Drafters unveil their visions for new Thai charter

[webfact]

Drafters unveil their visions for new charter
THE NATION

PUBLIC CONSULTATION HIGH ON AGENDA FOR NEW ATTEMPT TO WRITE A CONSTITUTION

BANGKOK: -- NEWLY appointed Constitution Drafting Committee members yesterday unveiled their thoughts on drafting the new charter, their priorities and the challenges they expect to face.

CDC member Juree Wijitwatakarn said she would use her knowledge and experience to establish a constitutional mechanism to improve civil and women's rights and boost citizens' "quality".

"The most important task is to create sustainable measures. I must admit that establishing a mechanism to improve citizens' quality in the charter is difficult but we must do our best," she said.

She added that the just-rejected charter draft contained provisions for improving human quality but they needed to be shortened, with a mechanism added to improve the quality of citizens.

CDC member Prapan Naikovit said the March deadline for the new draft was a tight one, giving the committee just six months to complete the task.

"We have time constraints, because we want to heed opinions from various social sectors, including members of the public. Other issues over what to include in the charter draft are still to be decided upon," he said.

Prapan said the CDC would meet to decide what to incorporate in the new draft from the 1997 and 2007 charters and the recently rejected charter draft.

"We have little time, so we can use previous charters and information from the previous CDC as a reference for the new draft. We need to discuss how we use them," he said.

He added that aside from time constraints, another point of concern was the lack of an agency to review the completed draft now that the National Reform Council had been disbanded.

"Since the draft will go to a referendum, we have to be careful and heed opinions from the public in order to secure public acceptance of the document," he said.

The CDC will meet to discuss how to gather opinions from the public, with public hearings in provinces and media outreach being mooted.

CDC member Chartchai na Chiangmai said he believed the 1997 and 2007 charters should be considered amid the current political context, which requires a recognition of diversity.

"The key is how to make the charter a 'living' law that won't easily be scrapped. The charter must answer questions on both the short and the long term and must uphold democracy, liberty and equality. It must strike a balance among the public and the private and state sectors.

"The charter must provide for greater and more efficient checks by the public. It must equip the state sector with a self-checking mechanism and also allow checks from outside," he said.

Chartchai gave the thumbs up to the recently rejected charter draft, saying it deserved a score of 80-90 per cent for its public-sector checks-and-balances mechanism.

He said what was required now were effective reforms of the judiciary and the police force.

He added that it was normal for the CDC to face political pressure. "We have to present facts and reasons for why we write the draft as we do. We cannot satisfy every sector but we have to convince them of our principles."

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Drafters-unveil-their-visions-for-new-charter-30270337.html


-- The Nation 2015-10-07

[noitom]

Thais are still drafting and proposing to each other what their rule of law should be and how they can word it so vaguely that they can make it up as they go along like they have for 80 or so years since 1932.

[Reigntax]

Military rule for military benefit for military profit for military control with military backward thinking.

That just abouts sums up the intention of the new charter.

[taony]

Improving quality of citizens now are we?

[NongKhaiKid]

Working to the script they were given or will they claim it's ' all our own work ' ?

[Toknarok]

'Tight schedule' of six months? Just take the 1997 Constitution, give it a bit of fine tuning and you could do it in 6 weeks.

[bamnutsak]

These elderly, geriatric Yellows can barely "see" anymore as their "vision" is completely gone.

While I would have considered it impossible to draft a charter which was worse than the previous one (Bowonsak V.3), I think these chaps might surprise me.

Why not just go back to absolute Monarchy and stop pretending?

[Solomon]

What the new charter won't include and why it will not pass a referendum:

Absolute power remains with the people.

Fully elected lower AND upper houses of parliament

One man, one vote.

Equality for all before the law (and the tax man)

Coup-makers jailed for life for treason

What will this regime do in 2017 when another turd charter gets tossed in the bin?

Will they go quietly off into the night or will they once again murder their own citizens in the streets?

[Villapete]

Copy and paste. Repeat ad infinitum.

[oneday]

PUBLIC as defined by the junta = ALL THOSE WHO SUPPORT US.

[soalbundy]

If they are having visions they ought to change their medication

[Srikcir]

"The key is how to make the charter a 'living' law that won't easily be scrapped."

No, the key is to ENTOMB the charter so it can never be changed.

[JAG]

What the new charter won't include and why it will not pass a referendum:

Absolute power remains with the people.

Fully elected lower AND upper houses of parliament

One man, one vote.

Equality for all before the law (and the tax man)

Coup-makers jailed for life for treason

What will this regime do in 2017 when another turd charter gets tossed in the bin?

Will they go quietly off into the night or will they once again murder their own citizens in the streets?

I think that we can be sure that they will not willingly go quietly off into the night.

The only thing that will force them to do that will be a crushing defeat. Preferably politically or through a massive demonstration by the people. The risk remains that this will lead to them murdering their own citizens (I sincerely hope not). That too could well lead to a crushing defeat.

[waldroj]

Unfortunately, too many people are dismissing the efforts of the CDC Mark II before they have even begun their task. This is a pity, because it ignores the fact that Thailand faces great challenges into the foreseeable future as it claws its way back to democracy, and inevitably, a change on Monarch.

Drafting a Constitution that can survive these significant events is going to be a task of enormous importance and complexity, and the results of failure unthinkable. So, everyone (both citizen and guest) should throw their full support behind the Mark II, and hope for its long-lasting success.

Regardless of whether or not one accepts the legitimacy of Mark II, the NCPO, or the PM, the reality is that the quickest way back to democracy in Thailand is through the drafting of the new charter, and (more importantly) its acceptance by the Thai people at referendum.

Whether the Mark II draft contains the “crisis panel” clause or not is irrelevant, and the document should not fail like Mark I because of this. No matter what the new draft contains, there will still be no guarantee that the military will never again wrest control from a future Thai government. The Royal Thai Army will continue to command widespread respect within the community, so there will always be an expectation of the Army remaining true to its motto “For the Nation, Religions, King, and People", and stepping in if the need should arise.

Whilst I believe that the Charter writers will produce a document that sets Thailand on the path back to democracy, I am concerned that it could just as easily go the way of its predecessors.

It’s not the Charter alone that will ensure the success of democracy in Thailand (when it finally returns). After all, it is nothing more than an agreed collection of rules on how the country should be run. Rather, it will fall to the Thai citizens themselves to make their style of democracy work.

We should now be looking to a post-junta Thailand that is about to recommence its dance with democracy. Clearly, this is only going to succeed if elected governments are allowed to run their full term!

Civil disobedience on a large scale against elected governments seems endemic in Thailand. So, unless Thai’s are able to break this habit, and accept decisions made at the ballot box, this Charter will become the 20^th failure, and the people may as well get used to an army general again running their country.

[hglenn2000]

This really shouldn't be that difficult a task, in fact we have a constitution (not always followed) in America that's been working well for over 200 year's that we would be happy to loan you. We could even throw in the Bill of Rights for free..There may be a small charge to translate it to Thai though..

It provides for all the freedom's of Democracy that you claim to want to instill here in Thailand, we can even give you the version with all of the amendments we've tacked on so you can save a lot of time and energy in furthering the rights of your citizenry. Of course America like any country is not perfect but I never have to worry about being denied my freedom for saying what I think or expressing my opinion. Of course we wisely cast off our relationship with the King many years ago, for who is the King really, just someone who was lucky enough to come out of the right woman's Vagina, same as rich kids.

Why the people in Thailand have let this laughing stock of miscreants stay in power this long is befuddling to me as I'm sure it is to the rest of the world, when is enough going to be enough. If this craziness was happening in most civilized countries in the world there would be rioting in the streets, couldn't we at least see the Thai people have mass peaceful protest, regardless of which side your on (like Democrats and Republicans in America) at some point don't you just have to say we're all Thai FIRST, then Yellow or Red or in-between. At some point you can no longer blame this on the dimwit's presently running the country, no, at some point you have to point the finger of blame towards the citizens of Thailand for letting this Mental Midget stay in power.

Can't arrest 80 million people..

[toybits]

How many times do you have to reinvent the wheel? Why discard the whole charter if some parts of it can be used?

Edited October 7, 2015 by toybits

[Thai at Heart]

"The key is how to make the charter a 'living' law that won't easily be scrapped."

No, the key is to ENTOMB the charter so it can never be changed.

Not really the point. It should be able to changed, but not by a simple majority. 66 or 75% super majority should be enough to represent the will of the people.

[Praematura]

The new charter will again reflect the elites no doubt. Someone should ask the pm if he will ask the appointed members of the military on the CDC to vote it down again so he can milk this out several mire years. I am fairly certain the pm has no plans on leaving in 2-3 years.

[farangmick]

Mislaid my reading glasses and read the headline as "Drifters unveil their visions...." Why not? An American vocal group could probably draft a better charter than the clowns presently entrusted with the job.

My take on any charter that emerges.

1. It is the inalienable right of the rich to get richer, by any means.

2. It is the duty of the poor to stay poor, so that they can serve the rich as cheaply as possible.

In England I was a lifelong conservative, with big and small C, but Thailand!

[sugarcane24]

Improving quality of citizens now are we?

What utter hypocrisy. They are doing their best to keep children mentally impaired by putting neurotoxic fluoride in children's school milk, encouraging them to brush their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste and injecting them with neurotoxic vaccines. The education system then adds further insult to injury and then they complain that Thai school children perform poorly. .