In the bustling heart of Bangkok, history was made with a single tick on a ballot at a Dusit district polling station. Here, amidst the vibrant hum of Thailand’s capital, citizens embodied democracy, voicing their vision for the nation’s charter during the 2016 referendum. It’s essential to note that the winds of change didn’t quiet down with that event.
Fast forward to the present day, and we find ourselves at the precipice of something equally monumental. Wielding the torch of change is none other than Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who also helms the role of chairman of the revered committee tasked with the herculean duty of redrafting the very sinews of Thai governance.
The driving question that awaits the masses, poised to make its appearance in the theater of referenda, cuts to the core of the constitution – should everything bar the sacrosanct Chapters 1 and 2, the bedrock of general provisions and the monarchy, be amended?
Phumtham, in his recent chat with the media, unveiled that this query marks just the first act in a trilogy of referenda poised to tackle the contentious issue of constitutional metamorphosis. He teases that the committee’s current labor of love, meticulously measuring public sentiment, aims at a grand unveiling: a billboard-sized question engineered to quell the smoldering fires of sociopolitical strife over yet another constitutional rewrite.
Our intrepid chairman presents a timeline suffused with hopeful urgency: the cabinet is to feast its eyes upon these plans either before the curtain falls on this month or at the latest, as spring’s first blossoms make their debut next year.
Under the watchful gaze of the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition, there is a palpable hunger to not only cross the charter amendment finish line but to breathlessly sprint toward an organic law that promises a fresh face of democracy – a new general election all within the government’s four-year mandate.
Imagine the anticipation as Phumtham recounts the committee’s enthusiastic nod to a trifecta of proposed referenda, culminating in a symphony of civic participation that could erupt within 90 to 120 sunrises post-cabinet thumbs-up. The Election Commission stands ready backstage, prepared to orchestrate this democratic performance.
Upon the coveted ‘yes’ from the public that would drape the first referendum in victory, an ambitious chain of events is set to unfold. The spotlight then falls on Section 256 of the current constitution, its amendment setting the stage to cast a new assembly, the cast of which shall emerge from the collaborative deliberations of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The budget for this constitutional revamp does not shy away from the opulence of its intentions. Senator Somchai Sawaengkarn places the figures in the limelight, his senatorial quill having penned an estimated 15.7 billion baht – an investment in democracy drawing on resources pooled from the EC and allies.
Yet, not all share the enthusiasm for the committee’s directorial approach. The script’s selective omission of Chapters 1 and 2 from the referendum agenda echoes in the corridors of dissent. Voices such as Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a venerated former election commissioner, and Parit Wacharasindhu of the Move Forward Party groove into the vinyl of debate, each remark a track that questions the committee’s chosen world
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