The event will be held at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, California from February 14-18 on the invitation of US President Barack Obama.

The president visited Kuala Lumpur in November and called for the summit to held in a bid to push economic partnerships, form new security collaborations and confront key international challenges.

Sek said the invitation showed that in the eyes of the US, Thailand still played an important role in the US-Asean collaboration and saw the Kingdom as the hub of the region, which could lead to more key cooperation.

The summit follows the official launch of the Asean Economic Community on December 31.

Sek said the meeting aimed to enhance relationships and advance strategic partnerships among attending countries.

He said the prime minister would focus on economic partnerships, sustainable development, and security collaboration including for international issues at the summit.

As part of the justice campaign, social-media users have been sharing Dolrudee’s photos, her home address, her office address as well as her colleagues’ contact information. They have also set up a petition calling on Harvard to stop supporting her, saying she had taken advantage of taxpayers and the country for the sake of furthering her education. Many lashed out at her using rude language, while others gave her a poor rating and expressed their disappointment on Harvard University’sFacebook page calling for the university to take action against her.

After more than a thousand users began posting comments since last Friday at her post on Olsen Symposium, which contained her picture dating back to April 2011, the post was pulled off on Thursday.

Fuadi Pitsuwan, however, wrote: “On the dentist breaching the scholarship contract, I don’t think we should see it in terms of patriotism or gratitude for the country. Everybody with that level of education knows that being a researcher at such a university will be a better contribution to humanity and Thailand [than at a university in Thailand] … The problem is that she left her guarantors to pay the debt for her without any concrete plans to repay. These are different issues.”

In an e-mail response to |questions from Nation TV on Wednesday, Dolrudee wrote that she always intended to repay the scholarship she got from Mahidol University, and had asked for flexibility in paying it back.

She wrote that she had sent US$50,000 to the co-signers last April and asked Mahidol University to extend the deadline so she had enough time to find more cash. She also promised the co-signers that their loans would be paid off with interest once she could obtain the necessary funds in the near future.

“I hope this case will result in a major change in the scholarship awarding and repaying system in Thailand – a system that would allow reasonable and beneficial alternatives for the awardees to repay the loan,” she wrote.

Commenting on Nation TV22’s post of her letter, ScubaDiver Tau wrote: “Before you sign a scholarship contract, you should know all the conditions as to when you would have to repay or what penalties you would face in case you breach the contract. It is not right to complain later that the contract was not fair after breaching it.”

Nats Nathee Sup wrote: “Your behaviour so far has not signalled that you intend to repay. This is just a one-sided claim of one person.”

Natthawut Paisanwipatch-pong wrote: “Actually guarantors should not have paid [the debt for Dolreudee], but should have let Mahidol seek it from her on its own. It has been negligent for 10 years and just before the statute of limitations kicked in, it forced this from the guarantors. Mahidol will just do this again.”

Other than taking on Dolrudee’s case, Thai social-media users also pushed for two juvenile suspects in a murder and gang-rape case in Phattalung to be tried as adults. Many have also been campaigning for people accused of rape and murder to be given the death penalty instead of being considered for amnesty.

They have called for the adoption of a two-ballot system, plus a system in which senators are selected.

They also believe there should be a chapter on reform agenda items in the constitution, not just a small clause in the transitory provisions.

They spoke during an NLA session in Parliament yesterday in which suggestions on the draft were offered – before formal |recommendations are made.

Many legislators believe the proposed mixed-member apportionment ballot system, or single-ballot system, would favour big parties capable of fielding more constituency candidates and that it would make the vote-buying problem worse.

Under the system in the draft, the number of MP seats a party gets would depend on the votes gained in each constituency and that would disadvantage small parties, they said.

Legislators said another pitfall of the MMA system was that it did not reflect voter intentions. Legislators agreed that the two-ballot system was preferable in this respect.

They said that often voters favoured constituency candidates, but not their parties. With two ballots, they could choose more freely.

They also said having a list of candidates to be prime minister would make the process more confusing.

Klanarong Chantik, an NLA member, said it was possible a voter would favour one party but like another party’s constituency candidate and prefer a third party’s candidate to be PM.

Legislators proposed that drafters review this matter and reconsider the two-ballot system.

Legislator Jate Siratharanon preferred the system proposed by Borwornsak Uwanno, head of the previous drafting panel, as voters are more used to two ballots.

Many representatives voiced concerned on the new selection method in the draft for senators. Besides the bloc vote issue, they deemed the section on 20 social groups vague and the cross-election proposal confusing.

Drafters have said the vote bloc proposal would not be a problem because there would be too many candidates – thousands from across the country – to result in fraud. But legislators were not convinced. They noted a similar method used to selection of members of the National Economic and Social Development Board as an example of how effectively lobbyists could work to corrupt a system.

“Have you not learned the lesson?” Thani Onla-eid, an NLA member and a former selected senator, said.

He added: “The cross election would not work either because how could you say a senator represents his group when he was elected by the other 19?”

Legislators prefer selected senators because they believe the Senate could approve laws and conduct checks and balances with other branches.

They dismissed the notion that senators should be linked with the people as that would be a mere “discourse”. NLA members encouraged future senators to do the right thing for the people and the country rather than listen to voices of objection.

One of the most repeated suggestions made yesterday was on reform. Several lawmakers said reform was a crucial agenda item at the heart of the current regime and should be highlighted more in the charter draft.

They said having reform matters in the transitory provisions was not sufficient. Having a chapter on reform would make sure reform is carried out once the regime hands over power.

After legislators, drafters and reformers met on Wednesday, many suggestions on the draft were made yesterday including those centred on rights and liberties, the national administration and the national strategic plan.

NLA member Wallop Tangkananurak said he wanted |community rights to be clearly stipulation.

Although he said he understood drafters had put them in the state’s duties chapter, it was important they were addressed properly as communities played a major role in taking care of themselves when state authorities sometimes offered insufficient assistance.