ABOVE: 1932’s “permanent” Constitution is represented atop two golden offering bowls at the Democracy Monument.
Thailand’s 13th Constitution in eight decades will be ready in 10 months time, the appointed committee charged with writing it announced after their first meeting Wednesday.
Eighty-two years after King Rama VII introduced the first with the words “the highest power in the land belongs to the people,” the new Constitution is unlikely to go a public referendum.
Gen. Lertrat Ratanavanich claimed Friday the public would accept the Constitution without feeling the need to vote on it.
Lertrat “was confident the public would give recognition to the new constitution without having to conduct a referendum which demands a budget of 2,000 million baht and three months to complete,” read a report from state media. “He believed a public hearing would be enough for the new constitution.”
Drafting committee Chairman Borwornsak Uwanno said the committee had agreed to its structure and already began discussing the “general structure” of the new Constitution.
No further details were given. The committee has until April 17 to complete its draft, which will then be reviewed by the junta’s appointed “reform council” for possible final approval by Sept. 4, 2015.
Borwornsak once worked on Constitution No. 10 approved in 1997, considered Thailand’s most democratic and the only one written by elected officials.
Unlike 1997, all 36 of the 2014 drafters have been selected by junta chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, and their work will be vetted by Prayuth’s “reform council.”
Borwonrsak has publicly called for a nonpartisan approach to writing the nation’s top law, however at least seven committee members “were actively involved or have supported the anti-government protests that began last year” according to political writer Saksith Saiyasombut.
Part of the commttee’s mandate futhers the anti-Thakinist movement which led to the coup, as it emphasizes measures against “corruption” and “populism.” A translation is available online.
Photo: Watsamon Tri-Yasakda
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