CDC chief rules out special mechanism

There will be no provision for any special body or mechanism in a revised draft of the new constitution, chief constitution drafter Meechai Ruchupan said yesterday.

He said the necessary mechanisms are already there in the draft.

The Constitution Drafting Commission chairman was speaking to reporters after meeting Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam to discuss a Cabinet proposal for an “exception to the rule” during the post-election transitional period. They met for about two hours at the Council of State office.

Meechai said the CDC would include proposals from the Cabinet, National Legislative Assembly and National Reform Steering Assembly in the transitory provisions, once drafters had resolved they have to. “For now, we have not reached that chapter yet. But we’ll see after the draft is done.” he said.

Earlier yesyerday, Wissanu warned constitution drafters that they would have to shoulder the responsibility if their refusal to revise the draft charter as suggested by the Cabinet led to political unrest again.

He said the last of the Cabinet’s 16-point proposals was aimed at preventing a volatile political environment like that seen before the military coup of May 2014.

“It will be a pity if sufficient measures are not there to deal with some violent incident in the future. If the CDC maintains that its draft is perfect, that is fine. But they have to take the responsibility if bad things happen one year later,” Wissanu said.

At their meeting, Wissanu told Meechai there should be some flexibility during the first years after the constitution comes into force, including perhaps appointment of senators.

Wissanu said after the meeting that “flexibility” should be included in the Transitory Provisions chapter.

“It was a proposal from the National Legislative Assembly that senators be appointed. I told Meechai today that perhaps during this ‘turning point’, we should have flexibility by using another Senate recruitment method [other than what the CDC has written in the draft that senators are cross-selected among 20 social groups],” the deputy prime minister said.

“In the normal clauses, it can be stipulated that there should be an election across the country but in the Transitory Provisions we might want to use another method during the first few years,” he said.

However, he added that these were just examples that he had used to explain the matter to Meechai. “It was nothing serious,” Wissanu added.

Another point he discussed with Meechai, he said, was that perhaps the way CDC had made any constitutional amendment difficult was rather “uncomfortable”. He suggested that it be written in the Transitory Provisions and only apply during the transitional period too.

The deputy PM said Meechai had not consulted with him about anything. The CDC chief had only asked about the purpose and the intention behind the Cabinet’s recommendations about the charter draft.

Wissanu said, his response was, “a recommendation was a recommendation. If things are so tangled, maybe we can try it this way”. He was referring to the Cabinet’s recommendation No 16, which proposed that the country have a constitution for ‘two periods of time’. One is for a normal situation and another for an extraordinary one.

Also, he said he had told Meechai to review the problems facing the country and review his work whether served to solve those.

“If he [Meechai] thinks that the charter draft has the answers to the issues and he would not comply [with the Cabinet’s proposal], it’s fine,” he said, stressing that it was totally up to CDC how they write the constitution draft.

Asked if Meechai looked “convinced” and would “comply”, Wissanu replied, “I think it was I who was convinced and complied with Meechai or maybe we both leaned towards one another.”

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has affirmed that he wants a transitional period of five years in order to ensure that the measures suggested by the National Council for Peace and Order are implemented, according to an NCPO source.

It is likely that the NCPO will retain its power over the next post-election government although it may be transformed into a committee, political observers said.

The observers also said the government appeared to be pressuring the CDC to add a transitional clause to the junta’s liking. Even if the draft constitution fails to pass the national referendum, the junta and General Prayut as the NCPO head could put together a new constitution based on the CDC’s draft, they said.

Wissanu yesterday said a transitional period of five years as suggested by the prime minister was “more than enough” to allow positive changes in the country’s politics.

He said that if the political crisis still continued after the next four to five years, “you can’t expect Thailand to be peaceful after that”.

Wissanu, who is in charge of the government’s legal affairs, said he expected the next elected administration to be able to cope with future problems with the help of “strengths in the new constitution”.

He said the current situation was not suitable for talks between the conflicting sides. “I hope the mood will change in the next three to four years. I believe the people’s mood will change.” 

In response to criticism that the transitional period would mean Thailand would have only “half democracy”, Wissanu said “it’s better to have half a glass of water than no water at all”, quoting late former prime minister Samak Sundaravej after the promulgation of the 1978 Constitution.

He noted that the 1978 charter had been in use for 14 years – the longest of any Thai constitution – because it was flexible and compromising.