Network urges local vote for governor

Network urges local vote for governor

Elected officials 'will respond best to needs'

Anek Laothammatat, seen here in February speaking up for jailed protesters, leads the People's Assembly for Thailand Reform, which claims the military is dragging its feet on decentralisation policies. (File photo by Apichart Jinakul)
Anek Laothammatat, seen here in February speaking up for jailed protesters, leads the People's Assembly for Thailand Reform, which claims the military is dragging its feet on decentralisation policies. (File photo by Apichart Jinakul)

A network of reform advocates is pushing for direct elections of provincial governors as part of local administration reform aimed at power decentralisation.

The group known as the People's Assembly for Thailand Reform also proposed the country's boundaries be redrawn and divided into 12 regions to boost efficiency in national administration.

The assembly held activities Sunday, including a seminar at Rangsit University to discuss reform issues.

Reform proposals will be presented to the government so they can be implemented before the election.

About 300 academics, former MPs and senators and representatives of the civil sector took part in the event.

The reform body, unveiled in June at a gathering of academics and civil activists in Bangkok, is seen by some as a product of frustration over the coup-installed National Reform Steering Assembly's slow progress in bringing national reforms up to speed.

Speaking after the seminar, Anek Laothammatat, rector of the university's college of government, revealed the group has come up with a proposal for provincial governors to be elected directly by residents so they could respond best to their specific needs.

Under the proposal, elected provincial governors would serve a four-year term in office, but no more than two consecutive terms, said Mr Anek, who is a group member working on civil service reform.

Under the proposed model, elected provincial governors would report directly to the prime minister, not the Interior Minister as in the current system, and they would be required to have a meeting with the prime minister, similar to a cabinet meeting, at least once a month.

Moreover, government officials who are sent from the central government to work in the provinces would become local officials working under elected provincial governors, said Mr Anek, a former member of the defunct National Reform Council.

He said under the existing system, many officials in each province are not local residents so they can't respond to local needs.

"Teachers belong to the Education Ministry, and doctors to the Public Health Ministry, while provincial governors are subject to transfer every 11 months, which impedes continuity in their work. Each province needs its own personnel to keep on developing the province," Mr Anek said.

Under this model, the budget allocations which state agencies in each province receive from the central government will be handled by provincial governors to boost efficiency in running development projects.

The group has also agreed the Interior Ministry should be changed into a regional development and internal security ministry only responsible for providing academic support.

They also decided the country's boundaries should be redrawn and grouped into 12 regions along economic and geographic lines, such as the Andaman region, the Gulf of Thailand region, and the Northeast to be divided into three new regions, Mr Anek said.

Rangsit University rector Arthit Ourairat said the assembly wasn't criticising the government, but hoped to work with it to "design the country".

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