The panel head Jirachai Moonthong-roi, however, said that the panel might not be able to touch the controversial media regulatory bill, which will apparently contain a degree of state control, because the legislation had already been passed to the National Legislative Assembly.

Anything other than that which is still in progress would be scrutinised, he said.

Public members disagree with the media control by the state but there might be the need to synchronise the ‘Pracharat’ concept into the media reform, Jirachai said. It would be too extreme to let the media “fly freely”, especially now that everyone – including consumers themselves – could be the media.

The panel would also look at the problems challenging the media such, as those holding digital TV licenses, he said.

The initial framework set out in the meeting would be based on the principle that press regulation should be in the hand of the people who are affected directly by coverage. Any legislation involving controlling the media was not appropriate, Jirachai said.

The panel would meet once a week initially and twice from next month onwards, he said. All the reform frameworks would be done within the next three months or by December 28, he added.

After that, two extra months would be dedicated to opinion gathering, he said. If members of the public did not agree with the panel’s proposed approaches, it could not possibly be persistent, Jirachai said

The case had been taken to the court by 36 members of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) last month after a question was raised over whether it would be constitutional to allow the president and the Ombudsman to stay on.

The new charter requires members of independent agencies who fail to meet new qualifications, as addressed in the charter, to leave office, and the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) has been writing related organic laws in line with that stipulation.

CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan explained that, so far, the CDC had only written into law the removal of members of one agency -– the National Human Rights Commission – because international issues were involved. Members of another agency, the Election Commission, faced a similar fate after a proposal by the NLA itself.

The 36 NLA legislators viewed that the new charter already gave power to the organic law to determine the matter.

The original draft written by the CDC stipulated that the Ombudsman’s office should be reset if the incumbents failed to meet the new qualifications, and a new president and Ombudsman should be recruited.

Meechai said the court’s ruling on the Ombudsman law just upheld the NLA’s authority to dictate whether to remove or maintain members of independent agencies. The CDC thus could not raise any objection, he said.

Whether this would become the model for other organic laws depended solely on the NLA’s deliberations, Meechai said.

The CDC chairman insisted that the organic laws governing the next National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and the Constitutional Court should state that those who did not meet the new stipulations should leave office as set down in the charter.

But it would depend on the NLA how it would revise the draft law before it passed the required three readings, he said.

Meechai declined to comment whether the ruling could cause a future constitutional crisis. He said he would need to see the full verdict first.

In a separate interview, CDC spokesman Chartchai Na Chiangmai expressed similarly that the new charter should be taken into consideration when determining who could stay on in independent agencies and who should leave.

Allowing some commissioners to remain in office and exempt them from the new charter was inappropriate, Chartchai added.

It was difficult to say whether the court’s ruling on the Ombudsman organic law would be problematic, he said.

On writing the organic law governing the NACC, Chartchai said the CDC maintained the same principles, that the commissioners could only stay on if they were qualified under the new charter.

SECURITY officers are tracking fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra using the same methods employed in locating the suspect in the bomb attack on Phramongkutklao Hospital in May, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday.

Officers took about three weeks to discover that 62-year-old Wattana Poomaret had planted a pipe bomb in a vase decorating a VIP room located on the first floor of the hospital.

Prawit refused to elaborate further on progress in the Yingluck case, saying that authorities would need time to connect CCTV footage from various sources to figure out what had happened.

Authorities are becoming more convinced that Yingluck has fled the country as evidence is gathered from various CCTV cameras.

Yingluck has not been seen since failing to appear at a verdict reading in the case related to her government’s rice-pledging scheme on August 25.

The court set a second date of September 27 to read the verdict in the case in which the ex-premier faces a possible 10-year jail term if convicted of criminal negligence related to her government’s rice-pledging scheme.

Thai authorities have contacted more than 190 countries via Interpol but none has offered any clues as to Yingluck’s possible whereabouts, Prawit said.

Deputy police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said the investigation was 80-per-cent complete and the information found by police matched with the military’s.

Joint Cabinet meeting

However, it should be the military that files a complaint with police over her flight and officials also needed to consider if such an action might have implication on relations with neighbouring countries, he added.

Initial reports suggested Yingluck fled Thailand to Cambodia before flying via Singapore to Dubai where her brother Thaksin, who lives in self-exile, has a home.

Prawit is due to attend a bilateral joint Cabinet meeting in Cambodia tomorrow but he said it was still to be decided whether Thai authorities would ask for assistance from Phnom Penh regarding Yingluck’s possible escape route.

Meanwhile, Army chief Chalermchai Sitthisart said several vehicles had been involved in Yingluck’s disappearance.

PRIME MINISTER Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is scheduled to visit Cambodia tomorrow, has ordered a suspension of the Bt40-billion project to buy electricity and fresh water from Cambodia’s Stung Nam hydropower scheme.

Prasert Sinsukprasert, deputy chief of the National Energy Policy Office, said the premier wanted the Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Ministry to review the country’s demand for fresh water over the next decade before going ahead with the controversial Cambodian project.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed with Cambodia, Thailand agreed to buy electricity from the 24-megawatt Stung Nam hydropower project situated near the border at the relatively high price of Bt10.75 per unit, but the country would also get about 300 million cubic metres of fresh water free of charge.

The fresh water supply is meant to serve the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) programme, which is expected to have a huge demand for fresh water for industrial and other uses.

Prasert said the Agriculture Ministry had to present a credible forecast that there would be sufficient fresh water for various uses in the long term after the Irrigation Department argued that the fresh water supply would be sufficient for the next 12 years.

The Cambodian project could have been affected by inaccurate water demand forecasts, especially regarding the Agriculture Ministry’s projections, Prasert said.

There have been five inter-ministerial meetings that concluded that the EEC mega-investment programme and Eastern provinces would need a combined 12,000 million cubic metres, with a projected shortfall of 6,000 million cubic metres.

As a result, the Stung Nam hydropower project was seen as one of the solutions to boost the water supply.

He said the EEC special economic zone was crucial to the country’s growth over the next several decades, so the government had to ensure that there would be enough fresh water resources.

Regarding the high electricity price of Bt10.75 per unit, he said the figures were based on a feasibility study conducted by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).

The cost of building the Stung Nam Dam is estimated between Bt9 billion and Bt10 billion, with the electricity produced by the hydropower dam costing about Bt2.6 per unit, and three cubic metres of water used to produce each unit of electricity.

‘Power prices unaffected’

The price of one cubic metre of water is estimated to be Bt2.8, resulting in the combined price of Bt10.75 per unit of electricity.

Annually, about 300 million cubic metres of fresh water were supposed to be delivered to Thailand.

The water supply was to be transported across the border to Thailand’s eastern province of Rayong where the EEC special economic zone will be situated. Besides the Bt10-billion dam, construction of a water transport system covering the length of about 200 kilometres would cost an additional Bt30 billion.

Prasert said the high electricity price was unlikely to affect the electricity pricing system in Thailand since fresh water would be sold to private companies operating in the EEC special economic zone to cover the high power costs.

In addition, the amount of electricity from the project would be relatively small, as Egat usually buys power from countries such as Laos at a lower price.

Prayut will pay a one-day official visit to Phnom Penh tomorrow for the 3rd Thailand-Cambodia Joint Cabinet Retreat meeting. He planned to emphasise strengthening cooperation in border development, labour, trade and investment, connectivity, and regional and international frameworks.

During the visit, Prayut and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen plan to witness the signing of two documents on a joint declaration regarding the meeting and the Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation, according to a press statement.

On the sideline of the summit in Xiamen, Prayut met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday to discuss cooperation in various fields, notably regional connectivity overland and along the Mekong River.

Xi said China appreciated Thailand’s active participation in the Belt and Road Initiative, and was willing to strengthen cooperation with Thailand in areas of investment, railways, Internet finance, digital economy and e-commerce.

In this context, Prayut and Xi witnessed the signing of four pacts, including the Bt3.5-billion design and supervision contracts for the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima high-speed rail line, a memorandum of understanding on cooperation on the One Belt One Road Initiative and an action plan on a strategic partnership.

Prior to Prayut’s visit to China, the Cabinet approved the content of the contracts, including an increase in the rail budget from Bt1.6 billion to Bt3.5 billion, according to Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith.

Thailand would ask China to begin a survey and study the second phase of the railway to connect Nakhon Ratchasima and Nong Khai, in order to link Thailand and Laos by 2022, Arkhom said after the signing in Xiamen.

Meanwhile, Prayut said Thailand was willing to maintain high-level contacts with China, deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation, consolidate political trust, expand economic and trade exchanges, promote mutual investment, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen cooperation in such fields as education, scientific research and infrastructure.

Thailand supported and would actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and the Lancang-Mekong cooperation agreement, he said.

The signing of contracts on the railway project was the highlight of Prayut’s visit to China, with observers saying that his invitation to attend the summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) was a reward for the contracts.

Beijing did not invite Prayut to its Belt and Road forum in May. He was among three Asean leaders – with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah – not on the guest list.

The court early this month acquitted former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, his deputy Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, then-police chief Pol General Patcharawat Wongsuwan and Suchart. The four defendants were found not guilty in regard to the police crackdown on yellow-shirt protesters in October 2008 that left two people dead and more than 400 injured.

The NACC agreed with the court’s acquittal of the first three defendants, but not Suchart. It claimed that he, as a commander of the operation on the day, knew the security procedures well and had authority to issue orders to cease the crackdown and stop the use of tear gas against the protestors, but did not do so.

After the period of notice, the court will gather the plaintiff’s appeal, Suchart’s appeal objection, and the case documents to be presented before a panel of judges to consider.

This will follow the charter’s Article 195, stipulating that the court’s judges will vote to select nine senior judges, who had not taken part in the case, to consider the appeal.

This case will be the first time that plaintiffs or defendants have used their constitutional rights to appeal rulings of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders.

“The final verdict [by the Supreme Court] doesn’t affect the security forces. Everything has been proceeded with by law,” he said. “Why do they have to start it all again? Officers have worked themselves nearly to death on that.”

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has started a campaign seeking one million signatures against the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), calling for the agency to review its investigation against former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva and his ex-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban, who were in overall charge of the security situation during the 2010 protests.

The NACC became the UDD’s target after the Supreme Court last Thursday acquitted Abhisit and Suthep on charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with an operation by security forces to disperse anti-government demonstrators in 2010.

The court’s ruling pointed out that the NACC, which had turned down the case in 2015, should have been in charge of filing an indictment, not the Department of Special Investigation.

The 2010 crackdown caused 99 deaths and left at least 2,100 people injured.

The Cabinet’s next trip on September 18-19 will focus on the central region, spending a day each in Suphan Buri and Ayutthaya respectively, Sansern said.

The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board has been surveying the two provinces to see which of their various problems the Cabinet should focus on, the spokesperson said.

Other Cabinet members will also make field visits to other provinces in the central region prior to or after the upcoming mobile Cabinet meeting, he added.

Prayut recently held a mobile Cabinet meeting on August 21-22 in Nakhon Ratchasima, highlighting local economic development and infrastructure projects in northeastern provinces.

On that trip, besides from meetings, the PM also seemed to enjoy chatting with the locals, riding farmers’ trucks – and even talking to farm animals.

Although there has been no response yet to requests for information from foreign countries, Thai authorities have made some progress tracking Yingluck, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said on Tuesday.

Yingluck has not been seen since failing to appear at the verdict reading in the case related to her government’s rice-pledging scheme on August 25.

Prawit said security officers would be tracking Yingluck using the same methods employed in locating the suspect in the bomb attack on Phramongkutklao hospital in May.

Officers took about three weeks to discover that 62-year-old Wattana Poomaret planted a pipe bomb in a vase decorating a VIP room located on the first floor of the hospital.

Prawit refused to elaborate further on progress in the Yingluck case, saying that authorities would need time to connect CCTV footage from various sources to figure out what had happened.

However, he said it had become more and more clear that Yongluck had fled the country. He could not say how much longer the investigation would take.

Thai authorities have contacted more than 190 countries via the Interpol network, but none has responded as to Yingluck’s possible whereabouts, he said.

Although he is due to attend a bilateral joint Cabinet meeting in Cambodia on Thursday, Prawit said it was still to be decided whether Thai authorities would ask for assistance from Phnon Penh regarding Yingluck’s possible escape route.

He also reiterated that Thai authorities were not involved in, nor had consented to, Yingluck’s escape.

He insisted there had been progress in the investigation.

The army chief said there is no clear evidence confirming that Yingluck fled the country, although the investigation is progressing based on that assumption

He declined to confirm that authorities had assisted her to disappear.

On August 25, Yingluck failed to show up at the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders to hear the verdict in her dereliction of duty case in connection to her then government’s rice-pledging scheme.

She was last seen in public on August 23, with video footage released to the public showing several vehicles driving in and out of her residence before she disappeared.