Steering assembly to drive Thai reform and development agendas

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Steering assembly to drive reform and development agendas
Wasamon Audjarint
Nattapat Promkaew
Kasamakorn Chanwanpen
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- The National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) will veer away from repeating what the now-defunct National Reform Council (NRC) has already done, its vice president said yesterday.

Alongkorn Ponlaboot said that while the NRC had set up reform and development agendas and submitted them to the Cabinet for consideration, the NRSA would work on the practicalities of those agendas.

Prioritising all agendas, the NRSA will hold general discussions on each agenda until November 17. Then, the NRSA's 11 committees, to be set up on November 2 according to Article 27 of the interim charter, will gather opinions from discussions. The opinions will then be used to consider earlier proposals by the NRC and some operative meetings, Alongkorn said.

The NRSA will also organise a public discussion on 11 reform frameworks with the other members of the "five rivers": the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the Cabinet, the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) and the National Legislative Assembly (NLA).

In accordance with the government's 6-4-6-4 timeline scheme, the NRSA works on its own 1-1-18 scheme: the first month to establish its mechanism, the second month to reconsider the NRC's 37 agendas on reforms and 8 agendas on development, and the next 18 months to conclude all reform approaches to the Cabinet and write related legislation drafts to be submitted to the NLA.

NRSA chairman Tinnapan Nakata said the "five rivers" must coordinate their efforts to ensure that they work in the same direction.

"Our work should be in line with one another, especially when we have such a limited time. Everything should go in the same direction," he said, referring to the five rivers.

Alongkorn earlier told the Nation that two joint committees would be set up to facilitate their coordination following a recent directive by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. One would be work between the NRSA, the NLA, and the Cabinet, and the other would be between the NRSA, the Cabinet and the CDC.

In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam yesterday revealed that tomorrow's "five rivers" meeting will be broadcast live through the Parliament's radio and television channels.

The meeting will also be joined by ministerial permanent secretaries and equally high-ranking civil servants, Wissanu said, because 20 officers have recently been appointed to the highest bureaucratic rank of C11.

Prayut expects to discuss reforms for the first time with the NRSA, Wissanu said, and he will also open the floor for questioning.

The NRSA will begin its work on reforms before the election, the deputy premier added. However, these reforms will not be completed before the election as they will take some time.

Reconciliation also needs to be developed to some extent, he added, so the election can be organised for the next government to come and continue on reforms and reconciliation. On the other hand, the election cannot be organised if the country remains fractious.

The NRSA had been scheduled to discuss its political agenda yesterday. However, Alongkorn postponed the discussion to next Monday as the agenda's content is complicated and may take a whole day to finish.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Steering-assembly-to-drive-reform-and-development--30271674.html

-- The Nation 2015-10-27

[davehowden]

Thailand can surely claim to be the "Hub of Committees" with meaningless agendas and negligible outcomes.

It is only the limiting factor of there being just 26 letters in the Farang alphabet that prevents them having more of these navel contemplating bun fights.

[oneday]

What a mess this all is.

[FangFerang]

All the junta cheerleaders are, one by one, falling silent as they suddenly realize this is history repeating itself for the eighteenth time. And no matter how much they hate the dreaded Mr T, and his sister -- equally of course to be fair -- they are realizing that no side has a monopoly on selective enforcement, gerrymandering vote theft, megalomania, or corruption...

Welcome back to the days of future past. Again.

Are your moodies all blue?....

[Thai at Heart]

Still no hard statements on what this reform is actually meant to achieve.