Asia Times: Old Thai power-brokers wince under new constitution



	April 02, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Old Thai power-brokers wince under new constitution

BANGKOK - For Nikorn Chamnong, director of thecoalition Chart Thai party, Thailand's landmark new constitutionhas created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the country's rowdybrand of party politics.

But it is an uncertainty of the healthy kind.

''Politicians still don't know what will happen to us next,''he says.

''All we know is election rules are being changed in a way thatpolitical parties must show more transparency. This is a hugeburden. We have no choice but wait and see the outcome when thenew system is settled,'' adds Nikorn.

So far, eight ''organic laws'' among the 30 bills to be draftedto implement the 1997 Constitution's provisions have been passed.But not all are comfortable with new rules for political partieslaid down in the Election Act, Election Commission Act, andPolitical Party Act.

These laws change the constituencies and voting system.Political parties have to show transparency and deal with toughchecking mechanisms. Even in the Senate, all seats will have to beelected, not appointed.

Accountability and openness by political parties are just someof the changes to Thailand's political culture sought by itsfirst-ever ''people-based Constitution,'' enforced in 1997.

Now in its second year, the Constitution has been forcing once-closed political and bureaucratic systems to open up under asystem of checks and balances, and is disturbing a lot of old habits.

Still, supporters of the new charter are learning that theseadjustments designed to chip away at corruption in Thai politicalculture and to correct parts of the system weighted againsthuman rights will not come easily.

In February, activists reacted with anger when they found outthat basic principles of a bill drafted by civic groups toimplement the Constitution's human rights provisions and approvedby the Cabinet had been dramatically changed.

The changes made by the Council of State diluted the bill'sstrong emphasis on the independent nature of a National HumanRights Committee that is to be created by placing it underthe justice minister, a part of the executive branch.

The Council of State is a government agency responsible forinterpreting every Cabinet-sponsored bill before passing it on tothe Parliament for deliberation.

''There is an attempt to take power of control over the humanrights council back to the justice ministry,'' says Dr. PraditChareanthaitavee, a former Constitution Drafting Assembly memberwho also headed the human rights public hearing committee.

In other Asian countries like the Philippines, the peak humanrights body is an independent constitutional body not beholden toor controlled by the executive branch of government.

The struggles over the shape of Thailand's human rights committeereflect the difficulties of carrying out the many mandates forreform embodied in the 1997 Constitution.

If putting together that charter was an uphill task, ensuringthat laws meant to implement its intent are doing so is proving to be anequally hard, if not even harder, quest.

Drafting more than 30 new laws and having them enforced byOctober, following constitutional requirements, is not an easyjob, the Chuan government admitted in its annual report submittedto the Parliament in December.

''These technicalities make it hard for the government agenciesto map out plans for their operations,'' the report said.

Interpretation of the Constitution's intent seems to be a bigproblem for the drafters in the Council of State, which has beenthe object of distrust by political activists and academics.

Many doubt the real motives and attitudes behind the changesthat weakened the planned human rights committee, saying the moveshowed how the bureaucratic system refuses to yield politicalcontrol.

''The concept of human rights protection is something the elitein Thai society, who still hold the old attitude, are afraid of,''says Charan Kosananan, a member of human rights public hearingcommittee and former Council of State member.

The Council's changes to the original draft of the bill on thehuman rights committee have distorted its basic principles,critics say.

The term ''human rights,'' for example, was defined as coveringboth rights under Thai and general international laws andpractice, but was reduced by the Council to rights only under Thai laws.

In the original version, civil servants were not given a rolein the human rights committee to ensure its independence fromgovernment influence.

The new version gives a majority quota to those who are orhave been civil servants of a high rank. The justice minister isdesignated as the council's president.

Likewise, only four seats are assigned to NGO representatives.To make matters worse, activists say, the Council of State versionlimits these seats to NGOs that have worked in their field for atleast 10 years, despite the fact that majority of human rightsNGOs in Thailand are not yet 10 years old.

This is not the first constitutional bill to be changed in theprocess of going through the legislative mill, and perhaps it isnot the last.

Three other draft bills - on a national education office,radio and telecommunication frequency control and localadministration - had also been changed prior to the rights bill.

As in the case of the human rights bill, the Council of State made revisionsthat took the power of control from civic groups and gave it backto the executive branch.

At the moment, human rights NGOs are busy lobbying politicalparties to change the bill back to the original version, before itis considered by Parliament.

''The first step toward the change to a better system hasstarted and I believe it is hard to stop. Although it isdifficult, it will go on because of the fact that people alwayslook for better,'' says Srisavang Phuavongphatya, a respectedsenator and NGO worker.

(Inter Press Service)

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