Charter drafters install a safety valve
The Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) is installing safety valves in the draft charter as it starts rewriting it section by section.
The highlight is in the controversial Section 7, which said if an incident occurs which is not covered by any clause in the charter, it should be decided in the tradition of the constitutional monarchy, Thai Rath’s political analysis said.
Section 7 was frequently cited by groups during the last political crisis as giving a mediating role to His Majesty the King. That interpretation has been debated with no clear settlement.
The CDC has decided to add a second clause to Section 7 in its new draft, according to the article. The clause said in case there is no agreement on a way out, the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy or the Council of State can petition the Constitution Court to decide.
“It is generally agreed that the addition is an attempt to head off a future problem,’’ the article said.
Such political deadlocks have happened twice in the last few years. The first was during the Thaksin Shinawatra era when protests led by the People’s Alliance for Democracy caused a crisis that made some groups call for a way out of the problem by petitioning the King to appoint a new prime minister.
The second crisis was after former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and members of her government were disqualified from office because the two-trillion baht infrastructural policy they pushed was ruled unconstitutional.
According to the article, the most important factor regarding Section 7 is His Majesty King Bhumibol’s speech delivered to the Administrative Court in 2006.
In that speech, the King said the monarch should not be asked to make a ruling based on Section 7.
“The addition should serve as a safety valve preventing people from dragging the institution of monarchy into politics. It should stop Section 7 from being used for political gains,” the article said.
The charter rewriting exercise is aimed at addressing certain problems that led to the political deadlocks, the article says.
This should follow a guideline provided by CDC chairman Bowornsak Uwanno that the charter rewriting should be based on the sufficiency theory. It should be moderate and reasonable with content that can deal with the country’s problems in the long run, the article said.
The new charter, however, is not the only factor influencing the government’s reform plans. The most important question at present is actually how well the government will perform.
“This is especially true when it comes to economic matters. People’s livelihoods have started to be affected by the economic downturn. The dissatisfaction can backfire on the government,” the article said.
Evidently, the government has a hard time delivering on its policies. That is probably why Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has set up a new committee to drive the National Council for Peace and Order’s strategies.
There was a suggestion the Prayut government recruit new generations of bureaucrats to help with its work. The move, however, might not happen because PM Prayut does not trust people easily.
Also, he is careful not to let people abuse their association with him for personal gain. That is why he scarcely lets people to meet him, the article said.
“The ‘cleanliness’ of the Prayut government seems guaranteed. That is a good standard. The shortcoming is the PM may not receive enough information to serve him well as the country’s leader because he has closed himself off from other people too much,” the article said.
Wanmai’s fans
speak out
Thai supporters of child celebrity Wanmai Chatborirak have spammed the accounts of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in protest after the photo sharing app shut her account.
Instagram informed the girl’s adopted mother Ngamthip Chatborirak yesterday that it will delete the girl’s account because it violates the company’s policy prohibiting accounts for children under 13 years old.
Wanmai, aged three, is an adopted sister of the popular actor Pakorn “Boy” Chatborirak who was recently in the news for purchasing a luxury car from a man embroiled in the embezzlement case at the King Mongkut Institute of Technology at Lad Krabang. Her IG has one million followers. Ms Ngamthip posed the cancellation message on her own account urging the girl’s fans to download her photos if they want to save them.
Following the notice, however, hundreds of the girl’s fans have taken to posting messages on the account of Instagram’s co-founders urging them to make an exception regarding the policy and keep Wanmai’s account.
Many Thais spammed the account of Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom with the hashtag #supportlilwanmai.
One user said she does nothing but make Thais smile, so she deserves to be made an exception to Instagram’s child rule.
Many people echoed the message, saying the girl is too cute to be deleted. More than one million people love her, many Thai users wrote, some in the Thai language.
A few followers of Mr Systrom, however, left comments telling Thai users not to spam Mr Systrom’s account.
‘’It’s inappropriate for people to spam comments in another person’s personal IG. I’m sorry you have to be exposed to this nonsense behaviour,’’ reads one comment.
A couple of people, writing in Thai and English, also begged fans of the child celebrity to stop spamming Mr Systrom’s account. They said their behaviour shames the country. Also, they said rules are rules. People who don’t want to abide by them should stop using the application.
The same spam messages were posted on the account of Instagram co-founder Mr Krieger.
The last message on a photo of San Francisco which he shared carries a hashtag of #ThaisPleaseStopEmbarrassingThailand.
Heed a hermit’s words
So many people would love to give advice to the prime minister on how to lead the country out of crisis. Rishi Buddhi Charan is one of them and his advice is: “Change the country’s name back to Siam as well as the national flag.”
The well-known ascetic, who runs Amravadi Ayurveda Ashram in Chiang Mai’s Mae Rim district, said the change would ward off bad luck.
He also advised Prime Minister Prayut Chano-cha to go to seven-day meditation retreats and not speak to anyone.
If the prime minister follows his suggestion, the 73-year-old Rishi said his work will be easier and the country would be united and will prosper in eternal peace.
Rishi Buddha Charan also suggested that Gen Prayut talk less to the media, so he could stay calm and concentrate better on his work.
The ascetic praised Gen Prayut for his love of the country, and said he wished the prime minister’s term in office would last 10-20 years.
His remark about how he wanted Gen Prayut to stay on drew the ire of netizens who insisted the prime minister should end his interim role and return democracy to the country.