After having had high hopes that voters would turn down the charter, some anti-charter activists are now in temporary retreat to deal with the disappointment brought by the vote results and to ponder over the developments. Despite their defeat, they are standing their ground, vowing to resume their battle against any suppressive regime actions until power is truly returned to the people.

Red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan, meanwhile, said that as an ordinary citizen he would just sit back and let the charter reveal its true colours.

“I had announced that if the charter is passed [the vote], I won’t run for MP [seat]. So, I’m an ordinary citizen now. I don’t have any pressure [of the kind] the referendum winner does,” he said. “I’m just going to relax, wait, and see how the charter works itself out or where it leads the country.”

The chairman of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) said the referendum results were not easy to accept at first, but said he had already let go considering how unfair the situation had been for the anti-charter side.

Until next year when the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) steps down – besides waiting for the charter to prove its quality – Jatuporn said he would continue to carry out his civic duty as a citizen and take the country towards democracy.

“I don’t believe the referendum on August 7 was the end. Rather, it’s the beginning of further injustice. It’s the beginning of another journey and battle,” the red-shirt leader said.

Sombat Boonngamanong, a pro-democracy activist widely known as Bor Kor Lai Jud, said he had spent most of the past week after the vote reflecting and drawing lessons from it.

“I am trying to figure out what message each ballot is conveying and how this democracy caravan should go. These are the thoughts in my head over the past few days,” he said.

Confident that voters would reject the controversial charter, Sombat admitted he was heartbroken by the results and the number of people who were with the NCPO.

“I was astounded. I thought the disapproval votes would outnumber the ‘Yes’ votes, but unfortunately it went the other way. I was so confident during the run-up to the vote. The result was a wake-up call,” he said. “It was a moment of realisation. I found I had overestimated [the pro-democracy force]. And I have to fix that or we will just make more mistakes.”

Sombat said he did not have any big plan yet about how to move against what he called the “undemocratic regime”. Currently, he is putting most of his time and energy into studying the referendum-approved charter.

“I didn’t think it would come into effect so I hadn’t really paid attention to it. Now, I’m seriously studying the draft. I have to dig into details of what it entails. This is my priority now. And after this, I will continue moving but I’m not sure for now how I’m going to go about this,” the activist said.

Pakorn Areekul, known among the activists as Man, a key figure in the New Democracy Movement (NDM), left Bangkok almost immediately after the referendum.

“I went to Khon Kaen to see Phai [Jatupat Boonpataraksa, a political activist currently in prison] and cheer him up after everything. And now I’m in Nakhon Si Thammarat, my home town, to celebrate Mother’s Day with my family,” he said. “I’m going to have to take it slowly after the vote. I need some time to think.”

Man is among those who invested a lot into the campaign against the charter, trying to encourage voters to reject the junta-sponsored constitution. Last month, he was arrested in Ratchaburi’s Ban Pong District for having anti-charter documents in his pickup truck, allegedly ready for distribution – a crime under Article 61 of the referendum law – and was released on a Bt140,000 bail.

He said it was a shame the referendum results had turned out the way they did. “I really thought we would win. Now we [NDM] – including myself – have to rethink everything and figure why we didn’t make it in the referendum,” Man said.

However, he said he was not discouraged by the results. Man said he would return to Bangkok this week and resume his activities.

“It’s what I do. It’s what I have been doing for a very long time since I was a student. And I will not stop doing,” the activist said.

Another prominent anti-charter and anti-junta activist, Jatupat – popularly known as Phai Dao Din – also remained in good spirits despite the referendum results and his current time in jail.

The young activist, based in Khon Kaen, was also arrested for violating Article 61 a couple of days before the referendum as he distributed anti-charter documents. He is on a hunger strike in prison, protesting against what he sees as injustice after the police raided his house in a failed attempt to find more illegal documents.

Viboon Boonpataraksa, Phai’s father, said his son “did not lose the smile on his face” after learning the charter had been approved in the vote.

“He was happy that at least people in the Northeast, his home, voted against it,” Viboon said.

He added that Phai’s health was not very good after days of starvation, but the activist remained courageous.

Viboon said he strongly believed his son would continue fighting |after he was released, though for now Phai insisted he would not seek release on bail.

Thailand and Vietnam established diplomatic relations on August 6, 1976 at the peak of the Cold War, with ties relatively cold, gloomy and tense at the beginning. The turning point which led relations to the current status began in late 1980s when Vietnam launched its Doi Moi ‘renovation’ policy in 1986 and Thailand announced a policy two years later to turn the Indochina ‘battlefields into marketplaces’.

Leaders – notably high-level members of the Thai royal family and Vietnam’s top leaders – made frequent visits, which Hanoi’s Ambassador to Bangkok Nguyen Tat Thanh called “shuttle diplomacy” over recent decades.

With warmer relations since then, Thailand became the first Asean state to sign a strategic partnership pact with Vietnam three years ago, during the visit of Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, Thanh said.

The strong ties are shown by the increasing volume and value of two-way trade and tourism. Turnover of bilateral trade between 2000-2015 has doubled, while the tourist arrivals from Vietnam to Thailand had jumped from 380,000 to 751,000 visitors currently, he said.

Looking to the decade ahead, Thanh said, governments of the two countries had created a number of mechanisms fundamental for warm ties. Last July, during a third joint cabinet meeting, the then Vietnamese premier Nguyen Tan Dung and his Thai counterpart Prayut Chan-o-cha agreed on three guiding principles – mutual respect, trust and benefit – to implement that foundation as the two governments agreed on a series of activities in a plan of action for 2014 to 2018.

“The strategic partnership as well as the Asean community should be put into practice for the benefit of our people so they can order enjoy all kinds of benefit from the better relationship and regional integration,” Thanh said.

More high level visits are coming, and more twin-city agreements will be created between provinces of the two states, while connectivity on land, water and air is increasing, he said.

Culture was another field both countries should promote for stronger ties, Ambassador Thanh said. There was plenty of room for cooperation in education, sport, media, play, literature and language, he said.

“We want to know about Thai-ness and Buddhism in Thailand. There are over 20 Vietnamese Buddhist temples in Thailand, seven in Bangkok alone. We want to learn how Thai people are so hospitable for foreigners, attracting more than 30 million visitors last year, while we can have only eight million a year. We want to know more about each other’s cuisine. I like Thai food and have learnt that many Thai friends love Vietnamese food.”

On the economic side, the ambassador said both countries would increase more business activities in terms of trade and investment. The turnover of two-way trade was only $13 billion (Bt452 billion) with Vietnam having a $5 billion deficit, he said, adding that there should be more products from Vietnam in Thai supermarkets.

Thai investors are now ranked 11th in total foreign direct investment with capital of $8 billion, which he said was far below their potential in comparison to others from Asean. But Vietnamese investment in Thailand is less, with only a joint venture airline Thai-Vietjet. He suggested that both sides put in more effort to boost trade and investment.

There might be some obstacles in to smooth relations but governments of the two countries have created at least five mechanisms from the level of government to government, province to province, government-to-private entity and the level of people to people ties to cope problems, Thanh said.

In some aspects such as rice trading, it seemed that Thailand and Vietnam were rivals, but the ambassador said the business could be complementary to each other. “Our products such as rice are alike, but they are different and we can promote rice along side each other, rather than competing,” he said.

There are some problems in the fishery sector such as an incident last month, when a Navy attack on fishing boats such crewmembers injured, but Thailand said the crews were arrested after illegally intruding on Thai waters. “The fishing [situation] is a minor issue,” Thanh said. “The two countries have experience in facing more difficult issues over the past 40 years. Thanks to the vision and will of our leaders, we can solve these problems peacefully with satisfaction of both sides,” he said.

Mechanisms proposed by both sides to solve the problems and prevent any recurrence, he said, included an idea for the two navies to have a “hot line” as well as links to each other’s diplomatic representative offices, plus joint patrols in the Gulf of Thailand. The two governments were making a lot of effort to solve the issue, he said.

IT’S RAINING DOGS AND MONKEYS

Monkeys in Phichit sit idly in front of a board used to display lists of elgible voters after they tore 12 pages of them on July 24.

Who needs Godzilla when you have dogs and monkeys to do outrageous things. Apparently, a troop of some 100 monkeys showed up last month to tear up the list of eligible voters displayed at a Phichit temple. And though a local village chief tried to catch them, he failed and was left to deal with 12 shredded pages of the list on the floor.

Luckily, the local Election Commission (EC) office placated the marauding monkeys with fruit baskets and replaced the lists – now behind glass.

In Chaiyaphum, police learned that tail-wagging, barking culprits were behind the shredding of another set of lists. Apparently, a local pack of dogs had had great fun tearing apart the lists from a board that had been knocked down in a storm. A new list was printed and guards stationed nearby to keep a close eye on things.

KEEP IT OUT OF CHILDREN’S REACH

Crumpled pieces of shredded lists were found under a displaying board in Roi Et on July 24. It is later discovered that a nine-year-old boy is the one committing the ’crime’.

Sometimes children should not just be kept away from pesticides and other poisonous things. A police superintendent of Kamphaeng Phet’s Khanu Woralaksaburi district ended up losing his job for failing to report that two grade 2 schoolgirls had torn up the pink coloured list. No charges were filed against the girls because they are far too young.

Similarly in Roi Et province, a nine-year-old boy was also caught tearing up the lists. Police interrogated him and his mother and allowed them to stay home, only for his teacher to learn the following morning that the two had fled the village. It is believed that the mother chose to disappear for fear of facing charges.

HOT TEMPERS BURN PAPERS

25-year-old Natthawut Boonma reenacts his alleged crime of tearing lists of eligible voters under watchful eyes of the Rayong police on July 26.

While little kids enjoy tearing paper, teenagers prefer to go even further and burn them. A 16-year-old in Khon Kaen province was caught burning the lists, apparently to keep mosquitoes away. Unfortunately, the poor fellow ended up being charged with violating the referendum law and destroying other people’s belongings.

Similarly, a 25-year-old in Rayong thought it would be a good idea to roll a joint with the list paper, until he was arrested and learnt the hard way that it wasn’t. Four middle-school students in the same province were also found burning the list papers just for fun.

SAY NO TO AMERICA “NO”

The controversial “Ga No” coffee.

Police confiscated almost 50 flags with the words “Ga No” adorning both sides of a street in Si Sa Ket. Reason? The word “Ga No” in Thai can mean “choosing no”, which allegedly violates the referendum law as it can influence voters. The police, however, later learnt that “Ga No” was a brand of coffee and the flags had been put to up promote the brew, not influence the coming vote.

ROASTED WHEN TRYING TO PROVE POINTS

Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn breaks the “high endurance” plastic ballot box when he flings it for the fourth time

Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn wanted to demonstrate to the public how secure the materials being used in the plebiscite are. Sadly, he was only able to prove they were rather fragile. The first item was the plastic ballot box, which can apparently last up to 10 years. Yet Somchai managed to break the “high endurance” box when he flung it for the fourth time.

Similarly a reporter managed to easily pull off a plastic band that was designed to bind the ballot box tightly.

YOU CAN’T DO THAT, BUT WE DON’T KNOW IF WE DID

The Election Commission distributes 20 million of pamphlets on the referendum amid controversy of alleged distortions against the draft’s original contents.

The referendum law clearly stipulates that anybody found distorting the draft charter’s content will be punished. Yet, ironically, the EC – which is in charge of enforcing this law – learned that that much of the content in its own pamphlets explaining the draft charter is exaggerated and even omits several controversial points on the parliamentary structure.

Although the EC has remained quiet on the matter, the drafters said they only wanted to put the content in “the simplest way” for people to understand.

When this issue was brought to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s attention, he only said “I acknowledged it, but didn’t read it. It’s not my business.”

DO YOU EVEN WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW?

Local administrators in Nan on August 1 give lectures to local officers assigned to look over the referendum situation

In a bid to boost public knowledge about the draft and the referendum, the authorities have opted for several platforms – ranging from oral explanations in rural areas to posting information online. Yet the public still seems to be misinformed. Just 1 million copies of the draft were printed despite there being more than 50 million eligible voters, not to mention the fact that people are far too afraid to discuss the subject openly due to the junta’s many bans.

Several local administrators, assigned by the Interior Minister to educate people in their areas, told The Nation that they didn’t dare provide too much of an explanation for fear that they might accidentally influence the vote and thus violate the referendum law.

MARTIAL LAW LIFTED? REALLY?

Six members of the New Democracy Movement walk out from Bangkok Remand Prison on July 6 after being released from charges of breaking the junta’s banning of political gathering of more than four people.

Despite claims of the martial law imposed after the coup being lifted more than a year ago, the junta is still imposing a ban on political gatherings of five or more people. Members of the New Democracy Movement were charged for violating the order when they distributed pamphlets explaining why they thought the draft should be rejected. A journalist landed himself in trouble for being present at the event, not to mention the red-shirt figures who were detained for trying to open anti-fraud centres.

Yet the junta-led government insists that it has opened spaces for people to discuss the vote freely.

A “POLITICALLY MATURE” MOVE FROM ABHISIT

Not even a month before their splits on the draft, Abhisit Vejjajiva is still seen giving birthday present to his influential ex-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban,both smiling

Be it as a former premier or as a Democrat leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva has tried to prove his integrity by not depending on others, such as his influential former deputy Suthep Thaugsuban.

While Suthep, who now leads a “politics free” foundation, continues broadcasting messages supporting the draft charter, Abhisit has steadfastly stood against it, saying it does not fight graft, suggesting that the next participatory draft should be led by Prayut if this one fails.

Also this is the first time that Abhisit and his arch-enemies ex-premier Yingluck Shinawatra and Pheu Thai member and red-shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan have taken the same stance.

THE JUNTA PROMISED A DEMOCRATIC DRAFT CHARTER

The junta promised a democratic draft charter

The Nation will simply leave this to the readers’ judgement.

Without bothering to use normal legal procedures, the NCPO head and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is empowered by Article 44, which gives ng him absolute authority to order and replace officials or perform any act, whether legislative, executive or judicial.

Since December 2014, General Prayut has ‘necessarily’ issued 91 orders via this absolute power. This sense of necessity has spanned vastly from setting up new governmental agencies, dealing with drunk drivers, revoking police rank of a fugitive former PM, and too many more to mention.

A series of orders have also been issued to appoint, suspend or shift officers mostly suspected of involvement in grafts or misbehaviour. One example is the NCPO Order Number 19/2015 that shifted 70 officers including Winai Sawasdivorn, then-secretary general of the National Health Security Office (NHSO).

The secretary general, normally, acts with the NHSO board when discussing public health policies with the public health minister, appointed as the NHSO chairman by position.

Former NHSO board member Nimit Tienudom saw that this use of Article 44 as unbalancing proportions of a board made up of representatives from various sides. This variety had helped weigh decisions on health policies to be applied for about 49 million Thais covered by national health security, Nimit explained.

The same order also froze 42 local administrators who were all elected.

Another example from the same category is NCPO Order No 21/2015 dismissing Lt-General Pongsakorn Rodchompoo from his position as a deputy secretary-general at the National Security Council in July last year. The order stopped Pongsakorn from carrying on terrorism issues and made him an adviser to the PM. That, he told The Nation, “requires me to do nothing but a member of some governmental boards, where I again have almost nothing to do.”

Pongsakorn said he still didn’t know why he was transferred, insisting he was not involved with any graft cases.

Prayut also issued orders to push government-promoted reforms. In November last year, Prayutissued NCPO Order Number 40/2015 to “reform” the Social Security Office (SSO) by revamping members of its three boards and advisers.

But this “reform” has grounded the SSO to a bureaucratic pattern since all board members were appointed.

Wilaiwan Saetia, president of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, said the selected board members have not let insured people check the SSO’s financial operations. Lacking extensive participation, Wilaiwan feared the SSO would not transparent and independent enough to protect the benefits of those insured.

The orders, as Prayut claimed, were also issued to speed up decision-making processes. One example is NCPO Order No 9/2016 allowing preparation for construction to be carried out in parallel with environmental impact assessments (EIAs). Previously, EIAs had to be completed before construction but that was said to “consume time”.

The order was followed by worries that the practice would allow building to go on regardless of concerns of local communities.

“With things speeding up, projects are likely to be carried out much less carefully,” Pakpoom Withantirawat, from the Assembly of NGOs for the Protection and Conservation of Environment and Natural Resources, said.

Another bid to speed up processes is the NCPO Order No 36/2016 to reclaim Sor Por Kor land to tackle land encroachment cases around the country.

One affected area is the Klong Sai Pattana community in Surat Thani that is home to hundreds of families, whose faith was shaken by the abrupt order.

“We almost finished dealing with the government in land reform when suddenly this order struck,” Surapon Songrak, a coordinator of the Assembly of Southern Farmers, said.

The orders have also been used to deal with urgent national issues. For instance, NCPO Order No 24/2015 was issued to counter illegal fishing, such as banning of set-bag nets.

Safidee Konkalimeen, a local fisherman in Songkhla, said that almost 200 families had been forced to remove the nets without getting any compensation from authorities.

‘Unanimous rejection’

In a light of next week’s referendum, all of these people linked to or affected by the use of Article 44 unanimously told The Nation that they wished to reject the draft charter.

Some said their sentiments on Prayut‘s government would affect how they will vote.

“This government doesn’t return happiness to people at all,” Safidee said. “I will [vote to] reject the draft. Some other villagers want to vote for it though, because they want to shoo the government away as quickly as possible.”

Surapon shared the same thought. “The government is undemocratic and they don’t listen to us. They also took part in drafting process and I won’t support it.”

Other Article 44 “victims” said they would decide by the content of the new charter and insist on rejecting it if it cut out rights on their concerns when compared with previous charters.

For Nimit, he saw that the draft omits healthcare for the elderly, while Wilaiwan noted that the draft does not guarantee fair wage adjustment like its predecessor did. And Pakpoom felt the draft doesn’t give communities any rights at all.

Pongsakorn, who had his name written in the order, said he would not let his grudge sway how he votes. “But I’ll vote it down anyway, as it bars people from being able to play a significant role in the political arena,” he said.

Since the coup, there has not been any sign of red-shirt movements in Isaan villages. Red flags, banners displaying village names, large pictures of their two beloved former prime ministers, ThaksinShinawatra and his sister Yingluck, and symbolic decorations of red-shirt villages – all have been removed and hidden.

The military crackdown on red-shirt supporters has left Isaan villages wilting.

Some village and community heads who are former red-shirt supporters have turned into junta supporters since the coup. Some have even become mouthpieces for the state campaigning for the charter draft, which will be tested in the August 7 referendum.

Kongchai Chaikung, head of Ban Nong Hu Ling village of Udon Thani’s Muang district, told The Nation the military had approached him a few months before the coup. Dozens of red-shirt village heads in the province including Kongchai were summoned and asked to stop politically mobilising. The village head was wearing a white shirt symbolising his new political point of view.

“So, the coup was successful as the military could control political leaders at the lowest level – villages and communities,” he said.

Kongchai is now a “Kru Kor”, or Teacher C, volunteer trained to explain the draft to villagers.

Ban Nong Hu Ling is known as the country’s first red-shirt village, which was officially referred to as the “red-shirt village for democracy” founded in late 2010. During that time, hundreds of red-shirt villages mushroomed across Udon Thani, which was widely perceived as the red-shirt capital.

Shades of 2010

The pilot village was founded in answer to red-shirt supporters’ wrath following the 2010 Bangkok bloodshed when red-shirt protesters staged large-scale rallies in Bangkok against the then Democrat-led government. The military crackdown on protesters resulted in at least 90 deaths and many injuries.

A resident of Ban Nong Hu Ling, who asked not to be named, said she had been scared after witnessing the bloodshed and hated the authorities for their heavy-handed response to protests.

Following the demonstrations, the largest number of people affected came from Ban Nong Hu Ling, Kongchai said. The founding of the village as a red-shirt bastion was initiated by Udon Thani red-shirt secretary-general Arnon Sannan and supported by Kamonsin Singhaanurak, the group’s leader, to serve as a symbolic movement for democracy. Some former Pheu Thai MPs also supported the move.

Following the founding, hundreds of red-shirt villages were set up across the country, which became strong supporters of the Pheu Thai Party resulting in its landslide victory in 2011 and the subsequent Yingluck government.

Since the 2014 coup, however, red-shirt villagers have turned blue as the military regime utilised state administration bodies to help suppress red-shirt movements at the community level. The move proved effective.

Kongchai said district chiefs approached village heads across Udon Thani, plying them with “sweet words”. The district officials “politely” asked headmen to cooperate and to stop causing political unrest and staging political activities as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) was trying to keep the country peaceful, he said.

Some former red-shirt supporters felt they had been abandoned by Pheu Thai, while some had no hope their leaders would return to power. Village leaders believed they had no choice or power to bargain so they dismantled their “red-shirt villages” and took down the flags, banners and symbols referring to colour-coded politics.

The Royal Thai Army Division 24 based in Udon Thani also played an important role in suppressing red-shirt activity. Kongchai said the Army division chief’s rank is comparable to that of the provincial governor but the division head is clearly more powerful than the governor.

Military authorities have exerted a dominating force over red-shirt leaders in the province ever since.

According to a source, who asked to remain unnamed, a prominent red-shirt village leader in Udon Thani has been detained at a military camp during the day several times this week. Authorities were worried the red-shirt leader would hold a celebration for Thaksin on his birthday on Tuesday, the source said, adding that the military had closely monitored the man since the coup and forced him to collaborate.

The climate of fear created by the military has replaced the joyful atmosphere that was evident during the rise of the red-shirt villages and previous elections, Kongchai said.

Foreign and Thai visitors and media now refrain from visiting Udon Thani villages, Kongchai said.

Before the coup, visitors had frequently come to villages to observe the red-shirt support, which indicated a new political awareness at the grassroots level, he said, adding that villagers sometimes would welcome visitors over the course of an entire day. Now, Kongchai said, villagers just farm all day and refrain from talking about politics.

Another villager in Ban Nong Hu Ling who asked to remain unnamed said people in the area are still monitoring the junta’s performance, but she added that she does not discuss politics anymore. She said most people believed the economy had drastically declined under the military regime, particularly as some farm produce prices have dropped by half.

“Some villagers are not impressed by the military regime. They argue when I try to explain and ask them to cast ballots in the referendum. Not all people agree with the junta’s roadmap. They are looking forward to the next election,” Kongchai said, adding that some had already made up their minds to vote against the charter draft.

Many residents have a dark view of the village’s future and prospects for red-shirt leaders, but they still hope there will be a light at the end of the tunnel after the referendum.

Voter turnout in the Northeast could reach the 80-per-cent goal in the referendum in two weeks and favour approval of the draft charter despite a climate of fear and a lack of understanding about the draft, a source close to Election Commission (EC) offices in Isaan provinces has said.

Ahead of the August 7 referendum, the Isaan region is still relatively quiet, the source said. There had little public discussion and political commentary, he said, because people fear meetings could breach the junta’s ban on political gatherings.

However, Isaan people will cast their ballots because they want the referendum to “finish” the issue so the next general election can be held, Kongchai Chaikung, village head of Ban Nong Hu Ling in Udon Thani province and red-shirt supporter, said.

“They are looking forward to exercising their electoral rights in the next election and have their own representatives, rather than live under the coup,” Kongchai said. He said people had suffered from record low prices for farm products since the coup and hoped that their representatives and the next elected government can solve the economic slowdown.

People in Isaan believe that if the draft passes the referendum, the next election will be held by 2017 according to the junta’s road map, he added.

But the junta could prolong its tenure citing a need to edit or write a new draft without a fixed timetable, he said.

On the other hand, the junta has also intensified security measures, especially in Isaan, which is known to be a red-shirt stronghold, to ensure the referendum proceeds smoothly, a source close to the junta said.

In Isaan, the junta has tried to suppress red-shirt community leaders who canvassed for Pheu ThaiParty during recent elections, the source added. Tactics include frequent summons or reporting to security authorities.

“I used to be summoned monthly to report to security authorities in 2014 when the coup took place,” village head Kongchai said. “They asked me and other red-shirt community leaders to stop political activities. We have no power and have to obey.”

He said that since then he has coordinated with state administrators and district chiefs, passing their policies on to villagers. Kongchai has even become a so-called Kru Kor, or “Teacher C”, volunteer trained by district officials to knock on doors and explain the charter draft content in person.

The military and concerned security agencies are also visiting villages for different reasons including “support missions” related to the referendum, said Watcharin Sutawadee, an official in Muang Udon Thani district.

Thongmuan Pithaknok, a villager in Nakhon Ratchasima, said she and several of her neighbours believe the military will harm them if they do not vote in the referendum.

Despite a large turnout, the quality of voting in the referendum will be poor because voters do not understand the content of the draft, said Preecha Uitragool, Open Forum for Democracy Foundation coordinator for the Isaan region.

“Booklets and a full version of the draft are not available in some areas. [There are] no inclusive debates and no political talks. How will people make the right decision?” Preecha said.

Villagers had not received booklets or a full version of the draft as of three weeks prior to the referendum, said Krisada Monthathip, the head of Ban Sommai village in Udon Thani.

According to Nakhon Ratchasima provincial EC office director Thitiphol Todsarod, state agencies have recently made a great effort to encourage Isaan voters to cast ballots as the region has the largest number of eligible voters. He said in big provinces such as Nakhon Ratchasima and Buri Ram, referendum banners bedeck downtown areas while on the outskirts of remote provinces, monks, village chiefs and the state’s local networks urge people to vote in face-to-face discussions.

Provincial EC director Thitiphol said not all households had received the full draft because only 1.2 million copies had been printed. But he said all families would receive booklets spelling out the main ideas of the draft. Some 17 million copies of the summary booklets have been printed.

With more than Bt200 million budgeted for referendum PR activities, provincial EC offices will initiate a number of projects in collaboration with a massive state administration and security agency effort to get at least an 80-per-cent turnout nationwide, a source close to the EC said. In the 2007 referendum, 57 per cent of voters cast their ballots.

They also include the crackdown on mafia figures or so-called influential people believed to be political canvassers, banning political activities and formulating political restructuring proposals in the constitution draft which will be voted on in two weeks.

Politics is in a tangled mess. The charter draft is seen by many as the holy grail. Its acceptance is vital to the political elite. But more than the content of the charter will be judged on referendum day. The regime, too, will be put to the test. And among the factors people take into consideration are how well the regime has done in tackling the problematic politicians after all this time.

Sirote Klampaiboon, an independent political scientist, said the NCPO had gone far beyond the people’s demands and had crossed the line.

“When the coup was staged, if there were any reason at all [to do so], it was that power corrupted. But now, the NCPO has come way farther than dealing with corruption. Rather than limiting the power, politicians are now being eradicated,” he said.

He explained that politics could be viewed as a free market where players competed to win votes. He said the new system provided by the draft constitution undermined that, disabling politicians from selling their policies to earn popularity with voters.

“Under the new structure, politicians can barely propose policies or direct the country. So, if you ask whether the public is satisfied by the NCPO’s work on this, I would have to say this is far beyond the satisfactory point,” the scholar said.

However, Sirote does not think this point alone matters in the referendum. In his opinion, how people vote will be based more on the overall picture they see.

“The referendum is more about whether or not people are satisfied with the NCPO in general. Surely if they did not like it, they will vote to punish it,” he said.

Sirote said he had observed that the number of dissidents had grown compared to two years ago when the regime came in. This was because of the NCPO’s poor performance, especially on the economy, and perhaps because of the personality or character of its leading figures as well.

Attasit Pankaew, a Thammasat University political science lecturer, believes the regime has done very little to improve politics despite its efforts and the public expectations.

There have not been any clear signs that the political landscape will change much after the NCPO steps down next year, he said, adding that voters have not received any signals that the behaviour of politicians has changed.

The lecturer explained that while actions had been taken against politicians, they appeared to have been used to only preserve the junta’s position.

“Some [politicians] might have been summoned for attitude adjustment. Many have been blocked from moving politically. But overall, all these are just for securing the regime’s immediate position and never for long-run politics,” Attasit said.

He predicted that the old political structure would be resurrected after the election. And the general public can feel this unchanged pulse, he added.

“I cannot tell whether or not the NCPO is disappointing people in this matter. But from how I see it, I think this is rather far from a referendum matter,” he said, implying that what he regards as the NCPO’s unsuccessful work in tackling the so-called corrupt politicians is not an influential factor for the charter vote.

Like Sirote, Attasit believed the referendum was about the big picture. He said that political hard cores most likely had already made up their minds on how they would vote. But those who are non-partisan may be looking at the NCPO’s image in general as well as the content of the charter.

“The swing voters will rely on public opinion leaders who are now highly limited by the authorities. And in the process, the swing voters could grow dissatisfied with the NCPO for seemingly being unfair to campaigners,” he explained.

Nipit Intrasombat, a veteran politician of the Democrat Party, said similarly that he did not feel the NCPO’s efforts had led to much impact, and agreed that voters would unlikely take that into account before deciding on the new charter.

The Democrat deputy leader said that because of the limited dissemination of information about the constitution, whether people vote on the referendum would be largely dependent on recommendations they received from someone they trusted, including ideology leaders and politicians.

The song, first released by the EC on May 25, swiftly attracted an outburst of disapproval on social media when people heard it.

Pro-human rights academics and activists denounced the EC’s song as insulting local people in the North and the Northeast (Isaan).

“On behalf of a Northeasterner [northeasterners], I feel so painful when listening to this song. You [the song’s working group] praise people in the South as pro-democracy, pro-liberal, but instruct [insult] the northerners and Isaan people not to let others deceive and induce them [when voting in the referendum],” Khon Kaen University religion lecturer Surapos Taweesak wrote recently on hisFacebook page.

The EC’s controversial song was first composed with different parts sung in different regional dialects. It also borrowed regional music instruments in a bid to catch local people’s attention, according to Prayong Cheunyen, a national artist.

EC member Dhirawat Dhirarojvit, whose team is responsible for the campaign song, said the working group only wanted to encourage people to study the draft charter before the referendum date in a bid to get a high and quality turnout.

According to an EC source, before the song was rolled out, it had been edited up to seven times. The working group – made up of EC members, the songwriter and experts – scrutinised and approved the final version, she said. But the panel had no idea it would insult people and trigger such controversy.

Songwriter Sunyaluck Donsri, who is now a monk, told The Sunday Nation the lyrics were written based on the EC’s concept.

He said the agency wished to convey five key messages through the song: that the constitution is a foundation of public administration; that people should thoroughly study the charter draft before exercising their voting rights; people should not let others influence the way they vote; that the country’s 65 million people are aware of democracy and the referendum on August 7; and that whether people vote “yes” or “no” is a matter for each of them to decide.

The monk said he had no intention of insulting northerners and people from Isaan, as he was also a “son of Isaan”, and did not think critics would launch such an attack on the song.

“The lyrics aren’t written to describe the characteristics of northerners and Isaan people. The lyrics were written to follow the EC’s five objectives, and we allocated them to different parts of the song,” he explained.

The song stresses that people should not let others influence their voting decision and should instead examine the charter draft by themselves. It merely happened to have been conveyed in the Isaan dialect and composition, he said.

This led people to claim that the song looked down on Isaan people, saying it implied that they were naive and in need of advice, the songwriter added.

Another controversial aspect of the lyrics lay in the part done with a northern dialect, which says that northerners should not let others induce them to vote in a particular way and should carefully study the draft.

This led to accusations that the words suggest northerners are uneducated people, who need to be cautious when studying the draft, he said.

Speaking in defence of the song, Doi Inthanon, a prominent songwriter from the North, commented that for such an event as the referendum, it was perfectly fine to add messages in order to educate listeners.

By writing the song based on regional composition, it could help attract more local people as their culture had been reflected through the song, he said.

“I think the song has been beautifully composed, if we listen to it thoroughly,” he added.

Despite the composer’s praise, the song continues to raise questions over cultural sensitivity.

Sirote Klampaiboon, an independent political critic, said the criticism mirrored the working group’s lack of cultural sensitivity and ignorance of existing political conflicts among the regions in recent times.

He noted that the song would not in any case attract a high turnout as the EC expected, because in practice the agency was not allowing open and inclusive debate on the charter draft, which he felt would be a far more effective approach to raising people’s awareness of the referendum.

Pinkaew Laungaramsri, a sociologist at Chiang Mai University, suggested that the referendum song should not separate regions by composing it based on different regional dialects and lyrics, in order to avoid “reproduction or repetition of certain characteristics” of people in the regions. Following the storm over the first version, the EC’s song-production group decided to rewrite it and launch a second version in an attempt to end argument about it.

In the second version, controversial parts have been replaced. For example, in the part concerning northerners, the lyrics which said, “We, the Northern folks, do not let others induce us. [We] have to keep on studying [the draft]” have now been changed to “Come together to the referendum, kinsfolk be at ease, Thai folks have fun.”

Though the song has been rewritten, Pinkaew said the feelings of some people may have already been hurt, and they would therefore be unlikely be listen to the new version.

In any case, what had happened in the writing of the referendum song should never be repeated, and should instead serve as a lesson for the composition of any future songs of this nature, he stressed.