Thai Army Reserve students to educate public on charter, drafting process

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Army Reserve students to educate public on charter, drafting process
JITRAPORN SENWONG,
KASAMAKORN CHANWANPEN,
NATTAPAT PHROMKAEW

300,000 STUDENTS TO BE TAUGHT ABOUT CONSTITUTION 'TO SPREAD CORRECT DETAILS'

BANGKOk:-- THE NATIONAL Council for Peace and Order will use Army Reserve students as a channel that it hopes will help the public get a greater understanding of the draft constitution before it is voted on in a national referendum.

Lt-General Werachai Indusobhana, commander of the Territorial Defence Command, said yesterday the Army would stage an activity in which the 300,000 or so military reserve students nationwide would get greater understanding of the constitution and how it is being written.

Werachai outlined three stages of the programme at its launch yesterday.

The first stage involves nationwide seminars this month and next month where the people who will teach the students under their command will themselves be educated about the charter.

That will be followed by the students being lectured on the constitution and the process of drafting it.

In the third stage, the students will be used as core figures in helping to explain the constitution and the drafting process to their families and communities ahead of next year's scheduled referendum.

The 2014 provisional charter says the Constitution Drafting Commission must finish the draft by next April and send it to concerned agencies for review and it needs to be approved via a national referendum.

A drafter of the voted-down first charter, Wuttisak Lapcharoensap, and a current drafter, Amorn Wanichwiwatana, will take part in the campaign.

Wuttisak stressed that training of the students was not to brainwash them but to ensure correct details could be spread ahead of the referendum.

Amorn, a CDC spokesman, said the 21 CDC members alone could not make Thais understand the draft so they needed to rely on the students for help.

He said he would impart the right information on the military.

Commenting on the controversial Article 35 of the interim constitution, Amorn said it did not mean the establishment of a reform and strategic committee, feared by some to be more powerful than the future government if set up, was a certainty.

The CDC will gather public opinion on whether they want the committee included in the draft charter, he said.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam admitted that the NCPO- and Article 35-supplied framework the CDC worked under limited the panel's independence although he said the drafters were given enough leeway to write what they wanted.

Wissanu also said the framework did not mean the CDC had to include the reform and strategic committee in the charter draft.

He insisted that there was nothing worrying about Article 35 because it only stipulated what the public wanted such as eliminating corruption and populist policies.

In a related development, the Ombudsmen have asked the charter drafters yesterday to give their office the capacity to discipline state agencies that fail to act in accordance with suggestions within 90 days, in the same way as when they violate a Cabinet resolution.

The request came after the CDC invited the Ombudsmen on how to enhance the performance of their office in investigating complaints about poor or improper administration by public authorities.

The Ombudsmen - there are three - proposed six major points they would like to see in the draft constitution to help facilitate their duties being fulfilled. Most share the same bottom line - that the Ombudsmen should have the same powers granted to their office by the 2007 Constitution, if not more.

Meanwhile, CDC spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said that as the CDC had already been working for two weeks it was time that they invite envoys and international organisations to hear about progress on the charter. The invitation had been widely accepted, so diplomats and group representatives would meet with the drafters on Monday, he said. However, he said the press were not included.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Army-Reserve-students-to-educate-public-on-charter-30271072.html

-- The Nation 2015-10-17

[metisdead]

A Hitler nonsense troll post has been removed.

[Somtamnication]

It was, but I see the point about "youth" spreading govt. information. This is the same same but different year.

[NongKhaiKid]

Will they all go out to lecture wearing uniform so there's no doubt who they are and who they represent ?

[arthurboy]

This is sinister.

2015, Thai youth parading around their local communities extolling the virtues of a new democracy, a new future. They, marching together, a shining beacon, repeating - mantra like - the junta's hopes and dreams of the future.

On the up side. It won't work.

[BSJ]

This is sinister.

2015, Thai youth parading around their local communities extolling the virtues of a new democracy, a new future. They, marching together, a shining beacon, repeating - mantra like - the junta's hopes and dreams of the future.

On the up side. It won't work.

Sinister....maybe, but the young people in the Army reserve maybe more attuned to the absurdity of the situation than we give them credit for.

[Christie Paul]

The problem is that regardless of how much planning, propaganda, force, coercion, seduction and appeals to reason are made; the people in the final analysis are only interested in one thing - economic progress.

And as the authorities miss opportunities, bludgeon organic growth, mangle and mismanage the economy, they will confront an increasingly restive population. This leads to a natural dilemma for the focus of leadership.

Which is better, to be loved or to be feared?

[baboon]

And what qualifies grunts to deliver soliloquies on constitutional matters? Do you need degrees in political science to get into the army these days?

[Somtamnication]

Well, everybody knows, that in Thailand, elders listen to the youth. Not like it was 50 years ago.

[dominique355]

Are questions allowed and will they be answered?

[yellowboat]

Can these youngsters be videoed having debates those they are informing ? Will they debate ? Can they argue a point ? Are they expected to think for themselves ? It reeks of delusion, propaganda and just poor taste.

[Bluespunk]

"He insisted that there was nothing worrying about Article 35 because it only stipulated what the public wanted such as eliminating corruption and populist policies."

Hope the students are better at explaining the articles of the constitution than this guy.

Who needs brainwashing when you can effectively just say "don't worry about it, it's what you asked for....with the added bonus of extra stuff you didn't".

Edited October 17, 2015 by Bluespunk

[jayboy]

Ludicrous of course but interesting because of the underlying context.An unspoken deep fear among the rulers, as in all dictatorial regimes, is the concern that the armed forces (where the majority's husbands, sons and daughters serve) might see through the lies and propaganda, and turn against the regime.The only guaranteed way to prevent this is to impose a Chinese type solution where the state is all embracing.In the case of China, the Communist Party despite its terrible excesses during the Cultural Revolution has the advantage of being able to show many stunning achievements of which the most impressive is presiding over lifting more people out of poverty than has ever happened in human history.

The Thai establishment and its armed wing (The Thai Army) has no such record of achievement.All it has brought to the Thai people over the years are suffering, corruption, incompetence and when it felt threatened .. outright murder.Thus there is always a small but ineardicable nervousness about the arm.

Chesterton wrote some verse about the silent English masses.I think the same sentiment can be applied to the Thai majority. And the Thai majority's interests are vested in the rank and file of the armed forces.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet, Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street. It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first, Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst. It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best. But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

[jcsmith]

And what qualifies grunts to deliver soliloquies on constitutional matters? Do you need degrees in political science to get into the army these days?

In the real world: Nothing.

In whatever bizarro reality the junta lives in: They have already been properly brainwashed.

[chainarong]

The blind leading the blind , anyone above the rank of private would be hard pressed to understand most of the mumbo jumbo , it would seem that the road to Thai Democracy is indeed covered with potholes, one wonders whether Prayut-O popularity downwards drift isn't coupled to silly stunts like this, notwithstanding section 44.

[sawadee1947]

give them education = brain wash

[EJK]

Just marketing for the upcoming elections nothing unusual all potential governments have there ways

[Lupatria]

The best way to educate these folks would be if they hand out comic versions of Orwell's 1984, or is the book indexed already?

[JAG]

This should be a guinea a minute. All the youngsters I know in the cadets are there because it reduces their draft liability, the girls because their boyfriends are in it! The one thing they do not have is any burning political zeal!

[MobileContent]

300,000 JW bottles that what my Mrs told me last week when she asked her friends how they received their official certificates which is needed to change the title into her ID card. After 4 1/2 years she still have not received the letter with her certificate (corruption at its best at the army to lure 700 Baht out of the pockets from students.)

[Srikcir]

Yet, if these same students were on their OWN attempt as CIVILIANS to educate the public on the charter and drafting process they would be arrested and charged by both the NCPO and the Criminal Administrative court for potentially creating conflict.

"Extremism in defense of liberty is not a vice, but I denounce political extremism, of the left or the right, based on duplicity, falsehood, fear, violence and threats when they endanger liberty." - George W. Romney

[Praematura]

Lol Thai Army Reservists explaining how the constitution works and the bemused look on the Thai villager. Haha.