The committee also said that the new method proposed for selecting senators, plus the idea of listing candidates to be prime minister, would not work. And difficult charter amendments would cause another deadlock that would result in the latest charter draft being torn up after a future coup.

The NSRA was scheduled yesterday to comment to the Constitution Drafting Commission about the initial charter draft released last week. A number of political reform committee members took turns discussing its keys issues and agreed that the newly proposed electoral system — Mixed Member Apportionment (MMA) — was a weakness.

Seri Suwanpanon, the committee chairman, expressed concern that such an electoral method would not reflect the wishes of voters.

“They might prefer constituency and party-list candidates from different parties. Thus, forcing them to cross one mark and give their votes to both the party and the constituency candidates would not be fair,” he said.

He suggested that the two-ballot system be adopted with larger constituency areas. Voters’ intentions would be reflected and most votes meaningful – as the CDC had wanted them to be.

Wanchai Sornsiri, a veteran parliamentarian and a member of the committee, also said the MMA system was not fair. He gave it the title of “one for three” as one cross would determine all constituency winning candidates, the party’s popularity, and the candidates to be prime minister.

He also said the system would worsen the vote-buying problem. As a one- ballot system could dictate the fate of parties, they were very likely to want to invest in buying votes, Wanchai said.

Wittaya Kaewparadai, a former Democrat Party man and member of the committee, agreed on the vote buying issue, suggesting that the same method which marked one province as one constituency, as stipulated in the 1997 Constitution, could be adopted.

Another committee member Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, a former charter writer, also opposed the MMA system, saying it was not fair for small parties, which might not be able to field constituency candidates and could lose the right to any seat in the Lower House.

The political reform committee was critical of the “cross-election” of senators as well, fearing a “bloc vote” could make the process unfair.

Seri said that if senators really came to power through such an “unjust” way, their qualifications could not be guaranteed. He proposed that senators be chosen by a credible selection committee.

Wanchai agreed, but said the selection panel should be recruited intensively. It should also keep documents that noted the reasons for senators being selected.

Members also asked that drafters to consider dropping the idea to list candidates to be prime minister.

Kamnoon said this was unnecessary. Parties usually encouraged their leaders to take the top government job, anyway.

Another hot issue concerning the new draft was how amending the constitution had been made very difficult. A change had to be approved by at least 10 per cent of MPs of each party, and some points also required community approval in a referendum.

Chairman of the political reform panel said such a stipulation would make the constitution itself a source of conflict and could potentially lead to another charter being torn down.

Nikron Chamnong, a veteran politician and a member of the political reform panel, agreed, saying that things changed as time went by. The constitution should not be too tight and should have room for amendment in case situations changed.

“Get ready for a general election to be held soon,” Thaksin said on Sunday via a video call made to a group of former Pheu Thai MPs who joined a Chinese New Year celebration organised by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan at her residence in the Lat Pla Khao area.

The former prime minister also said Pheu Thai members in Bangkok have a team leader in Sudarat, who is a “competent lady”.

He also has branded the draft constitution as “shoddy” and claimed it would cause the country to become “backward – like Myanmar and North Korea”.

“The draft constitution is shoddy, giving too much power to the Constitutional Court. This will lead the country to be backward like Myanmar and North Korea,” he said.

“I left home 10 years ago but our country has stepped back 20 years,” Thaksin said. He also harshly criticised the junta.

The fugitive ex-PM said Pheu Thai had a good chance of returning to power.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam responded to Thaksin’s comment about the charter draft’s shortfalls, saying he acknowledged the criticism.

Wissanu also insisted that an election would be held next year.

Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) member Thitipan Chuabunchai said Thaksin had the right to criticise the charter but he should give constructive comments. “He was the country’s leader, so he should have said what the charter draft should include,” he said.

CDC member Chartchai Na Chiangmai, who serves as chairman of the commission’s public relations and survey departments, said Thaksin is influential and can make people believe what he says. He should use his potential to develop the country rather than make destructive criticisms or only comment with the intention to protect his party or self-interest, he said.

Meanwhile, Army commander-in-chief General Teerachai Nakwanich said United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship leaders Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua should stop criticising the Thai Reserve Officers and Training Corps Students about their campaign to educate the public about the charter draft.

Teerachai said the students had volunteered to spread information about the charter, which aims to combat graft. “Please do not shake their morale. They are not trying to lead the public to vote for or against the draft,” he said.

Cabinet members have proposed mechanisms to ensure the next government formed after the elections will carry on the task of reform during a transition period of at least four years.

Although the first draft of the charter touches on reform plans in certain sectors such as education and law enforcement, the government believes reform provisions should have a separate chapter and not be inserted in provisional chapters, which might downgrade reform efforts to only short-term implementation, Wissanu said. He added that reforms would be a lengthy process and require long-term measures.

Wissanu said the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) agreed with the government’s suggestion on the matter.

Meanwhile, PM’s Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana said he had given his feedback on the draft by stressing long-term national strategies that linked with reform plans. He added that farsighted strategies were needed to ensure that future governments would continually and seriously implement reform plans set out in the charter.

“At least during the transition period in the next four years, Thais should be assured that there will be good governance in the political system that enables the government to function and not be hit by a political impasse. This mechanism should strengthen the country to go through a transition period with social, economic and political stability,” he said.

Wissanu said every ministry had been instructed to give feedback on the charter draft and forward recommendations for review by tomorrow. Suwaphan questioned the motives of opponents campaigning for a public rejection of the charter. “They are the same group that want a general election to be held soon. But campaigning against the charter draft means an election will be further delayed. What are they thinking?” he asked.

In a related development, the NRSA will hold a two-day meeting starting today to review the draft to make its own recommendations to the CDC.

NRSA vice chair Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the assembly would schedule discussions to give each committee its own time slot. The NRSA has 12 reform committees lining up to propose their recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Democrat Party called on the government as well as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to allow the public and academic institutions to openly make comments on the charter.

Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the party, held a press conference yesterday to call for open comments. He said the CDC would benefit from thoroughly listening to the views of various sectors that might expose flaws or weaknesses, which could be addressed before the charter is finalised.

Besides, Ong-art said, a public exchange of viewpoints could encourage people to be more interested in the charter and vote in the planned referendum. The NCPO should take these benefits into account and loosen its grip limiting people’s forums regarding the charter, he added.

Suriyasai Katasila, director of Rangsit University’s Thailand Reform Institute, reiterated that the CDC must ensure that people have room to participate in politics, especially to achieve the primary anti-graft goal addressed in the charter.

Suriyasai said corruption has become more complicated because wrongdoing often takes place at a policy level. Greater public participation and better governance in laying out policies initially could help to prevent corruption of this kind, he added.

Meanwhile, the CDC held its second forum in the Northeast to listen to peoples’ views at the weekend. The forum, led by CDC deputy chair Apichart Sukhakhanont, saw representatives from 20 Northeast provinces showing particular interest in local political systems, government policies, and people and government’s rights, freedoms and duties.

In addition, representatives from three key non-profit organisations – the Northeastern Consumers Network, WeMove and the Northeastern Community Organisation – submitted comments about how the charter draft should be amended.

Premsak Piayura, mayor of Bann Pai, said the draft’s rules about the screening of political candidates would help minimise corruption. He also stressed that the CDC should engage local organisations to help educate people about the draft.

Patiwat Chalermchart, a representative of a consumers’ network, proposed the independence of consumer-protection organisations should be assured in the charter.

THE recent funeral of TV heartthrob Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong moved the public in many ways. Not only did his death result in a flood of tears, it also saw public anger being directed at the media for what many deemed was inappropriate news coverage, starting from the day Tridsadee was admitted to Ramathibodi Hospital suffering a rare form of dengue haemorrhagic fever to the day his ashes were scattered at sea.

Images of photographers flocking around his coffin went viral on social media, triggering criticism that the media showed a sheer lack of respect to Tridsadee’s family.

One of photographers at the scene, who wanted to be known only as “T”, said entertainment photographers and reporters told one another to “behave properly” while covering the Tridsadee story when he was in hospital.

“We told each other to dress properly and not to take any inappropriate photos,” T said. “My office insisted that I must not take photos of the ailing actor, otherwise I could infringe on his rights and that would be problematic.”

But during the funeral, he said, it was hard to take precautions because “everyone basically flocked together and it was hard to tell who was who”.

T believes that the most effective bodies to implement measures that would stop this kind of situation from occurring should be the media companies themselves, since the problems are rooted in competitiveness in the profession to obtain the best news to satisfy employers.

“After all, people will listen to who pays them the most,” he said, “[But] to me, media organisations can actually manage little to nothing on the issue.”

The coverage of Por’s death has become a challenge for the media industry in terms of ethics. Remarks such as T’s were raised in a recent meeting of five media organisations – the Thai Journalists Association (TJA), the Thai Broadcast Journalists Association (TBJA), the National Press Council of Thailand, the News Broadcasting Council of Thailand (NBCT) and the Society Online News Providers.

The meeting was convened to try and find a solution to these types of incidents.

Banyong Suwanpong, a TJA and TBJA ethics committee member, attended the meeting and said the five organisations agreed to gather and implement recommendations to prevent the public from having a crisis of faith regarding the media.

The organisations are expected to issue a code of conduct on Thai Journalists Day on March 5, Banyong said, in a bid to standardise guidelines for all registered media companies.

However, Banyong admitted that journalists in the entertainment and tabloid fields were not members of Thailand’s media organisations. Still, the media veteran remained positive.

“We cannot order anyone to join us, but we can publicise codes of conduct and society will be aware of them,” he said, explaining that the move will enable the public to better gauge how moral media organisations really are.

“To achieve successful media self-regulation, we need pressure from the social side also,” he said. “This is vice-versa. If the social mindset is more strengthened, maybe we could see better production from the media industry.”

In a bid to enhance media regulations, Banyong believes that self-regulation can be backed by the enactment of a law so there is a legal definition of what constitutes being a member of the media. He said the law would not be designed to punish anyone but instead would be a promotional tool as the media needs room to develop.

Banyong believes that media members must not only act responsibly by adhering to their professional pledges. He said one of the steps to achieve the ideal outcome was to create official courses managed by media organisations to certify editors so they were better placed to approve content ethically.

In relation to such a certification becoming mandatory for all registered editors, Banyong admitted that it was merely an idea at this stage and that there was a lack of funds to conduct nationwide research on the matter.

Mana Treelayapewat, dean of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s School of Communication Arts, agreed with the concept of media self-regulation. He believes that each media organisation should be monitored by an ombudsman, consisting of media insiders and observers, that sets rules especially regarding ethics.

Like Banyong, Mana agreed that civil society played a big part in regulating media, for example by preventing the media from infringing on the rights of others. There should also be government support to improve media ethics in the form of a broadly-written law, he said.

To strengthen society’s capability as a media watchdog, he stressed that media literacy should be included in course syllabuses to provide a solid foundation for social awareness on the matter. He said he was pushing that agenda in terms of education.

Pirongrong Ramasoota, a Chulalongkorn University lecturer in communication arts, believes that the government still needs to regulate media content on sensitive issues such as those that refer to young people or possible threats to national security. The media should then regulate themselves regarding the rest of their content, she said. Pirongrong has observed that only the traditional media, namely newspapers and radio and television stations, have shown progress building regulations governing ethics.

But regarding alternative media, she said that some online-based tabloids and local radio and TV stations appeared to group together, mainly to increase their bargaining power particularly when dealing with the NBTC.

Concerning popular figures in social media like Jar Pichit of “Drama Addict”, the academic sees a rosier picture.

“The younger generation on social media tends to be aware or responsible when dealing with content,” she said, implying this is a case of effective self-regulation.

Uajit Virojtrairatt, chairwoman of watchdog Media Monitor, doubts that self-regulation can ever be effective in light of past lessons. Uajit said the most effective way to improve media standards would be joint regulation by the media and government authorities, such as a cooperative effort by the NBTC and media consumer groups.

She said that while the authorities can provide strict guidelines for the media to follow, consumer groups should supply feedback including suggestions about how to improve the situation. If they work effectively together, co-regulation should standardise responsible behaviour within the media arena, she added.

Uajit however admitted that this was merely a proposal at this point. And she conceded that implementation was a long way off given what she described as media consumer groups’ lack of activity along with the NBTC’s passive approach regarding media ethics regulations.

“We are also challenged by the fact that many media organisations compete against each other based on quantitative measurements. For instance, how fast they can deliver news,” she said. “And I understand that everyone wants to survive.”

Wasan Paileeklee, a former member of the now-defunct National Reform Council (NRC)’s media reform committee, agreed that a balance was needed to achieve successful self-regulation, and a degree of legislation was essential.

Having written a draft on media regulations during his term on the NRC, Wasan said the law was not designed to give orders to media organisations but to support self-regulation.

He believes that a central body featuring key media figures is essential to successfully regulate the industry. The NRC law would support self-regulation and increase responsible media practices, he said.

The draft of the law was approved by a NRC vote before being proposed to the Cabinet, he said, adding that no more progress had been made on the matter.

Pongpanu said the budget set aside for preparing the venue passed the scrutiny of a mean-price-determination committee and followed negotiations with a private firm.

He was responding to criticism that too much was spent on preparations for the meeting. He said the event drew nearly 600 participants after 250 had initially been expected.

A fact-finding team was probing the controversy and if the ministry found any wrongdoers they would face penalties, he said.

Sansern said Thailand’s global rating for transparency is in line with the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s latest survey on corruption, which showed the graft problem had significantly reduced over the past six years.

He said this was the result of the Prayut Chan-o-cha government’s policy to make fighting graft a national priority and enforce the policy effectively with cooperation from all sectors of society.

He said the new charter draft included special mechanisms to combat graft.