At least seven articles have been revised.

CDC spokesman Chartchai na Chiangmai said yesterday that the drafters had revised the articles to make them more complete, underlining rights guarantees and protections in line with advocates’ appeals.

In the initial draft released in late January, the CDC introduced a new approach to framing a constitution, which principally stated that people would be able to enjoy all the rights and liberties that were not explicitly prohibited by other laws.

Only certain kinds of rights were addressed specifically in the chapter, including the right to equal treatment under the law, the right to one’s own body, the right of freedom of expression and so on.

Also in the initial draft, they transferred most of rights to the chapter on “state’s duties”, meaning that governments would be required to provide for and fulfil those rights for citizens.

However, the idea was not welcomed by rights advocates and civil organisations, who consistently attacked the draft for excluding clear references to rights and liberties, especially in regard to the community individuals’ right to file petition against the state.

To give more assurance on rights and liberties, Chartchai said the CDC added a clause to Article 25, which states that people would be able to enjoy all rights and liberties not

contravened by law, that now

allows people to defend their

rights in the courts.

To ensure that no laws deprive people of their rights and liberties, the CDC has underlined that new legislation should not violate the rule of law although the charter was quiet on existing laws, Chartchai added.

In Article 41, the CDC also underlined the right of people to file petitions against the state and established the penalties that wrongdoers in government would face, he said.

The commission also added specific right to information, right to receive benefits from the state, and right to comment on state projects in line with community interests, according to Chartchai.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who serves as chief of the National Council for Peace and Order, which called the meeting, is expected to discuss proposals suggested by different groups to revise the charter draft.

Last week Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan made the news when he gave personal suggestions on the draft such as having senators chosen from a list and not elected, with them serving a five-year term through the transitional post-election period.

An NCPO source said that given Prayut had reiterated many times that he wanted the charter draft to pass the referendum, all revisions to be made to it must be suitable for the country and meet international democratic standards to ensure public acceptance of it.

The source said the NCPO also wanted to ensure that security officials maintain peace and order during the “transition period” from now until the referendum in July.

The source said the junta wanted to tighten its grip on political elements to prevent them from expressing opinions that distort or cause public confusion or convince the public to vote down the charter draft.

Security officials would monitor the movement of political groups on social media and keep a close watch on the activities of political leaders in their strongholds, the source said.

After the referendum is held, the government and the NCPO expected they would face attempts to discredit them by political groups and figures living abroad. The government has also not ruled out political turmoil being instigated by political groups.

The NCPO has been monitoring the moves of people who committed offences and fled to neighbouring countries when the NCPO assumed power.

At tomorrow’s meeting the PM is expected to discuss the 20-year national strategies in terms of how to dispel the widely held perception that the junta wants to cling to power.

Only top leaders of the five core agencies will attend the meeting.

Dubbed as “Five Rivers”, the agencies are the NCPO, the Constitution Drafting Commission, the National Reform Steering Assembly, the Cabinet and the National Legislative Assembly. It is unlikely Prayut will hold a press conference to announce the meeting results as he does not want the public to think he is interfering in the reform and charter drafting processes.

About 48 per cent of respondents said the NCPO should be retained in order to prevent more political conflicts.

Almost the same number disagreed, arguing that an elected government should be allowed to work freely. The remaining 4 per cent were “unsure”.

Most respondents, 89 per cent, called on the government to inform the public in advance on what to do if the draft constitution fails to pass in the national referendum in July so voters could consider the information while 7 per cent saw no need for that.

The poll, “The Constitution Draft in the Eyes of People”, was conducted by Bangkok University’s Research Centre on 1,159 people in all four regions of the country.

About 45 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote in support of the draft constitution, compared to 16 per cent who would vote “no” and 28 per cent who would abstain. The remaining 11 per cent said they were unsure.

Asked whether they agree with the Senate having the proposed additional role of supervising the national strategy plan instead of the job resting with the proposed national strategy committee, 51 per cent disagreed, 32 per cent agreed and 15 per cent were unsure.

Asked whether the draft is democratic, 45 per cent answered yes, 36 per cent answered no and 18 per cent were unsure.

Regarding the public’s knowledge of the draft constitution, 88 per cent said they knew little about it and 11 per cent said they knew it well.

Asked to what extent the junta allows the public to express their opinion on the charter draft, almost 45 per cent said “much to most”, 44 per cent said “little to least”, and 10 per cent could not say for sure.

“The prime minister believes that the mass media is an institution that is important for the country’s development,’ said Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd.

“It can access news and information better than any other institution and have influence over the public.

“He [Prayut] wants all branches of the mass media to be aware of their significance and they should take more responsibility for society. He also thanks the media groups for tougher self-regulation and scrutiny among the media for improved social standards.”

Sansern said the primer minister wanted the media to “take sides by siding with Thailand”, as the industry should help promote national development, improve citizen qualities and the country’s good image in the eyes of the international community.

The spokesman said the mass media served as watchdogs, which had to bark to warn people if they faced any harm.

“It is important for the media to look beyond personal benefits,” he said. “They should stop taking sides and dividing the country and the people.

“You should think that the country’s peace is extremely invaluable and you must help to maintain it.”

The post received over 75,000 ‘Likes’ and almost 20,000 comments within 15 hours. Most of them gave him moral support while others said he should serve the penalty for the wrong he had done.

The Criminal Court ruling on Monday that Sorrayuth must serve a jail term of 13 years and four months for bribery and malfeasance stirred up debates in social media that covered many related aspects: corruption, politics and media ethics.

In this case, Sorrayuth’s company failed to give shares of commercial fees, that caused losses of Bt138 million to state-owned Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT)’s TV Channel 9 where he worked over a decade ago. A lot of people threw their support behind an anti-corruption campaign linked to this matter.

After Channel 3 management said that it would continue to support Sorrayuth and allow him to still be in news shows, many people changed their profile picture to a ‘No Channel 3’ logo. The Anti-Corruption Organisation of Thailand and the Watchdog Operation ran a campaign calling on Thais to not watch or listen to Channel 3 and to not buy products advertised on his shows.

Many companies then announced they would withdraw or not buy advertisements during his programmes.

A campaign at change.org also called on Sorrayuth to suspend his role as a presenter. It received over 2,300 signatures in two days.

@minbanyen posted a picture of consumer product giant Sahapat Group’s executive, who vowed not to support Sorrayuth’s shows, and wrote: “We will always use your products. Thanks for setting a good standard to society.”

President of National Press Council of Thailand Chavarong Limpattamapanee wrote on Facebook and Twitter: “I admire Sorrayuth’s decision to suspend his role, no matter what reasons or influences it came from. He has help set a new morality standard for society.”

Sorrayuth’s decision to stop appearing on TV while appealing the bribery case also came hot on the heels of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s call for senior government officials to exercise their judgement on whether to appear on the convicted host’s programmes.

Some said the attacks against Sorrayuth were political or caused by jealousy. They shared an article from Matichon newspaper, which said Sorrayuth was the victim of a jealous middle-class – who supported the ousting of former premierThaksin Shinawatra and the Pheu Thai government. The article drew a massive reaction, also.

@pannikawanich wrote on Twitter: “Sorrayuth giving in to witch-hunting like this is another prove that, in Thailand, Kangaroo Courts are more powerful than the laws.”

@LastIFound replied: “What is a Kangaroo Court? The [real] court already gave a verdict. And I saw no one intimidating or using force with Sorrayuth.”

In this case, Sorrayuth’s company failed to give shares of commercial fees, that caused losses of Bt138 million to state-owned Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand (MCOT)’s TV Channel 9 where he worked with over a decade ago. A lot of people threw their support behind an anti-corruption campaign linked to this matter.

AFTER THREE days of mass media and civil society calling on him to step down from hosting TV news programmes, Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda chose to announce on Thursday afternoon, through Instagram, that he would suspend his role. “Till we meet again,” he ended the post.

Sompop Lee, a veteran of TV news programmes, posted on Facebook: “Nobody in news society loves Sorrayuth (except the audience)”. He wrote about Sorrayuth’s unique talent as a presenter, marketer and social worker, transforming Thai news shows to appeal to people from all walks of life and attract lots of advertising charged at high rates.

“Flooding, fire, war, conflicts, people fighting, pets fighting, every issue must reach Sorrayuth,” he wrote referring to the impact of Sorrayuth’s show, which often led to state agencies fixing problems quickly.

Jai Ngai Jung wrote on pantip.com, “There will be no more hashtag #shareuntilitreachesSorrayuth. To whom should we share to from now on?”

Kanokphan Eh Khamasundara wrote on Facebook: “Many wrote that ‘It’s normal to make mistakes, who never cheated?’ ‘Everybody would cheat if they could’, ‘[Sorrayuth] has done a lot of good things and people should instead look at that’, ‘The case is not final yet, it doesn’t mean he was guilty.’ and ‘People envy him so they maliciously damage him. I feel sick about people’s logic nowadays… Good contribution in the past doesn’t mean you don’t have to serve the penalty when you did wrong.”

Meanwhile, anti-military government StopFakeThailand Facebook page wrote that when people saw Sorrayuth’s return of the money to Channel 9 as a reason to forgive him, they should also push further on the Rajabhakti Park scandal.

Prawit said his idea was not aimed at having selected senators help vote a prime minister because he did not think that they could vote on the premier. He said he only wanted to see the senators help work on a national strategy, especially on strategic reform work during the transition. He said he proposed the idea because he feared things would not go as strategically planned, including the reform to help move the country forward.

The deputy prime minister did not rule out the selection of NCPO members as senators, saying details needed to be worked out further. Prawit said there should be a senator selection committee to help pick these people and this should cover all professions.

“If we don’t think of anything, people may say we have wasted our time and resources,” Prawit said.

The deputy PM during the week tossed up the idea of selecting senators, diverging from the CDC proposal to have senators from an indirect election from 20 professional groups. He also proposed that the senators have a role during the transition phase, which could last for five years. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday threw his support behind the idea.

Prawit, however, said that he had not yet discussed his idea with Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) chairman Meechai Ruchupan or Prayut, although the PM has backed the idea.

Another Deputy Prime Minister, Wissanu Krea-ngam, said he has heard of Prawit’s idea, but he would not make any comments on it now. In regard to another idea to have senators play a role in selecting the prime minister, he said it was a personal remark, and if any reformers wished to propose that, they should rather go through a formal deliberation by the National Reform Steering Assembly, and resolve it first.

Wissanu said he preferred to wait for the CDC’s response. The PM’s remark on the issue on Wednesday, he said, could have been a personal remark as well.

CDC spokesman Chartchai na Chiang Mai said Prayut‘s support for Prawit’s idea could be interpreted as a statement of the PM’s wish. However, the CDC has not discussed the issue yet, preferring to hear more from the people first.

“Who knows, the PM may change his mind at the last minute,” Chartchai said, adding that proposals by the CDC have been through a process of thorough thinking.

If some changes in the charter draft were really needed to facilitate “special conditions”, they could be acceptable, he noted.

Thanat, the co-founder of Asean, passed away on Thursday at the age of 102.

Don said he was saddened by Thanat’s death, saying he had been an invaluable person in international affairs.

Don said that during Thanat’s term as foreign minister between 1959 to 1971, he was a determined visionary who ingeniously implemented international policies to serve Thailand’s interests.

He got the country through the Cold War by pushing for the establishment of Asean, Don added.

‘Implemented crucial treaties’

Don said that Thanat built relations with an array of countries in and outside the region, including strengthening Thailand and the region’s security through crucial treaties such as the Thanat-Rusk Communique, which was not only invaluable during the Cold War but remains in effect today.

Apart from that, the US Ambassador Glyn T Davies yesterday also issued a statement on the passing of the former foreign minister.

“On behalf of the American people, I offer our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, and the people of Thailand,” part of the statement read.

The Ambassador praised Thanat, saying he had many contributions to the stability and prosperity of the region which still benefit the people of the region today.

He added that the United States’ deep and broadening relationship with the region owes much to his original efforts.

Sirawith then joined others in an event in 2015 called, the “(Dearing) Stolen Election”, and was charged for political gathering prohibited by an NCPO order.

He then was charged again after a trip to Rajabhakti Park in Prachub Khirikhan province this year.

However, the police saw that his participation in the election event in 2015 was a violation of the MOU’s conditions. So, they have decided to pursue another charge, but have only recently informed him about it.

The police will summon him on March 8 to Pathumwan Police Station to acknowledge the charge, said the activist.