Ease up on Section 44

This month marks the first anniversary of the promulgation of the constitution. Yet, Section 44 under the 2014 interim charter which grants Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, in his capacity as head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), special and absolute powers remains as the supreme law of the country. Since the coup, it has been repeatedly and indiscriminately revoked to serve the regime’s desire for immediate results.

During the past week alone, the use of Section 44 has remained as active as ever. Gen Prayut has invoked it to abort the selection of board members for the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission so he could retain the current board whose term expired in October of last year. On Tuesday, the NCPO also said it would suspend digital TV operators’ licensing fee payments for three years.

Even though a provision in the current charter keeps Section 44 alive and legal until a newly elected government is in place, the use of special powers by Gen Prayut has overridden many laws and state regulations obeyed by all Thais. It demonstrates how totalitarian Thailand has become because it allows Gen Prayut to issue orders that intervene in the administrative, legislative and even judicial branches.

The use of this law has been excessive. During the first two years since its birth, more than 150 NCPO orders were issued under this section.

The majority of the orders serve the regime’s legislative purposes, either to introduce new regulations or to amend existing laws. To put it in layman’s terms, any laws and regulations can remain legal as long as there are no NPCO orders issued to make them meaningless and no longer applicable.

But a number of them also serve the administrative functions of the military government such as the appointment of state officials. It is fortunate that the NCPO has not used it to intervene in the judiciary’s work.

Such a “law” that grants coup makers or coup-installed governments absolute powers to intervene in legislative, administrative and judicial matters is not new for a country marred by many military putsches such as Thailand.

Past dictators such as Sarit Thanarath and Thanom Kittikachorn also used this type of power, according to information compiled by iLaw, a civic group that monitors law enforcement and lawmaking.

Field Marshal Sarit, who staged a coup in 1957, enabled Section 17 under the 1959 constitution. Between 1960-1962, he used it to execute people who he deemed as threats to national security.

Field Marshal Thanom also kept Section 17 active when he was in power, using it in 1964 to intervene in the judicial branch when he seized Field Marshal Sarit’s assets.

Later on, he introduced a section in the 1972 constitution which gave him even more power, which he used to prosecute individuals deemed as threats to national security.

A number of coup makers and former prime ministers have all used the same type of law which granted them the benefits of such supreme and absolute power.

It is true that Thailand is not yet a democratic country. But it doesn’t have to be a country ruled by the absolute power of one man. The regime has already appointed lawmakers and cabinet members.

Even though they are seen as the NCPO’s rubber stamps, they should be allowed to function through existing mechanisms.

If Gen Prayut is serious about his democracy roadmap and respects the spirit of the constitution approved by the majority of the people, he needs to stop invoking Section 44 to achieve his desired outcomes.

He needs to learn to solve problems and run the country through regular channels using existing laws and regulations approved by parliament.