• 
• 

Published on July 18, 2007

Asst Prof Siriwan Noksuan said it was a mistake to link the referendum to the issue of whether approving or rejecting it would affect the poll schedule or not. People should judge the draft charter on its content alone.

For the past few weeks, many Cabinet members and generals have said that if the public wants a speedy election, it should approve the draft charter in the referendum on August 19.

"This is scary. It's like an arranged marriage, linking two totally different issues together," said Siriwan. "Even if the draft charter is rejected, there will have to be an election none the less."

She was speaking at a symposium on the draft charter organised by the Institute of Security and Interna-tional Studies (Isis) at Chulalong-korn University.

Siriwan criticised the unrealistic time frame in which people have limited time and inclination to study the content of the draft charter, which contains 329 articles. She said a period of six months should be allocated to enable all sides to debate the issue.

Instead, with five weeks to go before the scheduled referendum, Constitution Drafting Assembly member Kiatichai Pongpanich said all the PR machinery at the disposal of the CDA will be used, including publishing 19 million copies of the final draft of the charter by July 31 and mailing it to all 19 million households in Thailand.

Siriwan said that because the schedule had been fixed, the referendum was likely to become mere "ritual" to show that people have endorsed the draft charter.

"All CDA members seem to be speaking with the same voice and I think they will manage to push it through," Isis director Thitinan Pongsuthirak said.

"If you oppose [the draft charter] in an organised fashion, it becomes illegal. If you support it in an organised manner, then there's no problem ... There's no space left for those who want to think for themselves. They're simply branded as pro-Thaksin. This charter may get approval but it doesn't mean it's a good constitution."

In Bangkok, two workers campaigning against the junta-sponsored charter have been arrested at the Hua Mark Sports Stadium. They were trying to convince fellow workers to reject the draft charter.

Siriwan said a poll she recently conducted of 11,032 people revealed that 56 per cent of respondents said they did not have adequate information about the draft charter. Some 28 per cent said they did not think the drafting process was transparent. Some 36 per cent said the process was transparent but another 34 per cent said they had no opinion.

"It means many people don't know what is happening," Siriwan concluded. She warned that Thailand may be the first country in the world to have a whole draft constitution go through a referendum in such a short period of time, not allowing citizens to study its contents properly.

Kiatichai said Thailand was not the first. "In 1974 Burma held a referendum, too. They took even less time, but it's apparently not finished yet."

Kiatichai said in a number of ways, the draft charter is better than the 1997 constitution, which was nullified after the coup last year.

Chart Thai Party deputy leader Weerasak Kowsurat urged the Council for National Security (CNS) to reveal to the public, once and for all, which old charter would be used and how it would be amended in case the current draft charter is rejected in the referendum, so that people can compare the two choices.

"We made such a demand of the CNS to disclose this three months ago. But we have not received a response. The CNS and the Cabinet should reveal the version they plan to revive ... It's better than not knowing anything," Weerasak explained.

Weerasak warned the courts were being given conflicting roles to play in the new draft charter, which would likely lead to a crisis in the judiciary.

Thammasat University law lecturer Assoc Prof Prasit Pivavathan-panich said the draft charter, if adopted, could leave Thailand with a fragile government and frequent House dissolutions. He also criticised the draft charter for not containing a clear principle of the separation of powers.

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation