As the charter amendment bill was shot down in parliament earlier this month, it is apparent that the process -- a crucial factor for national reconciliation -- will not be completed during the tenure of the Prayut Chan-o-cha government. The failure of the amendment push came as no surprise as it was the aspiration of Meechai Ruchupan, the head of the charter drafting committee, to make changes an uphill task.
Gen Prayut this week showed his true colours during a recent press interview about the failed charter amendment process.
"If people are concerned that I will prolong my stay in power, they are free to proceed with charter amendments. Just get it done (and I will leave)," he said.
He made this swaggering statement that, if anything, showed his overwhelming satisfaction that the amendment of the military-sponsored charter had finally been aborted. Full of confidence, the former army chief issued the challenge to his political opponents as he realises the opposition and pro-democracy protesters cannot now force him from office.
As the saga unfolds, we can see who did what. Evidently, the rewrite was blocked with the help of the military-leaning Senate, and a cunning manoeuvre by the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP). The show of enthusiasm for charter changes by the Bhumjaithai and Democrat parties was a pretence.
Now the referendum bill -- a crucial mechanism for a charter rewrite -- is facing the same fate as the charter amendment bill.
At first, it was though the referendum bill deliberations would be smooth as it was brought for second and third readings on March 18. Then came a nasty twist as the bill faced a major hurdle after the opposition managed a narrow win in the voting on Section 9 with a margin of 273-267. The revised version authorises the people, via a signature-collecting campaign and parliament, to call a referendum, instead of the cabinet only.
It should be noted that some MPs from the coalition parties even voted in favour of the version revised by the Pheu Thai Party. The opposition's victory was possible with a number of senators (77) and government MPs (34) abstaining. If these abstentions were reversed to support the government's version, the bill would have been passed and submitted to the palace for royal endorsement, ensuring early enactment to pave the way for charter amendment.
The opposition's triumph led to some brief chaos in parliament and the deliberation being rescheduled to April 7-8.
There are grounds to believe, however, that this is just another political trick by the government to have the crucial process stalled. To begin with, the revision of Section 9 will require changes to other related sections -- causing a delay to the entire process.
More importantly, the revision of this section, while making the bill more democratically inclusive, puts the bill at risk of being unconstitutional, given the fact that the 2017 charter stipulates that only the government can initiate a referendum.
The question is: Given that the coalition parties must have realised that revision of Section 9 goes against the charter, why did they still go ahead and support such changes? Was there a hidden agenda?
The delay of the referendum bill means that charter amendment cannot be pursued further. This is a political advantage for the coalition as it means they can remain in power longer. It's the same game they played during the charter amendment process. Anutin Charnvirakul, deputy prime minister and head of the Bhumjaithai party, made the people believe he was in favour of a new charter, when in fact the opposite was the case. When the voting took place on the night of March 17, he allowed party members to act up, stage a walkout, giving them an opportunity to escape from voting, while blaming the PPRP for being insincere.
Mr Anutin even said Bhumjaithai would no longer push for charter amendment even by the section-by-section mode. With regards to the change to Section 272 on the Senate's power, he said there was no need to amend this contentious section. Instead, everybody should patiently wait until the senators complete their five-year term, which he said is not too long.
When asked if his party would withdraw from the coalition over the charter conundrum, he resorted to saying that charter amendment was the task of parliament (and that he had nothing to do with it!). The Democrats gave a similar answer: "We need to stay on to pursue our work").
In the meantime, some senators have voiced concerns about the bill being unconstitutional. It's highly likely that these senators may again ask for a Constitutional Court ruling. This is a repetition of the charter amendment debacle as we know the court ruling is entirely predictable, with the whole process going back to square one.
Bhumjaithai and the Democrats, like Gen Prayut, have shown their true colours. They are a mechanism for the military regime to prolong its power, forgetting the promises they made during the 2019 election campaign. What we are seeing now is the two parties swapping cabinet seats, allowing each other to have absolute control over the ministries under their jurisdiction. This has never happened before.
But as I previously said, by not keeping their word on charter amendment and taking advantage of holding a majority not obtained via democratic means but through unfair rules under a flawed charter, these politicians are playing a dangerous political game. Under such circumstances, conflicts will only deepen and the country is set for a great loss. These politicians are no different to those in the Thaksin Shinawatra regime they abhor.