NLA wants bigger ‘superboard’

A National Legislative Assembly (NLA) committee scrutinising the governmentsponsored bill on national strategy has made revisions to the bill by increasing the number of national strategic committee members from 32 to 35.

In the original draft, the committee, designed to oversee national strategy over the next 20 years, was to have 32 members chaired by the prime minister.

Of them, 18 members were to include the permanent secretary for defence, the Supreme Commander, the chiefs of the army, navy and air force, the national police chief, the president of the Board of Trade of Thailand, the president of the National Economic and Social Development Board and the president of the Federation of Thai Industries. The other 14 members were to be specialists appointed by the cabinet from various fields, and who were to have a five-year tenure.

Chusak Limsakul, who sits on the NLA panel, said yesterday the three additional members under the revised draft would all be specialists, bringing their total number to 17.

Mr Chusak also said the NLA committee had gathered public feedback on the bill from the government website www.thaigovt.go.th from April 20 to May 20.

The bill had a total of 3,051 page views, but only eight comments were given, he said.

The comments will be included in a report to be submitted to the NLA for the second and third readings of the bill between June 15-16, he said.

Asked if the NLA committee had not done enough to publicise the contents of the bill, Mr Chusak said the public have the right to express their opinions on the draft law. Those who did not offer views on the website may already understand and support the bill, he said.

The bill — which passed its first reading on April 21 — has been touted as a key piece of legislation to lay the foundation for national development for the next 20 years.

If passed into law, it would establish a national strategy committee as a de facto “superboard” to draft and implement a 20-year-national strategy blueprint, with various committees set up to design specific action plans.

Politicians say the bill lacks public input and fails to take into account changing situations in the country.