The case of “too many cooks spoil the broth” is about to apply to the junta-sponsored constitution drafters.
The chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Borwornsak Uwanno, compared the proposals for the project to cooking kaeng som (hot and sour soup). The more proposals were proposed, the better choices the drafters had.
Ideally, it is good to have several proposals for the next constitution ― if those ideas come from and represent all folk living in this country.
Unfortunately, they do not. The proposals, notably on the subject of the premiership, are mostly from small groups of the intellectual elite who are members of the National Reform Council or are university rectors.
Previously, a subcommittee of the CDC concluded that the prime minister must be selected through a process of the House of Representatives, as stipulated in many previous constitutions. In a traditional parliamentary system, the lower house selects the leader of the party that wins the election to sit in the cabinet as the head of government.
Key debate in constitution-writing over past years has been on whether or not the premier should be an elected member of parliament.
The NRC panel on political reform has raised a new proposal suggesting the constitution should declare that the prime minister and cabinet members must be elected directly, by eligible voters from across the nation.
In the proposal, Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, chairman of the panel, said 350 MPs in the House of Representatives must be elected by popular vote too.
The new proposal more or less looks like a presidency system in which the head of the government and the lawmakers are chosen by popular vote. Both the executive and legislative branches receive their mandate from the people directly. Both branches ― which represent sovereign power ― would be equally strong as they could claim their legitimacy from the election.
The prime minister and cabinet members would be subject to the voters, rather than responding to the legislative branch.
Sombat said his proposal aimed to end “money politics,” in which politicians use cash to buy votes to win in their constituencies and later to become the government. When a government is chosen by a nationwide direct election, it is more difficult to spend money on buying votes across the country, he said.
But perhaps Sombat, an academic who has no experience in the election process, underestimates the potential of Thai politicians and focuses on the wrong point. Parties that won previous elections over the past years spent less than expected to gain power. Voters tended to make their choices based on the parties’ policies.
His idea of a direct election choosing a strong prime minister promising to listen only to the voters certainly goes against what the elite, military and bureaucracy would like ― a politician they can control.
Sombat should know the real intention of the May 22 coup. He was a key member of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee that staged street protests to topple the previous government and called for military intervention. What’s the point in staging a coup if the military wants strong politicians to run the government?
Sombat’s proposal would not be able to solve money politics as he wishes. Instead it would create difficulties for the process of constitution-making and give the junta a chance to prolong its time in politics.
Articles 37 and 38 of the current interim constitution indicate that the NRC, of which Sombat is a key member, has authority to modify and even reject a CDC-drafted charter. In the case of the CDC failing to write the constitution in time, or if the draft were rejected, the junta would pick a new set of people to draft a new one.
If the NRC and the CDC needed to go back to Square 1 and begin a new constitution-drafting process, the junta and its government under Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha would need to stay in power longer than estimated. Thailand would be under military rule, martial law and undemocratic governance even longer.
By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
Ganjanakhundee Supalak Ganjanakhundee is the foreign news editor of the Nation. ― Ed.
(The Nation)
(Asia News Network)
