Reformers debate whether to kill charter, give Thai govt more time

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POLITICS
Reformers debate whether to kill charter, give govt more time
KHANITTHA THEPPHAJORN,
PRAPASRI OSATHANON,
NITIPOL KIRAVANICH
THE NATION



BANGKOK: -- SOME National Reform Council (NRC) members suggested yesterday that the Council should vote down the charter draft in order to prevent people from instigating political turmoil - because if the NRC backs the draft, a referendum must be held on the new charter, a source has revealed.

The suggestion arose in a four-hour meeting on the reform roadmap and how the reformers can achieve concrete results given its term will be cut short after the provisional charter is amended.

Voting down the charter would give the Prayut government two more years to run the country, NRC members said.

One year was not enough time because the government could only address and solve problems in the short term. But members said any recommendation in this regard should not be revealed to the press.

However, some NRC members said that if the council votes in support of the charter draft, it should help the CDC campaign to get public acceptance of the draft because they have experience in organising public hearings.

Meanwhile, red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn predicted yesterday that the new charter may be rejected in a referendum, judging from National Statistical Office (NSO) surveys.

"Surveys by the NSO show that a majority of the people oppose the principles of this charter draft, and I believe that people will not support this constitution drafted by the Constitution Drafting Committee [CDC] president Borwornsak Uwanno," the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) co-leader said.

Weng said the main issues of why people would reject the draft were the possibility of an outsider prime minister and having selected senators.

In September the NRC will vote on whether they approve or disapprove of the new constitution. Weng said it was hard to say how the reformers would vote.

'Reformers have hidden motives'

"There is a hidden motive behind reformers' votes. Now it is still hard to predict, but I think there will be a clearer sign [of how the vote would turn out] by this September. Some NRC members expect to be in the Reform Movement Council once their terms end after the voting process. They might vote for a pass, but those who disapprove of the draft might end their future political careers," the red-shirt said.

Another matter the UDD leader criticised was the number of charter copies. He said: "There should be 50 million copies of the constitution [draft] given to eligible voters. Even if [that costs] more than Bt1 billion it would be worth it, because these eligible voters will be the ones who decide on the new constitution," Weng said.

He also proposed using the standard of the 2007 Constitution, which said the referendum vote must be won by more than half of all voters, meaning it should be won by 25 million votes or more.

However, the UDD leader said if this referendum's votes are counted as Deputy PM Wissanu Krea-ngam said, in order for the draft to pass it would need half the votes of all people who take part.

He said this method was unjust for the country's 67 million citizens.

In a related development, the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) held a closed-door meeting yesterday. Committee member Paiboon Nititawan said this was for drafters to try to understand charter proposals before discussing them article by article.

The CDC member explained they had briefly discussed the party-list system on last Friday. But topics were not resolved because the CDC was still waiting for amendments that will come next week, starting from Monday June 22.

He said the articles on political interest groups had been opposed by many people. "If these groups were to be eradicated from the draft, we would have to amend charter articles to make political parties easier to set up."

Paiboon said if this occurred, there should be measures to ensure they would truly represent the people in a democratic way.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Reformers-debate-whether-to-kill-charter-give-govt-30262411.html


-- The Nation 2015-06-16

[oneday]

OK children, listen up...this is simple.

KEEP THE PARTS THAT EVERYONE IS OK WITH.

REWORK THE CONTROVERSIAL PARTS AND THEN SEND UP ANOTHER TRIAL BALLOON.

When you have something that has drastically reduced the negative comments (there will always be people against something in any constitution you come up with) then send it to a referendum and you haven't wasted time trying to craft a brand new constitution.

[Srikcir]

Retain the 2007 Constitution that was previously approved by 51+% of the voters and add no more than 20 proposed amendments, largely in the area of parliament elections, government operations, and Indepdendent Organizations.

Elected officials can deal with the NRC's 100+ amendments with equal or better legitimacy from the majority constituency than the Prayut regime.