Chuan, currently chairman of the Democratic Party's advisory board, said Thai society had gained too much democratic capital over the decades to consider starting again from scratch.

Democracy is an invaluable form of social capital that enabled Thailand to gain the respect of other nations and must never be abandoned, Chuan said in an address at the annual Thammasat University alumni dinner.

"We should start counting from 10 or 20, not zero, because we have walked along the democratic path already. We might not retrieve [what has been destroyed] but we must look forward. Most importantly, we must not let history repeat itself,' Chuan said, referring to the most recent coup that resulted in the nullification of the 1997 People's Constitution and the many earlier ones in Thailand's chequered modern political history.

He also lamented the fact the next constitution would be the eighteenth in less than eight decades of democratic development. "Are there that many?" he said.

Chuan cast doubts about the nature of the new constitution, but stressed that it would dictate the future of Thai democracy.

"I can't say [what it will look like] or which direction it will head, but the 74 years of Thai democratic history have taught us that there are things we can't avoid, like the parliamentary system with HM the King as head of state.

"You may despise elections," he told the hundreds of wellheeled alumni. "But in a democracy, you can't run away from elections. The challenge is how to correct the dirty electoral process. This we all need to think about."

Thammasat University Rector Surapol Nitikraipot, who is also member of the juntaappointed National Legislative Assembly (NLA), painted a rosy picture of the future constitution, however, saying it would be no worse than the 1997 charter because the people drafting it would learn from the mistakes in previous constitutions.

Surapol added however that there might be fierce debate over issues such as whether the prime minister should be elected or not.

"I'm also quite certain that we will no longer have a Constitution Court," he said, adding that this was because of the controversial performance of the court.

A Constitution Tribunal is likely to be a good substitute, he said.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation