knows how to split his personality. "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" comes to mind

In a strange twist, he's nicer when he drinks.

[Tatsujin]

It's all just one big <deleted>*%ing joke the way they do things here

[Baerboxer]

"Pheu Thai has said it will go on deliberating pending reconciliation bills that seek to whitewash former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra."

Gosh Mutt, you told me this wasn't happening. Does this mean PTP (Paid by Thaksin Party) are selling their votes to a fugitive criminal?

Mick, Mick. Of course it doesn't mean this. The poor and oft maligned dog was trying to help you understand. All PTP MP's wether elected or party list are free to speak and vote in accordance with their conscience. Yes, the nice Khun Thaksin pays them a salary so they can be free to attend parliament and concentrate on important matters of state. We can all see their dilligence and effectiveness starting right at the top with the PM.

It just happens that they can all see through the wicked conspiracy to convict their desired leader in a court of law and keep him from his rightful place. In fact, they can all see that the other outstanding charges must also be poppycock and irrelevant and should be dismissed. They are bright enough to know that sometimes the law is an ass - fire the judges, change the law. It's what you can do when your a democratically elected people's government.

Reality - not a fkcuing chance here mate.

[hellodolly]

I say put the charter change to the people , have a referendum, that out come will then be deciding factor , however, we all know, some will take the loss and continue to dummy spit, huff and puff, and behave badly, however the Thai nation has now spoken and what happens after that is their little baby, live with it.

Well as much as I like the idea of putting it to the people I would first rather see it explained to all the public in a manner they can understand.

There should be a PTP member and a Democrat doing the explaining.

The explaining should be done to groups of the same level of education. That way the poor people who could not attend school because their parents could not afford it would also know what it was about.

There should be no talk of the populist policies that are supposed to have happened have happened and never will. Just on the changes.

Well I can dream can't I?

[hellodolly]

"Pheu Thai has said it will go on deliberating pending reconciliation bills that seek to whitewash former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra."

Gosh Mutt, you told me this wasn't happening. Does this mean PTP (Paid by Thaksin Party) are selling their votes to a fugitive criminal?

Mick, Mick. Of course it doesn't mean this. The poor and oft maligned dog was trying to help you understand. All PTP MP's wether elected or party list are free to speak and vote in accordance with their conscience. Yes, the nice Khun Thaksin pays them a salary so they can be free to attend parliament and concentrate on important matters of state. We can all see their dilligence and effectiveness starting right at the top with the PM.

It just happens that they can all see through the wicked conspiracy to convict their desired leader in a court of law and keep him from his rightful place. In fact, they can all see that the other outstanding charges must also be poppycock and irrelevant and should be dismissed. They are bright enough to know that sometimes the law is an ass - fire the judges, change the law. It's what you can do when your a democratically elected people's government.

Reality - not a fkcuing chance here mate.

It would not surprise me if Thaksin was completely honest that he would have a vision of himself with a sceptre and some thing very costly on his head.

[smedly]

the main problem in all of this is that voting on charter or constitution amendments should require a 2/3 majority in the house - this would fairly represent all the voting public and also reflect similar representation to a referendum - one party having total power over such an issue is the cause of the current political problems - these amendments wouldn't even be on the table if were so - the whole thing is a farce