Charter drafters adopt Cabinet's ideas on National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Commission

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Charter drafters adopt Cabinet's ideas on National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Commission
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- As recommended by the Cabinet, the Constitution Drafting Committee may include the prime minister, plus the Parliament President as members of the National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Commission to prevent criticism that the NSRRC's powers overlap with existing branches of government.

Cabinet suggested that the NSRRC be made up of 20 members, 11 of them ex-officio, including the heads of legislative, executive and judicial branches, the Supreme Commander, heads of the three military branches, chief of the National Police, former Parliament president, former PM, former Supreme Court president and nine specialists.

In regard to Cabinet's proposal CDC spokesman Kamnoon Sidhisamarn said yesterday the CDC had not decided yet on the number of commissioners.

The NSRRC will have nothing to do with the National Reform Movement Council and no links to the new charter. It will serve a term as long as for the National Reform Committee, he said.

Charter writers may allow politicians to join the commission but they have yet to establish the working mechanism for the commission.

The CDC would resolve within two weeks all issues that have attracted interest and debate, such as whether senators should all be elected or selected or come from a hybrid system.

The CDC had not come under any pressure from the National Council for Peace and Order to make all senators selected, he said.

The charter drafters wants senators to come from various professional groups but believe they may not win elections, so they plan to have 123 of them selected to the Senate and other senators elected.

The CDC believed it was important to maintain the principle of a mixed elected and indirectly elected system for senators to differentiate the Upper House from the Lower House, he said.

The CDC was likely to adjust methods that had called for four committees to select senate candidates, he added.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Charter-drafters-adopt-Cabinets-ideas-on-National--30266271.html


-- The Nation 2015-08-10

[oneday]

I don't understand how they can conceive of a Senate that is not wholly elected.

In the US there are two senators for each state. They represent the people in their state. If the people in their state believe the senator is not representing them accurately then he or she will be voted out at the next election. This is how the senators are held "accountable" which is what makes Democracy work.

If some senators are elected and some appointed, then who are these senators representing? Who are they accountable to and how can they be removed if people perceive they are not doing their job? Do they represent people for one province or are their interests tied to the country as a whole and so they have no loyalties to any people in any province?

Unless a senator has been voted in by the people of a given province then he or she has no loyalties to anyone and the system breaks down.

[Srikcir]

"As recommended by the Cabinet"

Not unexpected.

And of course the Cabinet is merely an extension of the NCPO. The NCPO insists on retaining an appointed Senate that will throttle an elected parliament's legislative actions that the millitary does not support.

What other group(s) could the CDC take recommendations without reprisal from the NCPO or its clone organizations?

[Fat Haggis]

National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Commission

The biggest underachieving commission yet, 15 months down the line, how's that reconciliation process working out these days?