Moving closer to a new charter

Moving closer to a new charter.

The 100-member Constitution Drafting Assembly has received Royal endorsement and is due to meet for the first time next week. A quick glance at the name-list which was made available Tuesday, tells us the assembly should be acceptable to the public, although it has yet to prove its worth.

Several of the assemblymen are well-known public figures whose names give us cause for encouragement. Among them are graft-buster Klanarong Chantik, former senator Chirmsak Pinthong, former election commissioner Sodsri Satthayatham, ex-senator Seri Suwanpanon, justice permanent secretary Charun Pakdithanakul and Nakarin Mektrairat, dean at Thammasat University. There is, however, a let-down in the way the list was finalised by the Council for National Security. That is, the grassroots majority is barely represented in the Constitution Drafting

Assembly. Representatives of the government sector still comprise the majority in the assembly, followed by academia, the private sector and the civil sector. Thanks to the CNS' recognition of the media's role in shaping the country's political landscape, the Press is fairly represented, with four members sitting in the assembly.

The next major undertaking of the Constitution Drafting Assembly after the election of its president, is to pick 25 constitution drafters to join 10 others to be handpicked by the CNS. Again, thanks to the CNS, a seat has been reserved for the media on the charter drafting panel.

Obviously, both the Constitution Drafting Assembly and the constitution drafting panel bear the fingerprints of the CNS, as a direct result of the council's announcements specifying its mandatory role in charter drafting. The CNS' role should end there, and should not extend to dictating, guiding or advocating the drafters in the way they write the new charter. Earlier suggestions by certain members of the CNS to the effect that they would prefer the next prime minister to be either an MP or non-MP, has sparked protests from pro-democracy advocates and suspicions that the CNS may intend to perpetuate its stay in power.

The charter drafters themselves, including the 10 handpicked by the CNS, must realise that their foremost loyalty and responsibility is towards the people, not their military bosses. The same should also apply to the Constitution Drafting Assembly, which is tasked with deliberating the draft charter before it is tabled before the public for a referendum.

Because of the deadline set by the CNS for the general election to be held within this year, the charter drafting panel may not have the luxury of time their predecessors did in their drafting of the so-called People's Constitution, and will have to rush to finish the job within the deadline.

Which means they may have to resort to a short cut by using the 1997 charter as a model. Of course, they will have to identify the provisions already proven as flawed and rectify them if they are to be incorporated in the new charter.

Although hailed as one of the best charters ever written, the 1997 Constitution has proved to be no match for tricky politicians of the Thaksin administration. One particular area the charter drafters need to take a serious look at and to rectify is the check-and-balance mechanisms, which include all the independent organisations that were originally thought capable of coping with political abuses or excesses, but instead proved to be ineffective. But, in the end, a constitution no matter how good, is not the ultimate answer to political reform. It is just the tool by which a nation like Thailand fulfils its political aspirations the success of which depends largely on the users of the charter. Which, in this case, means the politicians and, especially, the voters. If most of our voters continue to vote with their hearts rather than their minds, or continue to vote for whoever offers them the highest price, we will continue to have the same kind of unscrupulous politicians in parliament.

And all the effort spent on writing the best ever constitution would have been a complete waste.

Bangkok Post
Thursday January 04, 2007