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Why the junta's draft of the constitution should still be opposed
Ugly Truth Thailand - April 17, 2016
Their attempts have range from the extremely childish first draft which talked constantly of the need to elect "good people" to this latest version which is painfully transparent in its attempts to retain the power of the junta. [See http://bit.ly/1Jv5QDC and http://bit.ly/1ScVIR6]
This is not a draft constitution; it is a document outlining the prejudices of those who have seized power through the barrel of a gun.
This draft, written under the direction of arch-conservative Meechai, has a 3 page prologue which full of lies. The aim of the prologue is to write a script for the king to praise Generalissimo Prayut and all his "achievements", highlighting the fact that Pumipon is just a tool of the military.
The prologue claims that the constitution will prevent politicians seizing power for their own ends, thus justifying the use of coup d'etats by the military for its own ends. It talks about "Thai-style" democracy, which history has shown to be the opposite of democracy. It tells blatant lies about how the population has been involved at all stages in drafting this piece of toilet paper.
The truth is that soldiers have repeatedly shut down discussion meetings about the constitution and threatened all those who advocate opposition. Finally it repeats the old worn-out lie that king Rama 7th "gave democracy" to the Thai people, when in fact the People's Party had to put a gun to his head to force him to give up his absolute powers in the 1932 revolution.
Any piece of nonsense with this kind of prologue is never going to build freedom and democracy.
Article 5 of the draft constitution gives special powers to a group of political leaders to determine the future of the country "in times of crisis". This super body has a junta appointed majority and it will be they who determine the definition of a crisis.
Like the previous draft an opening has been created for a Prime Minister to be chosen from a non-elected person who is not an MP under certain circumstances. Article 5 deals with this, but especially article 272, which "iLaw[1]" has highlighted as allowing a non-MP to be chosen after the first election. If this were to happen and a military man was chosen as the next Prime Minister, they could then entrench military rule further.
According to iLaw, Article 67 gives special privileges to Teravad Buddhism over all other religions and cuts out the sentences in previous constitutions about promoting good relations between religions. In addition to this article 31 only allows religious freedom if it is not a threat to national security. This opens the door to the persecution of Muslims or Buddhist sects which are not approved by the military.
In a new development, this awful draft destroys welfare rights for citizens in a typical neo-liberal fashion so popular with the conservatives.
Article 47 destroys the concept of universal health care by merely stating that the government has a duty to provide the very poor with free treatment. At a stroke the clock is being turned back to the bad old days.
On the issue of free, state education, article 54 in this draft has been roundly criticised by many school student activists because it talks about providing free pre-school education while cutting the aim of free education in the final years of secondary school.
As with the previous draft, the method used to calculate the number of MPs that each party will receive is designed to help middle-sized parties like the Democrats. But the senate is now to be 100% appointed by the military and senators are to hold office for 5 years, 1 year longer than elected MPs. The senate has increased powers over elected governments.
The junta has made sure that any constitutional amendments will be very difficult to achieve because they will require a majority vote of the two houses sitting together, 20% support from the opposition and support from at least 1/3 of appointed senators.
At the end of this worthless scrap of paper article 16 insults the intelligence of citizens, claiming that they need to be "taught" about democracy, no doubt by conservative military types who hate the concept in the first place.
This draft constitution not only has a prologue but also has an epilogue. Both are equally appalling. The prologue is all about white-washing and justifying the crimes of the junta and about ensuring the continued influence of the military after elections.
On 12th April the blood-stained Generalissimo Prayut admitted that he does not trust the Thai people to elect a "good" government. This was his justification for the draft constitution. We certainly don't trust him or his allies to bring about political reform or democracy!
Notable supporters of this authoritarian document among politicians include Sutep Teuksuban, Democrat Party mobster leader who violently opposed the last general elections, and highly corrupt politician Banharn Silapa-archa. One would not expect anything else from these two.
This draft constitution needs to be vigorously opposed. Even if it somehow passes in a flawed referendum where all discussion about the document is banned and more and more people are being dragged into army camps for "re-education", the struggle to overthrow the dictatorship must continue.
[1] http://freedom.ilaw.or.th/en
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