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POLITICS-THAILAND: Constitution Changes On The Cards

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 9 2008 (IPS) - Thailand’s eight-month-old constitution is at the centre of a growing political storm, heightening the prospect of public outrage and even anger on the streets in the months to come.

In the vanguard to shred the new charter is the People Power Party (PPP), which heads the coalition government that was elected to power at a December poll. The entire membership of the PPP voted at a meeting Tuesday to introduce a battery of amendments to change the character of this South-east Asian nation’s 18th constitution.

The PPP wants to restore the principles enshrined in the 1997 constitution. That charter, the country’s 16th since becoming a constitutional monarchy in 1932, was known as the ‘’people’s constitution’’ for the many democratic features it upheld and the rare role offered to the public to participate in its drafting.

‘’What is written can be rewritten,’’ Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was quoted in ‘The Nation’ newspaper Wednesday following the PPP’s unanimous decision. ‘’We amend the law every day and the people who wrote the Constitution also said if people did not like it, it could be amended later.’’

The 1997 constitution was, itself, a victim of political knives. It was shredded by the military leaders who grabbed power following a September 2006 coup, Thailand’s 18th putsch. Turfed out, consequently, was the twice-elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai – TRT) party. Later, a military-appointed tribunal ruled against the TRT in a trial, disbanding the party and declaring that 111 executives of the party, including Thaksin, are prevented from politics for five years.

But that was not all in a culture of revenge that took hold during the 16 months of the junta’s rule. A committee selected by the junta was directed to draft the new charter, which was approved by a slim majority in a referendum last August. This 2007 constitution was unequivocal in its political slant, tending to strengthen the bureaucracy, the military and non-elected officials at the expense of the parliament, elected government and political parties.

And for the PPP, the party that took over the mantle of the disbanded TRT, the current charter is anything but democratic. The political pendulum has swung for it to exact revenge on those it views as supporters of the former military regime. Among the clauses that have come under fire is one that insulates the junta for staging the 2006 coup, a far cry from the pro-people 1997 charter, which declared that it was illegal to mount a coup.

The prime minister is taking a political gamble by launching the crusade against the constitution, warn the government’s critics. ‘’Samak and his coalition allies are playing a high-risk, high-stakes game to ride out a political whirlwind, which can either catapult the government into the stratosphere of power or pummel it to pulp,’’ wrote Avudh Panananda in a commentary in Tuesday’s edition of ‘The Nation’.

In fact, the growing war of words between the PPP and its detractors over the constitution has prompted some analysts to warn of the troubles that lie ahead. ‘’It is not easy to amend the constitution. But if the PPP fights on, this could lead to more public conflict and protests,’’ said Michael Nelson, a German academic who has written extensively on Thai political parties.

‘’This might be a sign of worse things to come. The mood seems to be so dark at the moment,’’ he added in an interview. ‘’It is not like the elections for a post-coup government opened up new horizons.’’

Yet veteran politicians like Chaturon Chaiseng, who was a minister in the ousted TRT government, are hardly surprised by the rising tension. ‘’This clash was inevitable, because the new constitution is undemocratic and needs to be changed,’’ he told IPS. ‘’We have to overhaul the entire document; not just a few clauses.’’

Either way a showdown appears to be on the cards. ‘’This debate to amend the constitution can contribute to more tension, because it was designed by a military regime,’’ he noted. ‘’But if the constitution is not amended there will be even more tension, because of the powers it gives to a few unelected people to control the country.’’

Typical among the new powers enjoyed by the unelected is the make-up of the Upper House, where half of the senators are appointed, unlike under the 1997 constitution, which called for all the senators to be elected. Appointed senators had been a mainstay in Thai politics during the years it was directly under military regimes or influenced by the army.

But history also offers other parallels to what is prevailing today. A new constitution introduced in 1992 following a coup the previous year also triggered popular discontent. The bone of contention then was a clause in that charter to permit the new prime minister to be a non-elected member of the parliament. That avenue was created to enable then military dictator Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon to become the head of a new government.

Previous constitutions, too, have also reflected the whims of the military generals who have held power in this kingdom, than serving as documents to uphold laws to strengthen democracy. ‘’There have been swings in the constitutions in the past, some have been more pro-royalist than others,’’ says Giles Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

The 1997 constitution was a watershed in the country’s constitutional development, he told IPS, since it firmly placed Thailand on the road towards becoming a democracy. ‘’The new constitution has turned the clock back to dictatorial times. The PPP has a lot of legitimacy to change it, because it got a lot of votes at the last election.’’