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[Sexpat]

"Yesterday's parliamentary debate on changes to the Constitution revealed a severe split within Parliament and the coalition government on these issues. The opposition Pheu Thai Party and minor parties in the government coalition joined a number of senators in backing proposed changes to the charter, while the ruling Democrat Party and other members of the Upper House opposed amendments.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told the gathering he sought the debate yesterday to hear views from MPs and senators about proposals by the parliamentary committee on reconciliation for political reform involving changes to the Constitution.

The joint sitting of the National Assembly was called by the Parliament president at the PM's suggestion, as per Article 179 of the Constitution, but no resolution had to be passed.
Senator Direk Tuengfang, chairman of the parliamentary committee, said the panel found certain clauses in the charter were unfair and it proposed six changes. He warned that charter changes were needed to ensure reconciliation and avoid "unprecedented severe problems".

MPs from Pheu Thai and other coalition parties voiced their support for changes, while Democrat MPs disagreed, arguing that the root cause of political problems did not rest with the Constitution.

The current Constitution was drafted in 2007 after the military staged a coup and ousted the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was accused by the coup-makers of abuse of power and the previous charter, written in of 1997.But many politicians say clauses about political party dissolution are unfair, as an entire party is disbanded and all party executives stripped of their electoral rights for electoral law violations committed or condoned by one or a few party executives. . .

Senator Rosana Tositrakul said fellow parliamentarians who backed the six proposed changes were trying to protect their interests. She said there were also flawed clauses involving rights and liberties of citizens but the government and politicians didn't seem to care about them. In response to the argument that the charter needed to be amended because it was written after a coup, she said there are more than 500 laws still in effect that were written after previous coups."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/09/17...cs_30112427.php

[Hedda]

The Thais just love to blame all their political problems on the constitution, having had just about as many constitutions as coups since 1932. It's the perfect excuse for not staring political reality in the eye and recognizing that the feudal elite have been using coups andf constitutions to fight a rear-guard action to undo the 1932 revolution for the past 75 years.

On the other hand, it's probably true that the 2007 Constitution drafted by the appointed rump Assembly was designed to weaken the democratic process to such a degree that the Thaksin forces could be ousted from office, if necessary, by the courts, if they were successful at the polls. To that degree, getting rid of the 2007 charter is probably a good idea for anyone with even the slightest democratic leanings. Resorting to courts and coups to undo the voters is no way to run a government.

Given his precarious political position, Junior Abhisit will try to use the constitutional amendment process to delay calling elections as long as he can. In the end, his Democrats will probably oppose virtually all of them when it's clear time has run out. In the interim, Abhisit will say anything to delay the whole process while he tries to figure out how to stay in power. His biggest problem right now is that the passage of time seems to demonstrate more and more each day how inept he really is at running a government.