With 20 constitutions, Thailand joins a select league

[webfact]

With 20 constitutions, Thailand joins a select league
By Kittipong Thavevong
The Nation

 

 

BANGKOK: -- With its new charter – the 20th – promulgated in early April, Thailand has joined the league of countries with the most constitutions.

 

The Dominican Republic in the Caribbean has the most constitutions – 32 since gaining independence in 1844. There are three other countries with 20 or more constitutions, all of them also in Latin America – Venezuela (26), Haiti (24) and Ecuador (20).

 

One main reason Thailand has so many constitutions is that it has experienced so many military coups – 13 since the absolute monarchy was replaced by the constitutional monarchy in the so-called Siamese Revolution of 1932. In fact, many people also regard the power seizure in June that year, led by a group of Western-educated military officers and bureaucrats called Khana Ratsadon (which means “People’s Party”), as a coup d’etat. 

 

 

Coup-makers often abolish the constitutions in effect at that time, as it is a severe violation of the charter to overthrow a government. They often follow that up with issuing an order that exempts them from any resulting criminal offences. 

 

Most Thai constitutions were abolished after a military coup and were often replaced by new ones written by a drafting committee appointed by the coup-makers. And throughout history, coup-makers attempted to influence – directly or indirectly – the drafting of a new constitution to be promulgated to replace the one that they abolished.

 

Here are some interesting facts about the Thai constitutions: 

 

Post-coup interim charters were often brief, often having only dozens of articles – barely enough for the coup-makers or their appointed prime ministers to run the post-coup administrations. The latest provisional charter of 2014 had 48 articles.

 

In contrast, “permanent” constitutions tend to be longer and longer – with the recent ones usually containing over 200 articles – apparently attempting to cover as many areas as possible with a lot of details. The current one, in effect since April 6, has 279 articles.

 

The country’s last three “permanent” constitutions came into existence every decade – in 1997, 2007 and 2017.

 

The average life span of Thailand’s 19 past constitutions is four years and three months. The 1932 Constitution of the Kingdom of Siam had the longest duration of 13 years and five months, while the 1932 Temporary Charter for the Administration of Siam lasted for the shortest period of six months. When considering only the 10 “permanent” constitutions, which were in effect for a combined period of 63 years and two months, they each lasted an average six years and three months.

 

Only one other constitution – the 1978 charter – lasted for over a decade, being in effect for 12 years and two months. The others were in use for between 10 months to nine years and five months.

 

The 1946 Constitution was the Kingdom’s first to require that Senate members be elected, the other being the 1997 constitution.

 

The charter of 1997 was the only one written by democratically elected drafters. It was praised for containing a lot of checks and balance mechanisms, including independent organisations and an elected Senate to scrutinise elected rulers. 

 

Unfortunately, as critics said, the charter was abused by certain politicians in power at that time who appeared to take advantage of its loopholes for their benefit. This argument was also cited when a group of military commanders led by then-Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin seized power from the Thaksin Shinawatra government in September 2006.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30316132

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-05-24

[klauskunkel]

Ok,... but Thailand has also a missing plaque, surely that puts it in a league of its own? 

[wxpwzrd]

Uh... Congratulations? 

[Thailand]

[rkidlad]

Thailand, instead of looking like countries like The Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela, look to countries like Colombia. Colombia was basically a failed state as lately as the early '90s, and now they're a powerhouse in Latin America. A country that still has a bad reputation but has advanced exponentially. A country where they will be honest and admit how bad it was, but be so proud of the massive changes they made as a society working together. (And no, I'm not saying it's perfect. Where is?)

 

South Korea is the same. There's no reason Thailand can't be same as well. It's all to do with education and the real teaching of working together. Anyone can sing a song and stand in front of a flag. Not everyone has the real patriotism to physically work towards a better society and open dialogues with people who think differently. 

[YetAnother]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Coup-makers often abolish the constitutions in effect at that time, as it is a severe violation of the charter to overthrow a government.

they broke the law at that moment; abolishing a current constit doesnt change what happened;

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

They often follow that up with issuing an order that exempts them from any resulting criminal offences. 

shows the social 'culture' here; above the law even tho they broke it;

in line with the astonishing idea of prospective amnesty (?!)

[yellowboat]

16 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Thailand, instead of looking like countries like The Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela, look to countries like Colombia. Colombia was basically a failed state as lately as the early '90s, and now they're a powerhouse in Latin America. A country that still has a bad reputation but has advanced exponentially. A country where they will be honest and admit how bad it was, but be so proud of the massive changes they made as a society working together. (And no, I'm not saying it's perfect. Where is?)

 

South Korea is the same. There's no reason Thailand can't be same as well. It's all to do with education and the real teaching of working together. Anyone can sing a song and stand in front of a flag. Not everyone has the real patriotism to physically work towards a better society and open dialogues with people who think differently. 

Taiwan was a dictatorship years back, and now it is a society that has embraced rule of law and has a participatory government.  Without a love of fairness and laws and actions that reflect that, Thailand and other countries will never become great.  They will always be autocratic and unfair. 

[soalbundy]

They are working towards a full deck of cards, i see now why the UK has no written constitution, paper is easily torn, the mindset of the people is important along with a tradition of fairness.

[mtls2005]

Interesting company.

 

To quote Bill Maher, "Would you like some banana with that republic?"

[tigermoth]

Any constitution made by an unelected government is illegal as is the government. The only constitution which is still a legal one and relevant is the one made by the last elected government.

[Misterwhisper]

This is a strange article, because it fails to look at the bigger picture. Instead, it sounds rather apologetic by basically saying, "hey, some other countries change their constitutions like their underwear, too, not only Thailand."

 

But  when we look at individual time lines, Thailand is in fact the worst of the bunch when it comes to its constitutions:

 

-- Dominican Republic gained independence in 1844, i.e. 173 years ago. They've had 32 constitutions since then, i.e. each constitution lasting 5 years and 5 months on average.

 

-- Venezuela gained independence in 1811, i.e. 206 years ago. They've had 26 constitutions since then, i.e. each constitution lasting 8 years on average.

 

-- Haiti gained independence in 1804, i.e. 213 years ago. They've had 20 constitutions since then, i.e. each constitution lasting 8 years and 10 months on average.

 

-- Haiti gained independence in 1821, i.e. 196 years ago. They've had 20 constitutions since then, i.e. each constitution lasting 9 years and 9 months on average.

 

AND NOW THAILAND:

 

A constitutional monarchy only since 1932, i.e. a mere 85 years. Yet they've had 20 constitutions since then, each lasting a pitiful 4 years and 3 months on average.

 

Bravo, Thailand! Finally you've become a true hub of something. A world champion. No need to be proud of it, though.