THE incumbent government could remain in control for up to two years after the next election if voters give no party a clear mandate, the chief constitution drafter said yesterday.

With a debate continuing on whether senators should be allowed to nominate the next prime minister, Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), said that while a deadlock would be unlikely, the hypothetical outcome could be resolved.

“A natural solution is for the government of General Prayut Chan-o-cha to continue serving until a new administration is formed. If the first Parliament fails to reach agreement, the current government will stay on,” Meechai said.

However, he added that a new government’s term in office would begin from election day.

“If the new government can be formed two years after the election, they will serve for the remaining two years only (of a four year term).

“That’s why politicians have to reach agreement as soon as possible,” Meechai said.

Meechai’s remark came as National Legislative Assembly (NLA) president Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said yesterday that selected senators should be able to nominate as well as vote to select a new prime minister.

The chief charter writer said yesterday that the CDC would consider the proposal.

“It is the CDC’s responsibility. It is us who has to explain to the Constitutional Court” as to why the amendment is written a certain way, he said. “Whether the CDC wants it that way or not, we have to adhere to the additional question literally.”

Meechai said that if the NLA wanted senators to nominate a prime minister, they should have stated so in their additional referendum question.

“We have gone past that point already,” he said.

Pornpetch said yesterday that the additional referendum question asked voters if they would allow senators to “take part” in the process of approving new prime minister.

He said this referred to senators voting and nominating candidates.

“The process of approval is not limited to just voting to approve or not,” Pornpetch told an unscheduled press conference at Parliament.

Pornpetch, who is a former a Supreme Court judge, compared the process to a court trial where a judge hears witnesses and also makes a verdict.

Pornpetch said the CDC should avoid possible deadlocks when amending the draft charter, following the August 7 referendum.

The additional question in the referendum asked voters whether they would allow senators to vote with MPs in the selection of a PM for five years after the first Parliament convenes.

The CDC has 30 days to complete the amendment.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday he did not think |senators should be allowed to nominate a prime minister, as the draft charter would require that candidates come from lists submitted by political parties.

However, Prawit agreed that if MPs are unable to nominate their candidates, senators should be allowed to nominate a non-MP to become prime minister.

The poll, conducted by Khon Kaen University’s Faculty of Economics, surveyed about 1,100 Isaan people in 20 provinces between August 13 |and 16.

Those who voted in support had eight reasons offered.

About 93 per cent said they wished to see a return to peace; 89 per cent wished to see an election held as soon as possible; 85 per cent wanted to see a more effective check and balance system against corrupt politicians; 75 per cent feared the worst from the draft; 71 per cent said they were satisfied with the overall charter content; 61 per cent said they trusted in the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to get the country through a transition; 58 per cent said they voted because politicians had declared their stances against the charter, while 54 per cent said they wished to see Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha continue his premiership.

Most want a ‘true people’s charter’

Among those voting against the charter, 94 per cent said they wished to see a true people’s charter; 87 per cent said they wanted to see a standard referendum process; 84 per cent feared the NCPO would prolong its tenure if the charter was passed; 81 per cent were not happy with the proposal concerning the appointed senators, and a similar figure showed people were not confident in the NCPO; 76 per cent said they were not happy with the overall content of the charter draft and 58 per cent said they followed their favourite politicians.

The court approved the temporary release after their lawyer deposited Bt100,000 as a guarantee for each suspect.

The 15 suspects will be released from the Bangkok Remand Prison later in the evening.

The court banned them from leaving the kingdom as a condition for their release.

Thanadej Puangpoon, a lawyer from the United Lawyers for Rights and Liberty, arranged for their release by gathering assets to post as their guarantee. The assets included a million-bath-worth land rights document and cash that were gathered from the United’s funding and detainees’ relatives.

Thanadej initially planned to post bail on Friday but the detainees were put in custody in late afternoon, leaving him insufficient time to prepare surety on the day.

Prior to posting bail at Bangkok Military Court, Thanadej went to visit the detainees in Bangkok Remand Prison, where he also met some visiting relatives. “They’re hoping for the judges’ mercy,” he said “One detainee lived with his eight-year-old daughter in Chiang Rai. Now there’s no one to take care of her.”

Thanadej was referring to 71-year-old Chinnaworn Thipnual, who, like most of detainees, were found to be red-shirt leaders in their provinces.

Seventeen were arrested on August 13 only a day after the string of bomb and fire in Prachuap Khiri Khan and other six southern provinces. Two of them were released before the military court issued arrest warrant for all of them. Fifteen are now being detained.

The fifteen aging suspects had been reportedly suspected for plotting the bombs. Although the police later found them irrelevant with the bombings, the suspect instead face charges of allegedly breaking the junta’s order and joining secret society.

An intelligence source also told The Nation that the suspects were deemed potential to stir up political situations advantaged by the authority’s shaken status following the bombs.

But the lawyer stressed that the detainees, nine of whom are elderly people, had no capability to plot for any political riots. “Some of them simply met for coffee meeting,” he said. “Some may possess war weapons but because he was an antique seller. He had planned to report his possession to the police but was caught beforehand.”

He cited that some United Nations agencies were also “rather interested” in the case as they did not comply with legitimacy of such allegations

Arthi said the charter draft, passed in this month’s referendum, did not touch on national reform. He said the TRI would present guidelines that would lead to changes and political reform. “We have to think outside the box in terms of structural reform, decentralisation and justice reform,” he said.

He said the TRI wanted to stage a reform movement on behalf of the civil sector to achieve national reconciliation.

Arthit denied that he wanted to establish a political party or become a non-elected PM and said he would not accept a senatorial post.

Meanwhile, former National Reform Council member Anek Laothamatas is pushing for elected provincial governors across the country to be part of decentralisation and structural change. He suggested that the Provincial Administrative Organisation be merged with provincial administrations and come under the jurisdiction of the PM. “We must just dissolve provincial administrations. Provincial governors should answer directly to the PM and not the Interior Ministry. Current provincial governors should be made deputy provincial governors,” he said.

He said to prevent vote-buying and nepotism, provincial governor candidates must pass a strict qualification process such as they must be a native of the constituency they hoped to represent.

Meanwhile, former National Anti-Corruption Commission member Wicha Mahakun said the country was in dire need of judicial reform, which was integral to national stability. He proposed that a middle path, or a self-sufficiency principle, be adopted for justice reform.

He suggested that legal specialists in local areas volunteer to work without pay to ensure justice in communities and only when this fails should cases be filed with provincial courts, which should be established in every province.

“We should settle the cases with the provincial court and not the Supreme Court,” he said.

Peerasak rejected criticism from politicians that the NLA had designed a special mechanism through the additional question to help the National Council for Peace and Order extend its power, arguing that the mechanism aims to prevent the charter from being scuttled.

He said for the first five years after the next general election, political parties would nominate PM candidates and the Senate had the right to vote to select the PM but if this process failed to achieve that, it could pave the way for a second process in which the Senate nominated PM candidates.

“The second process is optional. It is designed to prevent a crisis by allowing the Senate to nominate the PM, which is not against the intention of the additional referendum question,” he said.

“This special mechanism to prevent political crises is the charter draft’s strength. We have not designed it to benefit any particular individual.”

Democrat Party deputy leader Ongart Klampaiboon said the additional referendum question did not suggest that the appointed Senate could nominate PM candidates.

He warned the NLA not to act on a whim. And insisted that the question only referred to the public agreeing to allow the Senate to select the PM along with MPs. “If the assembly wants the Senate to nominate the PM candidates, it should have put that statement in the additional referendum question,” he said.

“The NLA should act in an upfront manner and not take for granted that [just because] the majority [of people] approved of the additional question it can do anything it wants.”

Ongart urged the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) to ensure that it amended the charter draft by taking into account the intention of the additional referendum question, and strictly comply with the essence of the question. In incorporating the question into the charter draft, the commission must ensure that the main principles of the charter, which the public approved of, were not affected.

The CDC must not allow any agencies to use the question for any individual’s self-interest.

“The commission should act in the public interest and in a fair manner so the charter helps steer the country on a smooth and solid path in accordance with the [reform] road map,” he said.

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday did not rule out the possibility of him remaining premier after next year’s general election if his name were proposed for the job by Parliament.

“I’m not opening or closing my chance [to remain PM],” Prayut said. “I just want to take it step by step. I could be blamed if I announce anything in advance, so I prefer not to say.” Prayut stressed that it was too early for any assumptions to be drawn on choosing the next PM as legal processes for the general election had just begun.

Meanwhile Prayut was upbeat about his government’s two-year job approval rating, Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.

Bangkok Poll survey released on Saturday showed that the Prayut government’s two-year job approval rating had increased from 5.92 for its 18-month performance to 6.19 for its two-year performance. Sansern also cited the latest rankings of the world’s most liveable cities by the Economist, which showed that Bangkok is one of six cities that has undergone changes that make it more liveable over the past 12 months.

“The evidence is simply Line chats,” Thanadej Puangpoon of the United Lawyers for Rights and Liberty said yesterday.

He believes that his requests for temporary release will be approved by the court and his clients won’t jump bail.

The judges have already calculated the bond for each suspect at about Bt100,000 each.

“So, we have prepared land-rights documents as surety. These assets come from their relatives and other sources,” Thanadej said.

On August 13, 17 people were arrested in the wake of coordinated attacks in Prachuap Khiri Khan and six southern provinces from August 10 to 12.

Most of them – 15 – remain in custody.

Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), accused authorities of arresting hardcore red shirts because they wanted to link the UDD to the attacks.

“In fact, the government should not politicise the issue. It should focus in the right direction, as no one knows if more such attacks will strike.

“The bombs used in the coordinated attacks involved cellphones and SIM cards that originated in a neighbouring country, similar to most incidents in the deep South,” he said.

Thanadej said the detained suspects were allowed to meet their relatives for the first time yesterday.

Of the 15 suspects, nine are elderly, aged from 61-70, while three are 50-60 years old and the rest under 50.

Some of them also have chronic health issues. Three have benign prostate hypertrophy, six hypertension, two gout, one diabetes and one brain infarction.

The Cross Cultural Foundation urged the government recently to launch transparent investigations into the arrest of these suspects.

“If the military is found to have committed a mistake, the government must release the suspects and provide them with remedial action and also take action against the officials involved,” it said in a statement,

Another red-shirt figure, Nattawut Saikua, said that be-cause the current government could not be checked, there was no way to know whether the investigation into the suspects was transparent. If a “regular” government had conducted such an “obscure” investigation, the opposition party would have already launched a no confidence debate, he said.

Prachatai director Chiranuch Premchaiporn told The Nation that the |alternative news outlet dealt with Soros’s Open Society Foundation rather than him individually.

She said there was nothing new about Open Society funding Prachatai and the online media outlet had never concealed the origins of its funding, with the registered foundation clearly identifying Hungarian-American Soros as its founder.

[‘Prachatai’ – still rubbing the powers-that-be the wrong way]

[Difficulties in reporting under the junta]

The billionaire donor’s foundation has contributed to Prachatai an average of US$50,000 (Bt1.7 million) a year since 2005, according to Chiranuch. However, she said Open Society did not do so every year due to a foundation policy.

The “Soros Leaks”, a deluge of documents regarding Open Society disclosed online by American hacktivist website DCLeaks on August 13, revealed the impact of Soros’s money and the special interests he represents when meddling in different non-governmental organisations around the world.

An article by the Bangkok-based New Atlas website suggested that the “grassroots activism” involving those NGOs may be driven by money and the hidden agenda of the donors.

“In reality, for good or for bad, there is nothing grassroots about them. Money and special interests drive them, be it interests within a nation, or well beyond their borders,” said the article published last week.

In Thailand, the article said, most opposition NGOs – the ones that go against the junta – are co-funded by Soros’ Open Society and the US National Endowment for Democracy.

Soros, who founded Open Society in 1993, was convicted of insider trading by European Court of Human Rights in 2002.

According to the leaks, Prachatai, the Thai Netizen Network, the Cross Cultural Foundation, and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) have all received money from or have a direct association with Open Society.

The FCCT represents a collection of Western media organisations, including the BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press.

The New Atlas article claimed that the FCCT had not clearly disclosed the source of its funding and Open Society funds and influences the club and other Western news agencies that are associated with it.

Thai Netizen coordinator Arthit Suriyawongkul said the organisation had received funding only once from Open Society, in 2012, for the development of its website.

“We also have other international donors and Open Society just supported us project by project,” he said.

Arthit said he considered Open Society a foundation and did not think its funding affected his organisation.

The FCCT denied it received financial support from Soros’s foundation.

“No financial support from outside at all. We have no financiers, none,” said FCCT president Dominic Faulder, who recently assumed the position.

“I have not read the [New Atlas] article but what I’m telling you is it is not true [regarding the FCCT],” he said.

Chiranuch told The Nation that Prachatai’s transparency and quality proved its credibility.

She said people could judge Prachatai’s standing as a news provider for themselves, adding that it did not try to get people to think a particular way.

“Open Society is an institution with its own system and core values that match Prachatai’s mission,” she said.

Since 2004, when it was founded, Prachatai has wanted to be free from the interference of the state and corporations, according to Chiranuch. The website has sought funding sources that do not influence the way it works, she stressed.

Also, she pointed out, Prachatai has its own code of conduct forbidding it from receiving funding from a political body. The executive said she could not judge Soros, as she did not know him well enough to make that judgement. A person has many sides and people should not make judgements until finishing a fact-finding process, she said.

“Some say Soros is a wise and good man. Others say he caused currency crises and many more [negative things],” she said.

Chiranuch said Prachatai’s donors were subject to a limit on how much they could fund, a process that curbed their influence on the website.

“It is our policy that each financier can contribute no more than 25 per cent of the [total donated] share so that none of our donors overshadow our organisation,” she said.

Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee yesterday urged the OHCHR to understand Thailand’s political situation.

He made the plea after OHCHR spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani, on Friday, expressed concern over “mounting” rights restrictions in Thailand and called on the government to quickly return power to the people following the approval of a new constitution.

Sek said Thailand recognised the significance of freedom of expression and human rights as basic rights in a democratic society. However, the government needed to take some measures to ensure peace and prevent national division. Thailand was in a reform process to bring about national unity and sustainable democracy.

He said that suspects who stand trial in a military court were entitled to the same rights as those in civilian courts, such as the right to a fair and transparent trial, the right to receive legal advice and the right to get bail.

Sek said the August 7 referendum was carried out in a fair and transparent manner and in accordance with the law. The referendum allowed public participation through public hearings and seminars, televised talks, provincial seminars across the country. The public had the right to express their view with honesty about the charter draft ahead of the referendum.

Academics from 43 organisations and the media could freely criticise the draft and they expressed their stand against the draft publicly. Those who violated the law and instigated disturbances must face prosecution.

He said the government aimed to let a civilian administration run the country under the democracy road map and a general election would be held next year.

“The fact that a majority of the public has accepted the charter draft reflects that they accept the government’s democracy road map. The government hopes that every agency respects the people’s decision in the same way as they respect the voice of people in other countries, which will help support Thailand and build sustainable democracy and reconciliation,” he said.

Meanwhile, Anont Nampa, a lawyer for political activist Jatupat Bunpattaraksa – also known as “Pai Dao Din” – has filed a petition with the military court at the 23rd Army Circle in Khon Kaen, seeking his release on bail under Articles 71 and 110 of the Criminal Law.

Jatupat has been detained at a jail in Chaiyaphum and charged with violating the order issued by the National Council for Peace and Order against political gatherings after he allegedly distributed anti-charter documents.

Anont said Jatupat had been on a hunger strike since being taken into custody on August 6, and had fallen ill and his continued detention could gravely affect his health. With the case against him carrying a penalty of six months’ imprisonment, he urged the court to release him without bail.

The court has scheduled next Friday for a decision on his release.

Super Poll conducted the survey on 1,537 people from Monday to Friday and found that 85 per cent of respondents believed political groups were involved in the attacks, while 83 per cent said the political situation was under control.

Seventy-six per cent believed the perpetrators would be arrested, 95 per cent said love and unity was the solution to the country’s security issues and 4.7 |per cent believed unity was not the solution.

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents said hotline 191 must be overhauled because it failed to swiftly respond to the emergency situation, 65 per cent said there were no communication issues between the system and the people who filed complaints and 63 per cent said |the hotline did not have a follow-up system.

Another 53 per cent said the hotline was hard to reach because its telephone lines were always busy, 49 per cent blamed poor city planning and a lack of knowledge among concerned officials in local areas about the hotline’s issues, and 10 per cent said the hotline’s staff were not polite and did not provide good service.

Meanwhile, in the latest Bangkok Poll, the Prayut Chan-o-cha government received a 6.19 score out of 10 for its two-year job approval rating, which is an improvement on the 12-month and 18-month ratings.

The government scored 5.94 in its first year and 5.92 in its first 18 months.

In the latest survey, its scores increased in all areas except national security, which dropped from 7.1 to 7.04.

Prime Minister Prayut scored 7.57 for his performance, an increase over the 7.24 for his first 18 months in the job.

Prayut got his highest score for decisiveness with 8.23. His lowest score, 6.54, was for creativity in developing new projects.

Asked what task they want Prayut to complete first before a general election is held, 24.5 per cent of respondents wanted him to improve the people’s quality of life and social welfare, and reduce the cost of living; 20 per cent emphasised tackling corruption and 11 per cent wanted water supply for the agriculture sector and shoring up of agricultural produce prices.

In a related development, Pheu Thai Party caretaker deputy secretary-general Chavalit Wichayasut urged the government not to instigate a new round of political conflict by allowing television programmes to jump to conclusions about the attacks in the seven provinces without evidence to support their allegations and while the investigation was ongoing.

He urged the government to take action against the offending stations.

He congratulated the family of Sakkarin Karuehat, a suspect detained on suspicion of involvement in an arson attack at a hyper-market in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, after the charges against him were dismissed and he was release from custody.