Cabinet approves draft charter change

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Cabinet approves draft charter change

Published: 13/02/2012 at 02:07 PM
Online news: Politics

The cabinet on Monday approved the government's draft charter amendment to Section 291 of the 2007 constitution to make way for the establishment of a 99-member constitution drafting assembly (CDA), Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said.

Ms Yingluck said of the 99 CDA members 77 would be elected by the people, one in each province, and 22 academics and experts would in various fields would be chosen by the parliament.

The government would submit its charter change bill to parliament as a matter of urgency, in line with the policy statement it delivered to parliament on taking office, she said.

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pquinlan
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Discussion 14 : 14/02/2012 at 12:24 PM14
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D 10: Are you actually saying that you believe the process used previously by the Dems was the best possible? My god, I didn't realise standards had slipped so low. Personally, I am sure Thailand could have, and certainly deserves, far better governance than that.
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bikeme
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Discussion 13 : 14/02/2012 at 08:31 AM13
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D10 - If you want a constitution that is truly by Thais for Thais, then you need a CDA that is totally devoid of any parliamentary / political party control. The CDA should be made up of all aspects of Thailand. There should be a vast majority of members who are peer chosen, who will be there to represent their aspect of Thai life, this would include a group representing small businesses, a group representing teachers and education, a group representing health care and social services, a group representing the judicial system, and so forth. There should also be members at large elected by the general population to present their region's input. There should be a couple of members representing the Parliament and Senate and a member representing the Royal Family.

In Thailand where vote buying is rampant, there is no way an election will be impartial. Candidates will be politicians marketed by political parties and their votes will be paid for by political parties. And then the dominant party will be able to dictate the remaining 22 members. Based on the level of "qualifications" of ministerial appointments, how can we expect anything different with CDA appointments.
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geoffo
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Discussion 12 : 14/02/2012 at 07:50 AM12
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D10 : You say - The last charter was written by those selected by a junta with no input from anyone else, even the referendum was a sham.

Do you think there will be any fundamental difference this time.

The notion these 99 men or women will be allowed to vote with their conscience is pretty naive.
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whatajoke
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Discussion 11 : 14/02/2012 at 04:26 AM11
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Let them get on with it, if the resulting new constitution is lopsided and opens doors to criminal's pardon's it won't be accepted by a large portion of the population, if it's not entirely balanced PTP can expect street politics before it even goes to a referendum.

D10 Ricefields, you're confusing 'electing a government' with amending a charter. Legally PTP don't need anyone's permission to change anything as long as they have a parliamentary majority, but a people's constitution is one that is widely viewed by experts to be balanced and for good governance, and preferably passed in a referendum. Electing 77 drafters is nonsense, they should be drawn from various sectors, not geographically. Whether or not there's a charter writer from Nan or backwoods buri is irrelevant. And, I believe the Junta did make quite an effort to include various stakeholders, and the resulting constitution was better than the previous one in many respects. Bottom line, you have a government suspected of trying to write a constitution that suits their 'lack of transparency' style of government, and it's never going to wash.
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ricefield
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Discussion 10 : 13/02/2012 at 11:30 PM10
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Disc 6 - In an election the people vote for who they want as will be the case of the 77 members one from each province. As for the 22 they will be voted on by parliament which comprises both the government and opposition. The procedure is exactly the same as that of the selection of members for the 97 charter which was done under a Democrat government.

The last charter was written by those hand selected by a junta with no input from anyone else, even the referendum was a sham, is that a better system for you?
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geezzer
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Discussion 9 : 13/02/2012 at 10:47 PM9
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By their own admission,many times,the only reason for this regime is to bring ts back a free man.
It seems as tho all of the work by this regime,up till now,has been to set up as many new schemes
and scams to further increase the ability of the ministers to collect large boxes and big bags
of cash to be stashed in their town houses and mansions.
Government;of the government,by the government,for the government! that is precisley what
appears to be happening now.A very sad state of affairs!
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bikeme
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Discussion 8 : 13/02/2012 at 07:20 PM8
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"The government would not get involved in the amendment process." ... that is impossible to believe, since the PTP will be appointing 22 of the members directly. Plus they control the votes in roughly 60% of the provinces, so that sounds like a clear majority controlled by the PTP, essentially a PTP dictatorship in rewriting the new constitution. The doorway to a true democracy is about to be slammed shut.
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Renaissance
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Discussion 7 : 13/02/2012 at 06:08 PM7
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Sorry for being skeptical, but Thaksin would never have agreed to this unless he wasn't planning to manipulate the choice of the 99 members. What if he didn't manipulate the choice of members and they all voted to make no changes to the Charter? Then he won't be able to return as a free and innocent man. Trouble is brewing, I fear.
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jacksprat
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Discussion 6 : 13/02/2012 at 06:07 PM6
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> In other words, they will be chosen by the ruling political party. > Excepting in picking those they think will do the government's bidding.
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dao
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Discussion 5 : 13/02/2012 at 03:06 PM5
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The last line says it all .Maybe its easy to fool your supporters Yingluck but the rest f us see you for who you really are .
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