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Thai civil society thumbs down new draft charter

Xinhua, February 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Thai civil society attacked the new draft charter unveiled on Jan. 29, calling it deprives people's right and liberty and stresses the power of the state.

Ronnachai Chainiwattana, coordinator for the Reinforcement Institute for Communal Resources Management pointed out the clause allowing for a non-elected prime minister to run the country, saying it would raise the possibility of a return of democracy being derailed.

Pairoj Polpet, former Legal Reform Commission member, summed up the document written by the Constitution Drafting Commission as failing to recognize community right, as the draft proposed turning the National Human Rights Commission into a government agency to diffuse human rights allegations instead of evaluating or proposing prosecution of those violations.

The charter empowers the National Reform Steering Assembly to impel the nation's reform while most of which are bureaucrats.

The new draft charter, published as Thailand's would-be 20th, is to replace the one scrapped after a 2014 coup by generals who promised stability in South East Asia's second biggest economy and to heal divisions after a decade of turbulence.

According to Meechai Ruchupan, the government-appointed chairman of the Constitution Drafting Commission, the government's roadmap of a mid-2017 election would be delayed by a minimum two to three months. Endit