20.31-Profile by Tammy: Loosing their “people’s Charter,” Thais will have to live with a military drawn charter for the time being

Prem, the privy Council to the Thai King, takes military leaders to gain approval for the coup that tore up the people's charter

Nature of Thais…….This is a Story about Mark and Thailand’s Sad Constitution

Thais like Mark, are not a people known for decisiveness and principle, but a people of compromise. That is good in a way but also bad when strenght of character and leadership are needed to move the country ahead, when controversial blocks that progress. Nothing in Thailand’s past three years exemplify better the flip-flopping nature of some Thais such as Mark, than the “big question” about the Thai constitution.

While some Thais have stuck to their guns, through thick and thin, to amend the constitution, many such as Mark, have changed their position in the face of difficulties. This is a profile of Mark, the story about the Thai constitution, and how Thais are having to live with a military drawn charter, instead of a charter from the people-as many Thais dream for.

Charter: Guiding a Country vs Political Football

Yesterday, the new Thai  PM of the Democrat Party, Mark, said that his party disagreed with Nevin’s demand to amend the constitution and will not have it in the government’s policy declaration to Parliament. The current position, reverse his earlier position to amend the charter.

Nevin lead a group of MPs that defected to support Mark for the PM position, on condition that Mark amend the constitution. However, after receiving key cabinet posts, Nevin now seem happy enough to forget about the charter amendments, as he earlier demanded.

The current constitution, many believe, gives birth to the Amart system, where powers outside elected officials have an “invisible hand of power” that influences politics and controls the elected officials to a great extent.

Mark & Samak Agreed to Amend Constitution

Right after the last election, that saw the Thaksin influenced party PPP won the election, Mark and Samak, head of PPP, came out in agreement that the constitution must be amended. That event was heralded as an example of Thailand’s non-partisan political development, where political parties put the country’s interest ahead of party’s interest.

At a widely televised joint press conference between Mark and Samak, Mark said, “I welcome the opportunity to work on the amending the constitution with the government.”

Now Mark is Against Amending

Mark benefited from the Amart system, which twisted Thai politics to get Mark the PM seat. Therefore Mark is either paying back to the system that got him the PM seat, and thus is betting that the current constitution will continue to keep the Amart system going-for further support to the Democrats. Yet other observers also said Mark appear to want to appease Sondhi of the PAD who last week said the PAD will protest any government that amend the constitution.

Observers say while the PAD says in the open it does not want an amendment because it fear the amendment will be twisted into helping Thaksin, in fact the PAD is just pushing for its new politics, which is an advance form of the current military charter.

“It will not be a stated objective of this government, but will be included in the clause on improving and promoting democracy and if there were to be amendments, it would be carried out under that clause at the appropriate time,” said Mark, days ago.

Mark Used to be Strongly Against Current Charter

During the time that the constitution was being written by the army, Mark had some strong objection to the Constitution.

“I am very opposed to senators being appointed rather than elected, as recommended by the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC),” said Mark.

Mark also dismissed the CDC’s reasons that appointing senators would solve the problem of nepotism in both chambers of Parliament and the failure of the Senate to check on the Lower House because of that. Moreover, the Democrats had proposed that senators should represent constituencies larger than a province or citizens should be allowed to vote across provinces.

Rules and criteria for Senate candidates should also be tightened, Mark said.

Mark also expressed concern over the move to appoint senators, pointing to a potential conflict of interest if senators continue to appoint and remove members of independent organizations while members of independent agencies are included in the senator selection panel.

Boy or  Man: A “Boy” is without principles, while a “Man” fight for his principles!

While many understands Mark, that since the current charter creates the Amart system that benefits him, there are no reasons to change it, and also the fact that the PAD is a force not to toy with, others say that Mark is nothing but an opportunist who changes his tun at every turn of events.

“The PM needs to show that he is a man of principles because isn’t that what the Democrats accuses Thaksin of lacking,” said Jatuporn of the For Thai Party. Jatuporn also said he is quite surprised by those that defected the old coalition to join Mark, on the subject of amending the charter.

“What hypocracy? The current government coalition CTP Party also voiced very very strong support for amending the constitution. But now, not just CTP Party,  all coalition member parties have now changed position and going along with the Democrat Party on not touching the constitution,” said Jatuporn.

Jatuporn is not making it up!

“It is important to amend the constitution because if we have an election, it must be under better rules like making it fairer and more just when it comes  to representation system or the way in dissolving political parties, and as importantly it must be more democratic,” said Banharn, head of the now defunct Chart Thai party, only a few months ago.

Banharn’s back-up party CTP Party, defected to Mark, now says nothing about the constitution amendment.

Mark’s Coalition Member also Changes Position

Earlier, like Banharn and CTP, Mark’s government coalition parties opposed many aspects of the constitution. It opposes especially the part about representation system, especially the multi-seat constituency system, which means each province will have at least three members of Parliament. The system was used in the general election in 1995 until it was later changed.

“Reducing the Lower House’s membership would make MPs quarrel over responsibilities, because they will have to look after more constituents. The resulting conflicts among MPs would weaken the party system. I disapproved of the CDC’s move to cut constituency MPs from 400 to 320, because it would lead to fierce competition in elections and make vote-buying inevitable. It would also not let new parties and new candidates enter politics,” said Banharn, head of the CTP Party, during its drafting.

Mahachon Party deputy leader Akapol Sorasuchart said his party had no problem with the multi-seat system but that MPs might not be able to take care of their constituents properly, because the constituencies would be larger. “The bond between MPs and voters will not be as close as in single-seat constituencies,” he said.

The Evil that Men Do

Despite all the excuses and accusations, what is really at heart about the last coup was the attempt to stop Thaksin from abusing power from exploiting weak-spots of the people’s charter.

That is if one believes Thaksin had too much power since the opposition could still launch many severe no-confidence debates, the press was able to hound Thaksin without end, the indy part of the Senate still barked successively at Thaksin, the courts still threw out many of Thaksin’s policies like privatization, and the academic and the upper crust still kept pressure on-to the point that PAD came to be during Thaksin. But if that were the case, observers now believe, the military charter simply replaced Thaksin, with the “invisible hands” of the ruling upper crust of Thai society.

“I could argue that the coup charter should be changes for the same reason anyone can argue that the people’s charter needed changing, because the result is exactly the same, but only the sides changed,” said Samphanwongs of Chula.

Yet Samphanwongs say that under Thaksin, the economy prospered and there were genuine peace in society before the PAD came into being.

“We has a period of solid 5 years economic progress and peaceful society under Thaksin. Then the pendelum swung against the grassroots and the swing back to the upper class and the rich had torn the country apart like never before and caused trillions upon trillions of baht in damages to the Thai economy. Literally, the swing back has stunned Thai growth, financially and culturally,” he said.

Academics Support Fixing Charter

Academics, who also voiced concern about the constitution also appeared to abandoned attempt to amend it.

“We disagree with the idea of multi-seat constituencies, since such an arrangement would erode equality rights and we are concerned the bonds between MPs and voters would be weakened in large constituencies,” said Thammasat University law lecturer Prinya Thewanaruemitkul, adding he disagreed with multi-seat constituencies, because the system was based on population and not on the equality of people.

“Some provinces, such as Ranong, which has a lower population than other provinces, would get only one MP, but constituencies in larger provinces like Nakhon Ratchasima would get three MPs,” he said.

The drafters said the system could prevent vote-buying, but the lecturer disagreed. He said whether it was a multi- or single-seat constituency, vote-buying would still be a problem. Prinya said he understood the drafters wanted to increase the chances of small parties gaining seats in Parliament.

The Real Objective of the Military

“The single-seat system did make major parties strong, while smaller parties had few chances to win,” Prinya conceded. He said the current drafters wanted to see a coalition government after witnessing how the single-seat system helped the Thaksin government become so dominant. But there was no system that could prevent vote-buying.

While other academic such as Prasit Piwawatthanphanit, Law, Thammasat University says, there needs to be a better balance by amending the military constitution-for both the development of democracy and scrutiny.

“It is well known that the 2007 constitution does not conform to democracy in terms of its origins and substance. Many articles create problems in the use and interpretation of law and reduce the stability of the executive.” said Prasit.

Observer says that with a weak government, especially the executive branch, it will be easier for the “invisible hands” to influence politics.

Now Best Time to Amend……If not for PAD

Prasit also said now is the time to amend the constitution, “Thus, at this moment when Thai politics is beginning to return to normalcy, and has an elected civilian government and a parliament, the people sector should now begin the process to amend the constitution.” However, he said, there is the PAD threat of protest to consider. He said the following should be the objective of the amendments:

1) To increase democratic nature of politics, let the people become truly sovereign

2) Consider the principle of equality, whether it be legal, economic, educational, or of opportunity.

3) Reduce authoritarian power.

4) Increase executive power and the power to scrutinize the government.

5) Increase protection of the rights and freedoms of the people, in conformity with international standards to which Thailand is a party.

6) Hold to the principle of the supremacy of civilian government over the military.

Those 6 well known objectives comes straight against the military charter objectives, observers say. “The military, through its influences over the PAD, and the PAD will never let that happen. They are about the wealthy and upper crust controlling Thailand, not about the people. They will not allow it,” said Jatuporn, of the PT Party.

A Bridge too Far, a Dream too Great?

Indeed, many observer said what Prasit want, may be democratic, but no one will be able to get it pass vested Amart interests, especially on the issue of privy council. Under Prem, the privy council dove head on into politics, causing a Tsunami to hit the Thai monarchy, that is still going on today as foreign press blast the Thai King and Queen.

“………..Amendment should be according to these principles; require asset declaration by the top military figures, or stipulate in an amendment that states the military may not use force to launch a coup and abolish the constitution and might also add to the amendments “Privy Councillors must not get involved in politics directly or indirectly……

………….The old constitutions merely state that PC should not take sides. Today this is not enough because can get involved in politics without expressing support for one side or another; including to follow the 2489 constitution that stated that rank of nobility, either by birth or appointment, can not confer any privilege because Democracy is based on human equality…………

…………..In the past there have been members of the royal family getting involved in politics…the amendment on equality should note the equality of all citizens, people should not be able to refer to their positions in order to increase their own importance,” said Prasit………….

Not a Small Job…..Thaksin and PAD Lurking?

Other academic pointed to a host of necessary improvements include-the organic laws, as there are This paragraph lists various things that might be amended including, election law, the origins of senators, the role and power of the Electoral Commission, the role of the judiciary in selecting membership of the independent agencies, the right to make international treaties, the position of the prime minister, the right of appeal for political office holders, policy on national security, use of budgets by civil service or state enterprises, the right to amend the budget of courts and agencies.

However pro-amending, some academic also fear a total meltdown of Thai judiciary system, if the military constitution was changed much, especially in the part about “who did what wrong.”

“The Thai judiciary system back can break any day now because of so many questionable rulings. If we tried to amend the constitution and it turns out to be a free for all pardon for all wrong doings by everyone from the PAD, to the military, to the police and to Thaksin, it might leave the Thai judiciary system weak to the point that nobody listening to, or respecting it anymore,” said Pakdisorn, law lecturer of Thammasart.

That prospect is more real than imagine, as many MPs on “this and that sides” have come out to call for a general political pardon for all, as to start Thai politics from “scratch.” This line of reasoning says that there are just too much bad blood circulating and the system needs to start anew. However, the military drawn constitution, which pardoned all wrong doings by the coup leaders in the past or future, have raised so much outcry against it, observers fear a general pardon for all is a concern that must be taken out of the equation before amending the current charter can take place.

Observers say Democracy and Amart Fighting Continues

Observers said while Mark has apparently switch sides and is now against amending the constitution, in fact the issue of amending the constitution this time will probably be a foretaste or sounding out of the contest/conflict/pushing and shoving between democratic and conservative-authoritarian sides.

” In attempting to amend the constitution this time, we should use the opportunity to mobilise the people and democracy as much as possible, even though it will not be possible to do this fully now with Mark against it, and to get beyond individuals like Sondhi of the PAD and political parties like the Democrats would now be difficult,” said one observer.

Mark being Mark, will probably wait for a consensus to developed before stating his position. But it is clear from his actions, such as the selection of the cabinet post, that he is appeasing the Amart to a great extent and that bodes ill for those looking to further the principles of Democracy in Thailand.