About 50,000 people turned up at the government-arranged "Power for Democracy" celebration in Chiang Mai yesterday to encourage voters to cast ballots in the referendum on the draft constitution due on Sunday. The event was held at the 700th Anniversary stadium.

— SUBIN KHUENKAEW

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Constitution being passed will lead to crisis

PRADIT RUANGDIT

The draft charter, if passed in the Aug 19 national referendum would lead to more coups, said former leader of ousted pm Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai party, Chaturon Chaisaeng.
The draft constitution was illegitimate as it came from dictators, he said.

The draft was undemocratic and allowed the coup-makers to exert power through independent organisations. Mr Chaturon said that the draft constitution has ''poisoned'' the country's political party system.

''If the draft is accepted, making amendments will be easier said than done,'' Mr Chaturon told a seminar at the King Prajadhipok's Institute yesterday.

It was only a matter of time before the 2007 charter was ripped apart by another generation of coup makers who would cite the same reasons for staging their revolt; rampant corruption, crippled accountability, weak and fractious politics and politicians lacking ideology.

Former parliament president Uthai Pimchaichon said another coup would be unavoidable if the draft charter was accepted.

He was certain those in power would not amend controversial clauses after it was accepted.''I am sure no constitutional amendments will be made.

If those changes are made, cut my neck,'' said the former chairman of the assembly which drafted the 1997 constitution and a former Thai Rak Thai member.

Mr Uthai said he failed to see why the next government would be willing to initiate changes to the charter which brought them into power.

''This charter will lead to another coup. I should warn the Council for National Security that they must not confront people by picking a bad charter [used in the past] as an alternative, if this draft is rejected in the referendum,'' said Mr Uthai.

He would reject the draft and would not contest any election again.

Nor would he join any political group.Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said his party decided to accept the draft charter because it wanted the country to move ahead.

Accepting the draft constitution would give some sense of political stability with a timeframe set out for issuing organic laws, he said.

The party could not predict which constitution would be picked if the draft was rejected.

Mr Abhisit said the draft and the 1997 constitution did not differ much from each other both emphasised people's rights and freedoms as well as checks and balances.

Differences occur with respect to the origins of cabinet members and MPs. However, the draft was not as flawed as some people feared.

Akapol Sorasuchart of the Mahachon party said his party would vote for the draft as it did not want the country to be held back by political instability.

Veerasak Khowsurat, deputy Chart Thai leader said that his party backed the draft and would push for amendments later.


Credit : www.bangkokpost.com