Wissanu also said the Cabinet’s recommendations on the charter draft did not include this matter, but said it would be acceptable if a government failed to implement the strategy it could be dismissed by a court.

Wissanu said there was a bright side to the development, reasoning that a government in the future would have as many as four years to work on the strategy considering its first phase.

“It doesn’t have to finish all plans within their first or second years,” Wissanu said “Politicians will somehow find ways to accomplish these.”

The National Reform Steering Assembly’s bureaucratic administration committee yesterday deliberated on its study on development of the 20-year national strategy as well as a necessary draft bill to put it in effect.

It is seen as paving the way for creation of a new body which may supersede an elected government in the future again after the previous body of the National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee was strongly opposed and dropped along with the previous charter draft.

Another deputy Prime Minister, Prawit Wongsuwan helped his colleague underline importance of having a long-term strategy in place to help carry out long term reform plans at yesterday’s press briefing, but stopped short of saying more on the matter.

Wissanu said the Cabinet proposed for a reform chapter to be included in the charter draft to steer reforms, and they should be in line with the 20-year national strategy.

The long-term strategy is expected to be actively driven, Wissanu said, in order to help integrate five-year National Economic and Social Development plans.Wissanu said the Cabinet did remind the CDC of the political chaos prior to May 22, 2014, he said, when the latest coup took place. The CDC should come up with solutions to that kind of situation, he said.

Its recommendations should have weight when coming to the CDC’s consideration, he viewed, as they merged proposals from all ministries.

He said an amendment was needed to prevent an interpretation that ‘majority’ stands for majority of eligible voters, because if that was the case, it would require a greater number of voters in the referendum to determine whether the people had accepted the charter draft.

He also declined to outline the options should the charter draft be rejected in the referendum, saying this could have an effect on voting in the referendum. He said Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam had not made the decision, as it was the prerogative of the Cabinet and National Council for Peace and Order.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said he believed the first charter draft would be an interim charter used for four to five years, as it would be a transitional one. The government and NCPO want the new government to continue and achieve reforms according to 20-year national strategies.

“Then we can have a permanent constitution. This is my personal opinion, not that of the Cabinet,” he said.

Prawit ruled out the possibility of the government allowing political parties to hold gatherings and debate the charter draft.

“If parties hold a meeting in one place, there will not be a problem but if they do it across the country to the grassroots, who can monitor them? Where is the force to be deployed? With this kind of situation, they have to accept the circumstances. If they have any questions, let them raise it with Meechai Ruchupan, the CDC chairman,” he said.

Prawit denied that the junta had conducted polls to gauge the response to the charter draft in a referendum.

“The military has not decided whether the charter should pass in a referendum or not.

“I personally want it to be accepted because it meets international standards,” he said.

CDC member Chartchai na Chiangmai said he would ask the commission to address the concerns of village heads and local leaders about the possibility that the institutions – kamnan and villages heads – would be dissolved because the charter draft is not clear about local administration.

However, he defended the draft, saying local administration was dealt with in Article 72 in the chapter “The Directive Principles of State Policy”, which covers central, regional and local administration, which includes kamnan and village heads.

The National Reform Steering Assembly also wanted further clarity from the CDC on each administration.In regard to local leaders’ concerns, Prawit urged kamnans and village heads to take it easy, saying the draft is not final.

To keep up with the junta’s timeline to achieve democracy, Cabinet yesterday suggested to the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) that it may not need to complete drafting all organic laws prior to election, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said yesterday.

Submitting proposals to the CDC on Monday, the Cabinet suggested that the CDC could choose to finish drafting only those essential to the election before the event is held, Wissanu said. Other organic laws could be written while the election process is being held, he said.

Wissanu is also working with the Election Commission (EC) on designing a mechanism to provide knowledge on the draft to people, he said, in place of an earlier idea of distributing the draft to 80 per cent of households with eligible voters nationwide. It also resolved that the EC will manage the referendum campaign, he said.

The tentative date for the referendum was still July 31, he said, or seven days later or earlier than that.

The Council of State would take a day or two to amend the 2014 Interim Charter, he said, to facilitate the referendum process.

THE National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) yesterday over whelmingly voted to approve a report on drawing up the “national strategy” draft bill to create a body that would set strategic directions for future governments. Opponents were concerned that the body could pave the way the junta to retain its power after the election.

The report proposed by the NRSA’s committee on national administration reform was approved by 164 to six votes.The report proposed forming a new body called the “national strategic committee”, which would serve an eight-year term and have the power to set rules and plans that would be valid for 20 years, and binding for every government that takes the reins of power during the period. If they failed to do so, they could face penalties if their policies damaged to the country.The most controversial point in the draft is the national strategic

committee because of the power it could confer to the current junta.The committee would comprise 25 members, including the prime minister and the presidents of the upper and the lower houses, the report suggested. However, in the first four years, the first 25-member committee would include the current prime minister, the president of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) and the chairman of the NRSA, who would set out the first strategic plan for Parliament to approve, the report suggested.

Most of the NRSA members yesterday agreed in principle that a national strategy plan was a necessity.In the past the policies of different governments have been at odds with one another. As a result, the country has no clear vision or direction of where it is headed and what goal it aims to achieve in the long run, according to most NSRA members yesterday.

Only one member, Kasit Piromya, disagreed completely with the idea of a national strategy and the bill.The former foreign minister and prominent figure of the yellow-shirt group said that it was impossible for a non-communist country to have such a long-term strategic plan. “Such a scheme could only be achieved by those countries where a single government ruled for a very long time, like

China,” he said.

Committee ‘too powerful'”The world is changing every day. The country is changing every day.

There is no way for a 20-year plan [to be successful],” he said.Kasit also pointed out that the national strategic committee would be very powerful and could dictate a lot of policy. He questioned whether “[you are] fooling yourself that this is not the National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee [NSRRC] being revived”.Political observers are voicing concerns similar to Kasit’s that the committee would be very similar to the NSRRC proposed in Borwornsak Uwanno’s charter draft.

That draft was shot down by the now defunct National Reform Council (NRC) last year. The committee outlined in the previous charter draft was believed to have had the power to overrule the

government after the election. Another NRSA member, Kamnoon Sitdhisamarn, however, argued on his Facebook page that the new committee would be nothing like the NSRRC.

The national strategic committee did not have the controversial power to rule over the executive branch in a time of crisis like the NSRRC would have, he argued.Vittaya Kaewparadai, an NRSA member who was also an active figure of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee, suggested that the national strategic plan be included in and enforced by the constitution.Despite agreement on the need for the plan, NRSA members posed questions about how much public participation the bill could guarantee.

Because the scheme is a “national strategy”, it would involve and affect the public in general. Additionally, it would set out plans that would last as long as 20 years.

NSRA members yesterday said the people should have a hand in it or it would not be very democratic.Apart from that, they also expressed concern that setting up too many new agencies to take charge of strategic plans would be too expensive. They asked that the committee review whether some of the new bodies could be dissolved and perhaps existing agencies could instead help carry out the plan.

NRSA members can until Friday still submit additional comments to the committee on national administration reform, which is the panel responsible for putting forward the draft bill on the national strategy plan. Subsequently, the report will be forwarded to the Cabinet and to the NLA in accordance with the procedure to pass a bill.

Speaking to representatives of the Association of Thai Professionals in America and Canada (ATPAC) at a California hotel on Sunday afternoon, Prayut said his government has a clear policy to utilise science and the creative economy for economic development.

Prayut was in the United States for the two-day US-Asean summit at Rancho Mirage in California. He welcomed ideas and suggestions from Thai professional associations in the US.

The government was willing to cooperate with developed countries in order to have a technology transfer from them, he said and added that private investment in innovation and technology was welcomed.

The government was promoting special economic cluster zones, the premier told the representatives of ATPAC.

During the meeting, representatives of ATPAC also told Prime Minister Prayutthat they supported the government’s policy to use science and technology for development, as Thailand needed to compete with other nations, according to Werachon.

Engineers from the ATPAC who are keen on water management were ready to cooperate with the government for water management in the country, he said.

Prayut said the US-Asean summit, which he attended yesterday (and is due to attend later tonight Bangkok time), would benefit the relations between the US and Asean.

The government would do its best to get a better understanding from the US that Thailand needs to reform and move ahead, he said.

The Sunnylands summit showed that Washington considers Asean very important, he said.

The government has not given final approval of the EC’s rule on campaigning, which is one of several recently floated in proposed legislation.

The EC will meet today to decide whether to redefine different types of criminal and election-related offences as it prepares the legislation to govern the referendum.

Among the penalties specified, people could face up to 10 years in prison if they instigate trouble or cause turmoil during the referendum, according to the EC’s proposed bill.

The commission may write the legislation as a royal decree, as suggested by Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, or leave it to the government to decide whether to frame it as an act or a royal decree.

The proposed legislation states that people who instigate turmoil during a referendum or intimidate voters in any way, including via the media, could face a fine of up to Bt200,000 in addition to 10 years in prison.

Anyone who offer bribes to voters or blocks the distribution of ballot boxes and ballots would also face up to 10 years in prison or a fine of Bt200,000.

The EC has proposed 16 articles related to voting in the referendum, most of which are similar in content to those specified in the referendum law of 2007.

Under the proposed law, anyone who disseminates messages, pictures or voice recordings via the media that distort the truth would be regarded as having committed an electoral crime.

Similarly, any parties that are not registered with the EC who disseminate content advocating for or against the charter draft, or calling for a boycott of the referendum, would be considered guilty of a crime.

Anyone who causes a referendum to be reorganised would also face civil liability and be held responsible for the expenses of holding a new referendum.

Election officials or their aides who intentionally commit corrupt acts, break the law or abuse their authority also face a fine up to a Bt200,000 and 10 years in jail, and their right to participate in elections revoked for 10 years.

The EC also reserves the right to prevent election officials from carrying out their duties if it believes their actions may have an unfair influence on the election process.

Anyone found to be blocking election officials from carrying out their duties would face up to one year in jail and a fine of up to Bt20,000. If someone uses force to block officials from carrying out those duties, they face up to two years in jail, a Bt40,000 fine or both. Employers who do not allow their employees to exercise their right to vote face the same punishment.

Voters who are found to have destroyed ballots face up to 10 years in jail and a Bt20,000 fine.

During official voting hours, people who do not have the right to vote in a particular polling booth may not take a ballot from the booth, they are banned from indicating to others in any way that they are eligible to vote, and they may not take a picture of a marked ballot on penalty of up to five years in jail, a Bt100,000 fine or both.