This means that senators should serve as a buffer against any parliamentary “grey” moves, and hence prevent any repetition of the state of upheaval experienced prior to the May 2014 coup, he reasoned.

“Elected MPs can also be trusted, but sometimes they have to act in accordance with the directions of their party, which might have a particular ambition. This leads to things going wrong,” he said at a press conference on the charter draft’s completion and submission to the Cabinet yesterday.

Meechai also said a party-free Senate would be “very helpful”, as it would not accede to “irregularities” such as the ill-intentioned constitutional amendment or the proposed blanket amnesty bill in 2013, which caused a national upheaval leading to the coup the following year.

“Actually, it only requires one-third of the Senate to approve a constitutional amendment [under the draft charter],” he said.

“However, our rationale behind this is that we do not want the parliamentary majority to just make any call without considering the minority. Rather, things should be sorted out with the agreement of everyone. This way, reconciliation can be achieved,” he added.

In the draft, the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) had written the provisional clauses on the non-elected Senate in line with a proposal from the so-called four rivers of power, even though it had been made less than two weeks before the deadline for the draft’s completion – and stirred up controversy.

Meechai explained that the CDC had been convinced by the military regime’s grounds that it had not been able to achieve some the things it deemed beneficial to the country, including implementation of the national reform plans, which it had promised the people.

“However, we cannot just give them the power [to accomplish their goals] without considering the elected members of the House of Representatives. So, we need this [selected] Senate to help push the reform,” the CDC chairman said.

He stressed that having a selected as opposed to an elected Senate was common in many countries.

There is no need to worry about international criticism, as each country has to take care of its own internal affairs, he added.

The waiver of the premier candidate list, as set out in the provisional clauses and deemed by many as paving the way for an ‘outsider’ prime minister, has been another concern raised about the constitution draft.

In response, Meechai reiterated that political parties would be responsible for determining who became the prime minister.

“Firstly, the majority of MPs have to agree to take the matter to Parliament. Then, in order to waive the premier list, two-thirds of the votes from both Houses are required,” he said.

“It is not that the Senate can select a PM, but that it can waive the use of the list,” he stressed.

The CDC chief also said it would depend on the political parties as to whether the PM would be an outsider or an MP, and the charter writers should not be the ones taking the blame.

 

THE CHIEF constitution writer yesterday said Prime Minister and junta head General Prayut Chan-o-cha had “okayed” the drafters’ revisions to their original draft of the charter, although some of them were not in line with suggestions from the powers-that-be.

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), said he had talked with Prayut about the charter’s transitory clauses involving the Senate.

“I talked to the prime minister and he is okay [with the revisions made],” he told reporters.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam yesterday said the prime minister had found the CDC’s revisions to the original draft to be acceptable, although not all of the Cabinet’s suggestions had been incorporated.

The PM will not make any further suggestions involving the constitution and will just wait to see the final draft, due to be unveiled by the CDC next Tuesday, according to Wissanu.

The deputy PM, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, said Prayut, who also heads the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), had made the remarks during his meeting with other Cabinet members at Government House in the morning.

“Judging from the general picture I get, [the revised draft] is acceptable so there is no need to make any further suggestions,” Wissanu said.

The prime minister told his Cabinet members that when the final version was available, he would inform the Election Commission so that they could prepare to hold a national referendum on the draft constitution, Wissanu added.

The CDC is scheduled to meet with the National Legislative Assembly and the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) next Wednesday to explain the final draft of the constitution that will be subject to the referendum, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, vice president of the NRSA, said yesterday.

He said members of his assembly would discuss next Friday its additional question that would be put to voters in the referendum.

Senators to be handpicked

The CDC has resolved to allow 244 senators to be handpicked by the NCPO and six others to be the senior-most security officials, while – under the draft – the Upper House has no authority to table a motion of no confidence against the government as requested by the so-called four rivers of power.

Members of the CDC took part in the third day of their retreat in Prachuap Khiri Khan’s Hua Hin district yesterday.

Meechai said before the meeting that it had been the intention of the drafters from the outset that the nine-member selection committee for senators would only serve to screen the candidates, who would ultimately be handpicked and appointed by the ruling NCPO. “This way, there is room for checks and balances. We [constitution writers] figure that if we let the selection committee both recruit candidates and appoint them to be senators, they will have absolute power without any checks,” he explained.

“However, in the final step that the NCPO gets to choose who would be senators, the charter draft does not stipulate clearly who would do that job. We leave it for the NCPO to decide,” he added. The CDC chairman said he did not see such a practice as a means for the junta to retain power, because the Senate would not have the authority to choose the future premier.

Under the draft, the senators – besides the six security top-brass members – would originate from two different sources.

Before being chosen by the junta, 194 of them would be recruited by the selection committee – appointed by the NCPO – and the other 50 would be elected among the 20 social and professional groups via the cross-election method created by the CDC.

The CDC explained that this would prevent possible discrimination, as they all would equally be handpicked by the NCPO while still allowing the CDC to test out whether cross-election worked in practice.

As a member of the NCPO, Meechai said he would not take part in the Senate selection process as it would only make things harder for him.

However, this did not mean he was “resigning from the board,” he stressed.

Wrong ratio put out

Meanwhile, Meechai also said yesterday that the parliamentary vote required to waive a premier candidate list remained two-thirds, not three-fifths as mistakenly announced by the CDC on Thursday.

He admitted he had wrongly recorded the panel’s resolution on the proportion of votes required to waive a PM candidate list, as he was dazed after discussing the two numerical options for so long, resulting in him typing the wrong number into the document.

In a separate interview, CDC spokesman Udom Rathamarit, who was in charge when the wrong figure was put out on Thursday, confirmed Meechai’s account.

He explained that he had been able to provide the rationale behind the three-fifths figure because he used the arguments presented in the discussion, stressing that it should have really been two-thirds but he had thought otherwise because he saw his chief type in the other figure.

The three-fifths ratio, if used, would make waiving the premier candidate list easier as it would only require 450 of the 750 parliamentarians to win the vote, while two-thirds would require 500 votes.

In a related development, Chartchai na Chiangmai, another CDC spokesman, said that the commission was working on the final touches to the draft, and was deliberating on the matter of independent organisations. So far, there had not been any significant changes to the draft charter, with only minor wording having been adjusted and a few clauses added, he said.

Changes include the disqualification of those found guilty of amending a budgetary motion in their favour, and the inclusion of the opposition leader in the crisis-managing ad hoc panel that would be called to meet by the Constitutional Court under Article 7 of the draft, he added.

The final draft will be available on Tuesday, with a national referendum to be held in early August.

The move is seen as paving the way for an outsider prime minister who is not connected to the political parties, an academic said.

However, the draft would stipulate that 50 senators would still be cross-elected from 20 social and occupational groups at the district and provincial levels, CDC spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni said yesterday.

The four core governing bodies – the Cabinet, the National Legislative Assembly, the National Reform Steering Assembly and the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), collectively referred to as the “four rivers” – proposed two weeks ago the charter draft establish a 250-member Senate selected or appointed for a five-year transitional period.

The junta also asked for a quota of Senate seats for six military officers – the permanent secretary of the Defence Ministry, the chief commanders of the three branches of the Armed Forces, the supreme military commander and the national police chief.

However, drafters did not accord exactly with the request regarding the six military posts, but instead agreed that 2.5 per cent of the Senate, or six seats, would be filled by members of the NCPO or officials of the current government, the spokesman said.

“We might write that the selection is the responsibility of an eight to 10-member selection committee, which will probably be appointed by the NCPO. And we won’t bar governmental officials from sitting in this five-year Upper House during the transition,” Norachit said.

The CDC also agreed the Senate would be empowered to push legislation related to reform plans and to safeguarding the constitution, but the commission held firm on the principle that only the House of Representatives would be able to make a motion of no confidence against the next government.

Norachit said the CDC resolved to let MPs and senators decide whether political parties would have to offer lists specifying their three candidates for prime minister.

“The first parliament meeting to choose the PM will be held as usual after an election. Only if the MPs cannot settle on who [from the party candidate list] will be the PM, then they could open a meeting of the two houses [the House and the Senate] and vote. If two-thirds of the two houses vote ‘yes’, the suspension of the PM lists would be allowed,” he explained.

Only MPs will be empowered to vote on the prime minister, whether candidates are on the party lists or not.

Sukhum Nualsakul, a former rector of Ramkhamhaeng University, said the CDC’s resolution to allow the suspension of the list of candidates for prime minister opened a path for an outsider prime minister.

“If they are not using the list, now the PM can be anyone or an outsider,” he said, inferring that the candidate might not be connected to any political party.”

Thammasat University political lecturer Attasit Pankaew said that the amended principles on the selection of a premier would probably create a strong coalition among small and medium parties and the Senate.

He said allowing the Senate to indirectly vote in the selection of a premier would pave the way for lobbying between the Upper House and the Lower House, the latter of which might be dominated by minor parties due to the CDC’s stipulation of a mixed member apportionment electoral system.

Lobbying would be needed in both Houses to form a coalition of two-thirds of members to elect a new premier, he said.

While such a coalition could benefit a more unified drive for reform, the lecturer said, it could also marginalise larger parties. The resulting polarisation might obstruct efforts to maintain order during the five-year transition, he added.

The structure would also force the Senate to become involved in political decisions, exceeding its stipulated role to screen legislation and drive reforms, he said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday insisted that it was necessary to have the six ex-officio Senate seats reserved for top military officers to ensure the next government stayed connected to the military.

“This concept is the next government won’t have to give separate orders [to each branch of the military]. Those [military officer] senators can also discuss with each other,” the premier said after a Cabinet meeting.

“What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that they will overtake the Senate? Come on, they have brains,” he said. “The next government will just have to do their best … I’m now doing it all for them.”

While agreeing on the Senate proposal, the CDC yesterday rejected the junta’s request to use a two-ballot voting system, instead of the one-ballot system the CDC proposed in its original draft charger. Norachit said the proposal did not come directly from the “four rivers” bodies, and violated the drafters’ original principles.The junta’s proposal also recommends a two-ballot electoral system, like that used in previous polls, for the next general election. The House would comprise 350 constituency MPs and 150 party-list MPs.

The four “rivers of power”, as the core governing bodies are referred to, also suggested that constituencies should be made larger and that the three candidates with the first, second and third-highest votes tallies all be elected to Parliament in multi-member districts. Voters would still only be allowed to cast a ballot for only a single candidate.Prayut said the new electoral system would mean “nothing to big parties” if they had quality candidates. Those parties did not have to fear the emergence of smaller parties, he added.

“It’s just only a mechanism we set up. There will be plenty of screening processes,” he said. “We’ll also have the Senate there. They have to work together on everything.”

The premier refused to comment whether there could be a compromise between the junta’s proposal and the CDC original ideas.

“It would be good if it turns out well. But if not, we all, including people, have to be responsible for that,” he said.Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said it would not be unusual if the charter’s provisional chapter relating to a transition period differed from other sections of the constitution.

While the main sections of the charter would apply permanently in the long term, Wissanu said, the provisional chapter would be active only during the five-year transition, which “needs a different explanation [than during the politically] normal period”.

The deputy prime minister was responding to concerns from CDC members who expressed worries that draft amendments in line with the junta’s proposal could compromise the charter draft’s main principles.

The decision depends on the CDC to weigh the matter, Wissanu said.

He admitted that the proposal for a two-ballot electoral system would help smaller parties emerge in the House via the party list, considering their limited resources to nominate MPs in every constituency.

The deputy prime minister, however, refused to say whether the system would be beneficial for new parties in the future.

THE CHIEF constitution drafter said yesterday he thought the military should not have staged the 2014 coup if there had not been a political crisis.

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) and a member of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), said: “Due to the crisis, the military was asked to get involved.”

He said members of the junta had confided with him that they did not want to get involved in attempting to solve the crisis because it would cause unspecified “threats” to them.

Meechai said the best mechanism in the constitution to curb future crises would be to empower independent organisations to warn future governments that pursue controversial policies that could damage the country.

“I hope this mechanism can help drive the country forward,” Meechai said yesterday during a lecture at an academic seminar “Democracy in the Transition Period” hosted by King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI).

KPI secretary general Wuttisan Tanchai, who is also an adviser to the CDC, said any mechanism to be included in the charter draft should be balanced and answer the dilemma of “crisis and democracy”.

“The important thing to consider about the power structure is the balance between solving the immediate crisis facing the country and the democracy preferred by the international standard. At the same time, we have to consider the mechanism of an answer as well,” he said.

Meechai said drafters had not finished deliberating on the recent controversial proposals offered by the “four rivers of power”, as the core government bodies are called, including that the Senate be selected rather than elected during a five-year transition period.

Using the metaphor of building a house, Meechai said people who were asking him to design a house and were only concerned with it being ready so they could move in might suffer the same vulnerability to thieves that they had experienced before. He added that people now were asking that there be “some guard” to protect the house in the first few days after its finished.

In a separate interview, Meechai said the CDC would try to finish deliberations on the proposal and declare a resolution today. After the resolution is disclosed, the panel would explain its rationale to the NCPO, he added.

He refused to disclose the CDC’s disposition regarding the controversial proposal, saying: “Don’t rush. We’ve got plenty of time.”

The final constitution draft is supposed to be completed and published next week.

Meanwhile, Pornpetch Vichitcholchai, president of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), said yesterday that he believed the CDC would agree with the proposal because it related to the events prior to the May 2014 coup when the Senate could not complete its work.

“The selected and elected senators were in a conflict with one another. Thus, the four rivers of power floated such a proposal because we do not want the same problem to recur,” he said, adding that they hoped the Senate should be a “brake” on future majority-led parliamentary governments.

Pornpetch dismissed a report that the CDC would empower Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha to determine the origin of the Senate, saying the “five rivers” had never discussed the matter. However, he admitted that a selection committee would involve the current prime minister and the NCPO.

He said the proposal to include top security officers in the Senate was meant to prevent future seizures of power, in response to a poll that showed respondents were equally for and against the idea. “When they take the Senate job, they can exchange views with other parliamentarians,” he said, suggesting they could resolve a situation without having to stage a coup.

POLITICIANS from the two major camps yesterday cried foul over the junta’s ideas to have a selected Senate, a non-elected prime minister and larger electoral constituencies, worrying that these elements would allow the military to take deep root and dictate the politics and fate of the country for a long time.

The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) earlier recommended to the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) that it put these three key political elements into the draft charter. The selected 250-member Senate, including a quota for top commanders of the Armed Forces, would become a powerhouse to control the legislative body and the executive branch, said Chaturon Chaisang, a key figure in the Pheu Thai Party. Such dominance would certainly reduce the weight of MPs’ voices on the floor of the House of Representatives, he said. For instance, it would require votes from only 126 MPs, together with those from 250 lobbied senators, to strip the whole Cabinet bare, he added.

The junta wanted to kill off the drafters’ idea to have a three-name PM candidate list in the ballot, which Chaturon said would allow outsiders to be nominated for the position of premier.

Another junta proposal, on the election of MPs – allowing people to vote for only one candidate out of three – was also worrisome, he said, adding that the idea would unnecessarily scatter votes among political parties, with the bigger ones able to obtain only about one-third of the seats in the House.

The Democrat Party’s Nipit Intarasombat yesterday said that every proposal from the junta for revising the charter draft was worrisome.

Empowering selected senators to grill an elected government in a no-confidence debate compromised democratic principles, he said, adding, “This means appointed people can overthrow an elected government.”

The proposed new election system would bring about conflicts in every political party, from canvassers to constituents, and among parties, he suggested. “I fear the system will weaken political parties to the point that our democracy is rocked to the core,” Nipit said.

However, the chairman of the National Steering Reform Assembly’s political reform committee, Seri Suwanpanont, supported the NCPO’s proposal for a large-constituency electoral system. Smaller parties stand a better chance of competing against the big ones, and it would help truly reflect voters’ wishes, he said.

Besides, such an electoral system would also help bring reconciliation, as MPs could come from a couple of different parties representing the same constituency and the seats would not be limited to only big parties.

On a selected Senate, Seri said it was only a mechanism to check the government so that it is strong and trustworthy. As for six military top brass sitting in Parliament, Seri said this was necessary because the country was still facing security issues and a deep political divide.

CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan yesterday refused to disclose the panel’s stance towards the proposals, saying he had to consult other drafters first and stressing that the panel would consider any proposal based on its rationale. “For our consideration, we mainly rely on the rationale of each proposal, paying no attention to who sent them. If they are advantageous, we include them in the draft. If they just do not seem to work, we drop them,” Meechai said before a meeting of the CDC.

He told everyone to not worry or be bothered about anything yet, because as of yesterday the CDC had not made any changes to the charter draft as recommended by the NCPO.

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday that neither he nor Prime Minster Prayut Chan-o-cha would accept a prime minister post after the next general election, although the junta’s proposal likely opened up chances for them to be in the running.

Prawit said the NCPO’s proposal was aimed at making sure the five-year transitional period achieved concrete reform results.

He defended the proposal to have military top brass become senators, arguing that it was aimed at ensuring a coup would not be staged as the military would have a venue in which to talk with politicians and find solutions together.

“Elected politicians would also have the chance to talk to the military top brass in Parliament. I see it as a good thing and nothing is wrong, since we will have a general election,” he added.

Asked why the government did not want the CDC to make political parties announce PM candidates ahead of the election, the deputy premier said parties would be able to nominate whoever they wanted, but there was no need to announce the names prior to a poll.

 

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, meanwhile, said during his weekly press briefing after the Cabinet meeting that if the constitution draft did not pass the referendum, the charter-writing process would start anew.

The proposals, which partly included the resolution of the four powers’ joint meeting last week and was already submitted to the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) on Monday, touched upon three key political elements including the controversial selected Senate, and the possibility of a non-MP future prime minister in the post-election government.

Government Spokesman Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd yesterday said Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam had presented the proposal at the Cabinet meeting.

The proposal included that Parliament, during the five-year transitional period, comprise 250 selected senators, six of whom will be the permanent secretary of the Defence Ministry, the chief commanders of the three Armed Forces, the overall chief commander, and the police chief commander.

Sansern explained that the four powers wanted to prevent any possible dead-ends, and any “foul play” by the elected members of the House of Representatives such as proposing an amnesty bill. “The Senate, however, will not have the authority to choose a prime minister. They will only be the guardians of the constitution,” he said, adding that other responsibilities of the senators included passing bills and carrying out the 20-year national strategy plan.

Besides, the four powers also resolved that the two-ballot electoral system be adopted for citizens to vote for both the constituency and the party-list candidates in the next election. This way, smaller parties stand a better chance of competing against the big ones. They also recommended that a list naming three PM candidates not be used in the first election. Sansern said they were concerned that parties would not finalise whom they wanted as the prime minister.

However, Sansern said they had not yet reached any conclusions on whether the top government job would be taken by a non-MP.

Prayut said that if the constitution draft did not pass the planned referendum, the writing process would restart.

“If it fails to pass a referendum or if it is not good, then we can rewrite it,” said Prayut. “I have the power. I have the power to keep peace – not that I will abuse it.”

Prayut reiterated the need to have a selected Senate during the five-year transitional period. A Cabinet source said the premier agreed that NCPO members should not be selected as senators.

Prayut rejected speculation that the NCPO was pressuring the CDC.

“Please do not say that the CDC is being stubborn [for not joining the meeting]. I did not invite them because they’re writing the constitution. And it is right that the proposal comes from the other four powers” excluding the CDC, he said, re-emphasising that he was not pressuring the drafters and believed they would write the constitution in accordance with the proposal.

Asked why another proposal had been sent to the CDC in addition to the Cabinet’s 16 points, which included the controversial exemption period for some rules, Prayut said he could submit a proposal as many times as he wanted.

“If they do not include those in the constitution, I will keep sending proposals until they do so, because this is my responsibility,” he said. In response to a question on how such a proposal would benefit the country, he said he wanted the country to be peaceful with no more conflicts, explaining that the selected Senate could weigh against the elected Lower House in the future Parliament.

“In the past, the Senate passed everything motioned by the Lower House. We need someone to counter that. And they [selected senators] will not have the authority to impeach anyone. What could possibly be wrong with that?” the PM said.

He maintained that the junta was not trying to cling to power, as an election would be allowed next year, while the military had allowed the constitution draft to be written, and the planned referendum to approve it.

Meanwhile, CDC chief Meechai Ruchupan said he understood Prayut‘s remark that he would keep sending proposals until the drafters heeded them.

“It is like asking a girl for a date. If she does not say yes, you keep asking,” he said. “However, the CDC will consider the rationality of the proposal … There was no pressure that we have to follow everything the PM said. We will include everything crucial for the country to move forward.”

However, Prayut later sent Sansern to clear the air with Meechai after the premier’s remark.

EAGER TO AVOID the mistakes of the previous coup-makers, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is determined to push for a special mechanism in the new constitution that would guarantee them the power of scrutiny over the post-election government, according to an NCPO source.

This special mechanism will allow a selected Senate rather than an indirectly elected Upper House during a five-year transitional period after the general election next year.

The 200 selected senators, most likely NCPO figures or people trusted by the junta, would have the primary duty of ensuring that the reform guidelines and national strategies formulated by the current government are fully implemented by the next administration, the source said.

The junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly and National Reform Steering Assembly have come up with those guidelines and strategies. Under the new constitution, which requires majority support in a national referendum to be held in July, senators are empowered to select members of independent organisations, which will become more powerful than before.

NCPO chief Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has called for selected senators, who he said would help prevent politicians in power after the election from “messing up with the constitution” and make sure that they will follow the reform guidelines and national strategies as suggested.

He has voiced support for Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan’s suggestion that the Upper House consist of selected senators.

Prawit told reporters last week that it was all right for NCPO members to become selected senators.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked. The source said the deputy premier’s remark was a “trial balloon” floated to gauge the public mood on the matter.

General Prayut and his junta colleagues certainly do not want their coup of May 2014 to be “wasted” in the same manner as the previous power grab of September 2006.

Many political observers believe the putsch staged almost 10 years ago failed to curb corruption and power abuses by politicians. To complete the “unfinished mission”, the junta needs to pass on at least part of its existing powers to appointed members of the next Senate.

The NCPO source said it is not because they have no faith in democracy. They simply are not convinced that the charter will be a cure-all that assures stable progress for Thailand.

The source pointed to the abuse of past constitutions by corrupt politicians who gained a mandate to rule the country through an election.

Those politicians exploited loopholes to influence the appointment of people to independent organisations.

The checks-and-balances system created by the previous constitutions ended up not functioning properly, leading to coups that abrogated them.

“The special mechanism is a transformation of the National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Commission or the so-called ‘crisis panel’,” the source said, referring to the panel added in the charter written by the Constitution Drafting Committee headed by Borwornsak Uwanno. The inclusion of the strategic panel was blamed for the now-defunct National Reform Council’s rejection of that draft.

Meechai Ruchupan, chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission, on Friday softened his stance against the junta’s proposal for transitory selected senators.

He had been insisting all along that the CDC would go ahead with its original draft, which requires senators to be indirectly elected from representatives of 20 occupational groups.

The NCPO source said he was convinced the drafters would finally agree with the proposal for transitory selected senators.

This is a gamble for the junta. If the draft constitution is rejected in the referendum, “we will pack our bags and go home”, the source said.

Suriyasai Katasila, deputy rector of Rangsit University’s college of social innovation, said the NCPO is “so interested” in designing special mechanisms, namely selected senates, that the public has grown sceptical about its promises to relinquish power. The NCPO should instead come up with concrete reform plans, set clear missions, steer the reforms and encourage various segments of the public to cooperate.

THE proposal by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan for appointed senators to balance the power of elected MPs while the country is in a five-year transitional period, before a full return to democracy, has had a mixed response from relevant agencies.

Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) spokesman Udom Rat-amarit said the drafters would have to weigh advantages and drawbacks of appointed senators.

The Prayut government and National Council for Peace and Order have given the CDC suggestions to revise the first version of their charter draft. Among them is that the country should have a five-year transitional period before a return to full democracy.

The charter draft by the CDC had designed an indirect election system in which different professional groups select senators as representatives from their professional sector.

Prawit has said there would not be any new agency set up to guide the country during the proposed transition period because all mechanisms would be decided by senators appointed for the five-year transitional phase.

Udom said the CDC could not say yet if it would change the draft to have appointed senators as suggested by the Cabinet. However, he said the CDC had accepted proposals from all sectors of society for careful consideration and had revised several Articles, especially the chapter on rights of the Thai people.

National Legislative Assembly deputy president Peerasak Porjit said the NLA would not object to Prawit’s suggestion of having appointed senators during a transitional period.

“We do not prefer appointing a new body to oversee the country – we’d rather opt for existing institutions such as the Senate to help balance the power and oversee the work of elected MPs,” he said.

However, Peerasak said he wanted a greater number of appointed senators from the provinces. The Senate should have the responsibility to balance power and not to interfere in the affairs of the executive branch, he said.

CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan said the CDC would decide on how to “acquire” senators over the next one to two weeks.

Meechai called on the public to give suggestions on whether the CDC should revise the charter draft over formation of the Senate. “Would having the Senate as suggested by other agencies solve the country’s problems?” he asked.

He insisted that the CDC’s formula of indirect election of senators, as stated in the charter draft, was suitable for the country’s political structure. But the National Reform Steering Assembly and the NLA want a permanent method for manning the Senate in the charter, not a temporary one for just a transitional period.

The CDC plans to hold meetings in Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan at the end of the month to review the wording and details of the charter. All major issues in the draft would be resolved in Parliament.

CDC member General Niwat Sripen said he could not say what would happen in regard to Prawit’s call for appointed senators. “It is a difficult proposal,” he said. “We cannot cater to all suggestions from everyone. We will rest the decision on major issues such as MPs and senators with the CDC and not its committees.

NLA member Taweesak Suthakavatin said he personally believed appointed senators would help stabilise the political situation and were needed as the country needs cooperation and unity. “They could help steer the country through the five-year transition period,” he said.

NRSA member Wanchai Sornsiri said the Lower House and Upper House must have equal power to balance each other. Allowing both Houses to nominate a candidate to be PM instead of just the Lower House alone was suitable as the country is in a transitional period.

“We do not allow full democracy yet but we also do not allow full authoritarianism,” he said.

THE Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) has temporarily skipped its review of a section in the charter draft on how parliamentary members will be qualified to hold office, and deal instead with the contentious issue closer to the March 29 deadline, CDC spokesman Amorn Wanichwiwatana said yesterday.

A discussion about how members of Parliament – both MPs and senators – would be elected or appointed was supposed to be reviewed early this week. But the CDC has delayed this because of differences in opinions expressed by concerned agencies, and the drafters have not yet figured out how to best deal with the issue, Amorn said.

In their first draft, drafters stipulated that members of the House of Representatives would be elected via a single-ballot system, with the number of party-list MPs also determined by the single vote. Senators were to be elected by 20 different groups from across society, with each group cross-electing candidates from another group to discourage collusion. However, that framework was not very popular and sparked fierce public controversy.

Two of the five “rivers of power” – the National Legislative Assembly and the National Reform Steering Assembly – proposed that the new constitution bar party-list MPs because they tended to be financiers who would seek to profit from politics after investing in elections. The two assemblies also suggested that senators should be appointed. Amorn said the CDC would soon go on another retreat to deliberate on the final draft ahead of the deadline at the end of this month in preparation for the referendum that is scheduled for near the end of July.

In the meantime, the CDC has gone rather quiet about their task. Daily press briefings have been curtailed and the commission’s public relations team has said spokespeople will only hold briefings on issues that have been settled and are not subject to change.

The PCR held a seminar to debate the charter draft on provisions regarding rights and liberty of the people.

Pairoj Polpet, former Legal Reform Commission member, summed up the document written by the Constitution Drafting Commission led by Meechai Ruchupan as increasing power of the state and reducing the people’s power and their rights.

He said that unlike the 1997 and 2007 charters, the draft contained no provision that stated the government must protect human rights and liberty. It also empowers state officials to have the right to develop local communities and manage national resources.

The charter was also weak on decentralisation and no provision stated how much funding local governments should receive.

The checks and balances stressed giving too much power to independent agencies such as the Constitutional Court, the Election Commission, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the State Audit Commission. These agencies should not interfere in politics, Pairoj said.

The draft also downgraded the National Human Rights Commission by depriving it the right to check if the government violates human rights and liberty.

The charter draft empowers the National Reform Steering Assembly to drive reform. However, the majority of the assembly’s members are bureaucrats, and this could lead to problems, he said.

Former charter writer Buntoon Srethasirote said he wondered if the CDC “froze” human rights out of this charter draft because it wanted it to be rejected.

He said that in the earlier charters, human rights were blossoming, but this draft blocked people from participating in politics and deprived them of their basic rights.

He said the charter over-stressed anti-graft measures and addressed the country’s structural problems without paying attention to power abuses by the state and bridging social and economic gaps. “This charter is a power-centralisation mechanism, as it ignores decentralisation and the public’s roles and participation in politics,” he said.

Buntoon expressed concern about the lack of a checking mechanism on independent agencies.

CDC spokesman Norachit Sinhaseni insisted yesterday that the new draft constitution fully addresses people’s rights and freedoms.

Those concerned should reread the draft, as many such rights have been transferred to the chapter on the state’s duties due to the different approach taken on framing constitutions.

For example, the public’s right to access government information from a state agency, state enterprise or local government organisation was explicitly stated in previous charters.

However, the current draft charter says the state has the obligation to provide such information to the people.

Other rights, including the freedom of expression, are still stipulated under the chapter on rights and liberties in this new version, he said.