NRC members must cover all hues of political spectrum: Thai politics

[webfact]

BURNING ISSUE
NRC members must cover all hues of political spectrum
ATTAYUTH BOOTSRIPOOM

BANGKOK: -- THIS WEEK we will know who the appointed members of the National Reform Council (NRC) are, who will be playing a key role in reforming Thailand in many areas. Their role will involve not only the drafting of a new constitution, but also amendments and adjustments to laws, regulations and structure of the political, economic and social sectors.

These newly appointed members of the NRC will first meet to elect the council's president. Two leading candidates for the seat are Thienchai Kiranun and Chai-anan Samudavanija.

The provisional charter stipulates that within 15 days of the NRC's first meeting, the council president has to set up a Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC), which consists mostly of people nominated by NRC members.

The CDC's chief is nominated by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which also can appoint five other constitution drafters. The NRC is empowered to nominate 20 CDC members, and the Cabinet and the National Legislative Assembly can each name five.

The interim charter also requires that within 60 days of its first meeting, the NRC has to submit its comments and suggestions about reforms to the CDC. The proposals to be made by the reform council will come mainly from the working groups that have gathered comments from the public since the coup in May.

The charter drafting panel has 120 days to write a new constitution. The draft will be submitted to the NRC to vote whether to endorse or adjust it. In all, a new constitution is expected within 295 days after the NRC convenes its meeting.

If the NRC fails to finish its deliberation on the draft constitution within the given time or does not approve the draft, the council and the CDC "shall expire", according to the interim charter. If that was the case, a new NRC and CDC would be appointed to complete the job, a process that could take another year.

While waiting for a draft constitution from the CDC, the NRC has the duty of studying, analysing and preparing proposals on reform in different areas to be submitted to the NLA, the Cabinet and the NCPO.

If things go as advertised by the NCPO, we should get NRC members who are capable, well qualified and reliable - a very important mission. However, a leaked list of NRC members has indicated that most of them opposed the previous government led by the Pheu Thai Party. This may not bode well for the hopes for a balanced reform.

A good reform needs to get acceptance and confidence from all sides of people in society. Without widespread support from the public, the reform efforts could fail.

We just hope that the final list of NRC members to be announced later this week will consist of people from different groups of the political spectrum. If not, we fear there could be a new round of conflict, as some groups may feel they are left out of this latest round of reform.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/NRC-members-must-cover-all-hues-of-political-spect-30244580.html


-- The Nation 2014-10-02

[NongKhaiKid]

In LoS what ' Must ' happen and what actually happens can be worlds apart and the reasons are usually all too obvious.

[Mango Bob]

"A good reform needs to get acceptance and confidence from all sides of people in society. Without widespread support from the public, the reform efforts could fail."

It seems like it will fail because all sides of society are not represented here.

[binjalin]

they just don't "get it" that anything like this should be inclusive yet they appoint, un-democratically, their own supporters and expect Thais and the world to nod agreement and can't understand why they don't support them and their national "you WILL BE happy" campaign

it's bizarre

[noitom]

It's a secret society.

[fab4]

NRC members must cover all hues of political spectrum

Oh they do, they do

Civilian Members:

"Ex. Military" Civilian Members:

Edited October 2, 2014 by fab4

[h90]

"A good reform needs to get acceptance and confidence from all sides of people in society. Without widespread support from the public, the reform efforts could fail."

It seems like it will fail because all sides of society are not represented here.

It is not necessary to represent everyone. Important is that good reforms start like 3 month ago and corrupt ones go into jail....no matter how influential they are. And keep yourself clean or show off by putting your own corrupties into jail first.

But I don't see much at all.

[rickirs]

"If the NRC fails to finish its deliberation on the draft constitution within the given time or does not approve the draft, the council and the CDC 'shall expire', according to the interim charter. If that was the case, a new NRC and CDC would be appointed to complete the job, a process that could take another year."

OR years should the NRC/NCPO so choose. What's the rush? The NCPO has plenty of control over the country under its self-contrived Interim Constution, Directives, and domination of the NLA and PM. A permanent constitution (at least until the next coup) is just unnecessary except as window dressing for democracy for those democratic countries that are concerned about Thailand's abandonment of democratic institutions.

[rubl]

Talking with some Thai friends I was told that some political parties may have used their influence to boycott the application process. I must admit this to be the first time to have heard such. The accusation of a Surin family with to many relatives wanting to help the NRC hasn't seen a follow up either.

Without further details it difficult to say how and where things stand. Mind you with one side of the political divide having started on a reforms framework and the other side just voicing 'yes, we also want reforms', it may be that input till now has been from one side only. That may or may not be negative, depending on what that input was.

As usual we are still in a 'insufficient data' phase.