Prawit has been accused of not declaring the 25 expensive watches he has been seen wearing on different occasions. According to NACC chairman Pol General Watcharaphol Prasarnrachakit, Prawit will be asked to verify the specific incident in which he was alleged to have one of the 25 luxury watches on his wrist before the agency can go ahead with this case.

Corruption index

A notice will be sent to Prawit in the next one or two days. After that, the embattled deputy premier will have another 15 days to respond to the agency’s request, so the case will become clearer in March at the earliest. Previously, Prawit postponed meetings with the anti-graft agency three times due to his busy work schedule.

Meanwhile, the NACC is closely monitoring the announcement of 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International in which Thailand last year received just 35 points out of a total 100.

The government earlier said it aims to reduce corruption so that the country gets 50 or more points by 2021. At present, the CPI covers a total of 180 countries worldwide.

They were among 85 protesters affiliated with the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) who call themselves “Sriwichai Warriors”.

The defendants acted as security guards during the PAD’s demonstrations against the government of Samak Sundaravej, which was accused by the protesters of being a proxy for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The Supreme Court also upheld the Appeals Court’s verdict that suspended the imprisonment of six defendants who were minors while committing the offences.

The Criminal Court in December 2010 sentenced the six to jail terms of three and four months each. The 85th defendant has escaped the reach of the law. The protesters, some of them armed, broke into the station’s office on August 22, 2008 and remained until August 25, during which they allegedly damaged property.

Instead, they accidentally landed on Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha’s head, prompting a lighter atmosphere amid the stress that has been building up on the government around the scheme, which some see as a political move by Prayut ahead of the election.

Prayut and other Cabinet members, including Agriculture Minister Grisada Boonrach, arrived at Laembua agricultural learning centre in Nakhon Pathom on Wednesday to launch the scheme.

While the premier was throwing the rice saplings into the field in front of him, Grisada accidentally threw some close to Prayut and they landed on his head, prompting smiles and laughter among the group.

Grabbing another bunch of saplings to throw, Prayut joked with reporters and photographers that they should capture such a good moment rather than obsess with recent superstitious claims about broken lotus basil at Government House.

In a model proposed to its head committee last December, the committee proposed that government officers should play a “supportive role” in the upcoming national media council, according to the committee’s head Jirachai Moonthongroi.

“They would act like mere secretaries, doing documents and inviting experts to join the arena. They would help shoulder work from those professionals,” Jirachai said.

“If state authority doesn’t play this coordinating role, media’s self-regulation would just return to the same old days,” he went on. “I insist that authority has to participate in media affairs.”

The establishment of the so-called national media council is included in a media regulation bill draft proposed by another junta-appointed reform body, the defunct National Reform Steering Assembly.

It was a reason why the draft received strong objections from media professionals. They took the view that the stipulation to include two permanent secretaries in the council could allow state authorities to interfere in media affairs.

Jirachai, a former permanent secretary to the PM’s Office under Prayut’s government, believes that an officer in his old position would be the best fit for the reform council.

Like many initiatives under this government, proposed media reform would be done under “government, private, people cooperation”, also known as the Pracharat scheme.

The scheme would include government funding to support media to produce content to “cultivate good culture that is crucial but may not make profits and attract advertisements”.

Jirachai also proposed other centralising proposals, including one for broadcasting frequency to be wholly state-owned rather than partially owned by a public company and independent organisation as is now the case.

“With that model, it is easier for authority to distribute frequencies to be owned by various kind of content makers,” he said.

“We see many redundancies in media today. Private companies have to pay to rent the frequencies and that would beneficially generate more income for the state.”

Political scientist Chaiyan Chaiyaporn said on Tuesday that the selection process for a prime minister could fail, leading to the dissolution of Parliament.

This is despite the fact that the 2016 Constitution sets out at least two routes to the selection of a prime minister – one within the political parties’ PM candidates lists, and the other an outsider PM.

Chaiyan pointed out that the charter did not say for how long Parliament could continue without a premier if he or she was not picked and, if it was taking too long, some MPs might finally yield to a parliamentary dissolution and resort to the controversial “traditional way of ruling”.

“But who could call for a dissolution? Could [current PM] General Prayut Chan-o-cha dissolve the elected Parliament?” he asked.

The political scientist played out a scenario in which Parliament proposed the candidate that won the most votes in the PM election process, but not a simple majority as required.

But that would mean the PM was from a minority, he said.

Such an impasse would then enable the traditional way of ruling, like that under Article 7 of the previous constitution – and now Article 5 of the new charter – to have a role, he added.

“But personally, I view that if we can respect the rules, we don’t need to call for the traditional way of ruling,” Chaiyan said.

His remarks were made during a seminar on Tuesday at King Prajadhipok’s Institute as part of the launch of his new book, which analyses the contentious former Article 7.

Nō̜ranit Sētthabut, a political scientist and member of the National Legislative Assembly, said at the same seminar that such a traditional way of ruling had been applied in the past and was not limited to an unelected PM’s appointment.

For instance, when Sanya Thammasak dissolved Parliament in 1973, the action was not endorsed by the prevailing charter but followed the traditional way of ruling, he pointed out.

“So, it is not limited to only royally appointing a prime minister. It could be interpreted widely,” he said.

“But the most important thing is that is must be a solution that is accepted, not a problem or lead to a cataclysm,” he stressed.

The present Constitution also has a similar clause, but it is uncertain who would exercise such extra-constitutional power, Noranit said, adding that personally he believed it could be the Constitutional Court because it had the responsibility to finalise matters concerning the charter.

SUTHEP THAUGSUBAN, core leader of the now-defunct People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), plans to found a political party to support Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha becoming premier after the next general election, a former Democrat party-list MP has claimed.

Ex-MP Watchara Petchthong said yesterday that the party would be named the People’s Democratic Reform Committee Foundation, of which Suthep is currently president.

A high ranking PDRC source, who is a former Democrat executive member, confirmed the report, saying that his group had to form a new party as his group had a different political stance from the Democrats.

“The Democrats insisted they would not support dictatorship and cannot accept the prolonged power of the junta, but Suthep insisted on support for Prayut otherwise they would lose to the Pheu Thai Party in the next election,” he said.

Witthaya Kaewparadai, a former Democrat MP and ex-PDRC member, said he had heard about the report but thought it would be a gathering of people to form a political group and not a new party.

If a party was formed, however, Witthaya said Suthep would not be the party leader or party executive because he had made it clear he will not accept any political post.

Witthaya admitted that the new group or party would definitely affect Democrat’s political base because Suthep’s supporters are both supporters of the Democrats and the PDRC.

Watchara added that a new party would affect the Democrats because party members and former MPs, as well as supporters, would be divided and some would defect from the Democrats to join Suthep’s party.

Suthep resigned from the post of Democrat secretary-general and the party in 2013 to found a movement under the PDRC aimed at ousting then-PM Yingluck Shinawatra, following the notorious “blanket” amnesty bill passed by Yingluck’s Pheu Thai Party legislators.

His movement played a vital role in the 2013-14 Thai political crisis, organising large-scale protests in Bangkok.

The protests led to a coup in May 2014 staged by then-Army chief Prayut.

Suthep later dissolved the PDRC and set up the PDRC Foundation in 2015.

The PDRC leader was not the first person to found a party to support Prayut as premier.

Paiboon Nititawan, a former member of the junta-appointed National Reform Council who now heads the Popular Reform Network, last year announced the establishment of the People’s Reform Network, which is expected to become a political party aimed at backing Prayut to lead the next government.

The 2017 charter allows an “outsider” or non-elected MP to become a PM.

Prayut would become a premier if he is one of the premiership candidates presented by political parties during an election campaign or he could be proposed as a PM candidate during a vote for premiership by the members of House of Representative and Senators after the next election.

“They have sought ways to seek mutual agreement so they must be settled eventually,” Prayut said. “I insist that they must not be turned down without sound reasons.”

His remarks referred to the tri-party law review committee set up following differences among law-making bodies after the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) has passed the law.

There is speculation that the NLA committee might dump the drafts to further delay the election.

That speculation has angered pro-democracy activists, who have held a series of assemblies to demand that the junta government holds the election this year. The assemblies, each lasting for a few hours, ended in 39 activists, students and journalists, being prosecuted for allegedly breaking the junta’s order, the public assembly bill, and being accused of sedition.

Prayut also said he was concerned about student activists and the way teachers educate children nowadays.

He said by calling for changes irrespective of the cost to the country, the protesters are overlooking the potential losses to Thailand while a peaceful resolution still exists.

The premier said concerned authorities would look into the legal aspects of the rallies and action would be taken according to the law.

He insisted that the election must happen eventually but that the public should also have “a thorough understanding” of the laws and the Constitution.

“Several of us want to go to the poll to cast our votes, while others said they won’t and wish the junta to stay in power,” said the PM.

“However, I said that neither of these is acceptable. The fact is we must go to the poll and cast our votes, every one of us, and the choices would be yours, even casting a “no” vote,” he said.

However, Prayut said he was concerned about a recent poll which indicated that more than 30 per cent of people still did not understand the charter.

“Isn’t this scary?” he said. “The media should help me to raise public knowledge of these laws, not make people feel that they are not out of reach.”

Jate Siratharanont, the NLA’s whip spokesperson, meanwhile, has written on Facebook that the road map to the election will become clearer early next month.

“After March 8, the election road map will become clearer when all four organic laws essential for the poll are completely passed by the Assembly. Then [everyone] will wait for the royal endorsement, the promulgation and the enforcement, and the election will come within 150 days,” Jate said.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, said the government would announce the election date in June, presumably after all the organic laws were promulgated. The election would not be delayed, Wissanu said.

Legal officials working for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) have been instructed to determine whether those meetings constituted a violation of the Constitution, the source said.

The current charter, in effect since April last year, prohibits intervention by any outsider into a political party’s internal affairs. Violators – whether they are individuals or political parties –risk harsh punishment, including imprisonment, fines and party dissolution.

Certain key figures and politicians from Pheu Thai have reportedly met Thaksin and Yingluck in China, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore over the past week. The Shinawatra siblings have lived in exile overseas after escaping imprisonment at home. They have no positions in the previously ruling party but have retained considerable influence among its politicians.

“Legal action must be taken. This should not be allowed to go on and on, or things will go out of control,” the source said.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who also heads the NCPO, had instructed the relevant authorities that “everything must be in line with the law”, according to the source.

While faith in the supernatural is blended with Thai tradition, Prayut insisted that a series of “unusualness” happening around Government House from last week had nothing to do with him. But he then said that he would not disrespect these incidents.

“We are people of Thailand 4.0. These things happened by natural causes. Yet, we also don’t look down on those superstitious incidents,” the premier said.

While last week’s breaking of some lotus basil purchased by Prayut was a mere accident, he went on, the mysterious appearance of a bunch of 36 incense sticks in front his office might have been done by some “good willing civil servants” who were simply praying for the country’s benefit.

The PM’s Secretariat Office on Monday ordered police to track down the person who placed the burning incense sticks there, although they doubted that it could have been done by somebody wanting to perform “a bad ritual” against the government, which has seen its popularity plummet recently.

Shortly after Prayut finished his weekly press briefing yesterday, an unusual fight between a pigeon and two crows took place in front of the Thai Khu Fah building, metres away from where the incense sticks had been placed.

Reporters at Government House immediately turned their interests towards the killed pigeon, which was later tossed into a nearby rubbish bin.

“The pigeon can also be a symbol of the press,” one reporter joked. “Is this a bad omen for the government again –- or for us instead?”

Watchara Petchthong said on Tuesday that the party would be named the People’s Democratic Reform Committee Foundation, of which Suthep is currently president.

The ex-MP said the new party would affect the Democrats because party members and former MPs, as well as supporters, would be divided and some would leave the Democrats to join Suthep’s party.

Suthep resigned from the post of Democrat secretary-general and the party in 2013 to found a movement under the PDRC aimed at ousting then-PM Yingluck Shinawatra, following the notorious “blanket” amnesty bill passed by Yingluck’s Pheu Thai Party legislators.

His movement played a vital role in the 2013–14 Thai political crisis, organising large-scale protests in Bangkok.

The protests led to a coup in May 2014 staged by then-Army chief Prayut.

Suthep later dissolved the PDRC and set up the People’s Democratic Reform Committee Foundation in 2015.

He could not be reached for comment on Watchara’s claim about the planned establishment of a new party.