The National Legislative Assembly soon will take up a bill aimed at controlling gathering in public places that, for now, specifies no penalties for violating it.
Although not yet finalised, the bill has been toned down from a prior public-assembly law enacted before the red-shirt protests of 2010. A copy of the draft obtained by the Bangkok Post contains no specific punishments for violators and reduces the amount of advance notice rally organisers must give authorities.
The previous assembly law required 72 hours notice and laid out both fines and jail terms for violators.
Also not set in the draft legislation is any time limit on rallies and demonstrations. However, acting police chief Pol Gen Watcharapol Prasanratchakit said Wednesday that he wanted to seem groups limited to 6am to 10pm.
The bill is not complete and missing provisions could be added during the public-hearing process that will precede the legislation's submission to the NLA, he said.
Under the proposed law, rallies will be approved by local police and organisers can appeal in the courts if their assembly application is denied.
Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch said Wednesday the bill should enacted if its main intention is to facilitate public protests and provide safety for protesters. However, he said, it should not be enacted simply to block future rallies.
Along those lines, Mr Sunai strongly opposed Pol Gen Watcharapol's time limits on protests.
"The clear intent there is to curb rallies,'' he said, adding that drafting of the final bill "will be closely watched."
Pol Gen Watcharapol tried to allay the concerns of Mr Sunai and others by insisting that police will facilitate all gatherings if given enough advance notice.
Activists had slammed the previous assembly law approved by the cabinet in May 2010 on similar grounds. A network of grassroots organisations issued a joint statement in June that year strongly condemning it for violating the right to assembly. They argued existing criminal codes adequately covered demonstrators who broke the law.
That law was enacted in May 2010 by the Democrat Party. Suthep Thaugsuban, the then-deputy prime minister in charge of security, defended the legislation in parliament, arguing it was not designed to control or crack down on protests. Its main goal was ensure safety for demonstrators, he said.
Political protests by red-shirt demonstrators seeking the ouster of the Democrat-led government mooted the bill. It eventually was repealed by the Senate in 2011, leaving Thailand with no specific law aimed at controlling public gatherings.