Puea Thai and charter change
Puea Thai and charter change
The opposition Puea Thai Party has, once again, changed tack regarding the attempt to amend six provisions in the current Constitution as endorsed by the whips of the government, the Senate and the opposition. The party is now clamouring for a reinstatement of the 1997 charter, which echoes the demand of its street ally, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.
Puea Thai’s back-and-forth shifting of its position on such an important issue has made the party look clownish and devoid of credibility. Party chief whip Witthaya Buranasiri and a handful of influential former executives of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai party, who earlier managed to deal “a slap in the face” of the party’s chief of MPs, Chalerm Yubamrung, by going back on his open opposition to the charter amendment process, must now eat humble pie. And the dejected Mr Chalerm who earlier tendered his resignation as head of the Puea Thai MPs, now has his position reinstated, even enhanced. It may be a happy ending for Mr Chalerm but the drama within Puea Thai is not at all entertaining when considering the public interest.
To save the little credibility they may still have, the opposition whips have scheduled a meeting today to discuss the charter issue. Unless the whips make another about-face, the meeting is pointless and unnecessary since they must by now know that the decision-making power in this matter does not rest with them but with exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Puea Thai’s call for reinstatement of the 1997 Constitution is motivated by its own vested interests which have nothing to do with the drum of national reconciliation it has been noisily banging. Although hailed as the country’s first “People’s Constitution,” the 1997 charter was badly abused by the Thaksin administration. Many of the checks-and-balance mechanisms, among them independent bodies like the Constitution Court, the National Commission to Counter Corruption and the Election Commission, which were designed by the charter framers with the hope that they would be able to keep checks on the government, were neutralised through interference by the Thaksin government in the selection of people to run those independent agencies. Even the Senate, which was supposed to counter-balance a House dominated by MPs of Thai Rak Thai at the time, was turned into a government proxy, with many of the senators being spouses or relatives of the MPs.
Just as the Puea Thai Party’s call for the resurrection of the 1997 charter is self-serving, the attempt to amend the present Constitution is purely meant to serve the interests of politicians and their parties. After all, the six-point amendment such as the single-constituency election, the election of senators, party dissolution and the political ban on party executives for electoral fraud, have little to do with the public interest.
The current charter, which was framed after the coup of 2006, has been in force less than two years. There has been no assessment of its drawbacks and merits from the Ombudsman, except for the hue and cry from Puea Thai and some coalition parties whose former leaders and executives are serving a political ban. Therefore, blaming the present charter as being the cause of the ongoing political crises, is grossly misleading.
Now that the opposition Puea Thai has decided – for the time being – to opt out, the attempt to amend the charter appears doomed. It may have to be put on hold, with coalition partners refocusing their attention on more pressing issues like the ailing economy.
* Published: 15/10/2009 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: News
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/25637/puea-thai-and-charter-change
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Posted by Siam Daily News
on Oct 15 2009. Filed under Breaking.
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