Enlightened Jurists May Go Ahead to Create New Constitution
 A dividing line was drawn not between members of the public who supported Thaksin Shinawatra and those who rejected him. It was not between Red Shirt demonstrators and Yellow Shirt protesters, either.
The division was not even between corrupt politicians and an arbitrary military junta or judiciary power. It was only the line between those who endorsed authoritarianism and those who upheld democratic rule.
On either side of the line were the different sectors seen more obviously than ever, given a pioneering campaign for democratic rule by the so-called Enlightened Jurists, consisting of seven law lecturers of Thammasat University. In response to the Enlightened Jurists' statements, both sides of the line manifested their own standpoints which came off either in support of those who might stage a fresh coup to oust an elected government at any given time or those who might deny authoritarian rule and rise up against it.
The bone of contention apparently saw several noted persons voicing their opposition to the Enlightened Jurists' campaign, including former National Security Council chief Prasong Soonsiri, the current Thammasat University rector and one other Thammasat lecturer, Law Society of Thailand head Sak Kawsangruang and those who supported a previous coup. Besides, the mainstream newspapers which earlier endorsed the coup would likely express their objection to the Enlightened Jurists' views. More and more distinguished persons will emerge to stand ostensibly on either side of the line.
The courageous academics, namely Vorajet Pakeerat, Jandajira Iammayura, Tapanand Nipittakul, Tira Sutivarangkoon, Savatri Suksri, Piyaboot Sangkanokkul and Poontep Sirinupong, revived the idea to abolish the constitution of 2007 which resulted from the coup of 2006 and rewrite a brand new one. Though the constitution won a public referendum, the entire process of drafting the charter and organizing such opinion polls were considered undemocratic in the first place.
For that reason, the Enlightened Jurists called on the Yingluck government to sponsor a fresh bid to write up a new constitution. They suggested the constitutions of 1932, 1946 and 1997 be used as references for the making of the new charter, especially regarding the people's freedom and rights, the powers of an elected government and organic laws.
The Enlightened Jurists issued a declaration on fundamental virtues of democracy, albeit without legal effect. The sought-after declaration was merely designed to uphold and maintain the spirit and principles of democratic rule which nobody can deny or undermine.
They suggested the new constitution contain a clause stipulating all sectors of society and institutes are not only obliged to observe all articles of the charter but to keep it from being torn up by any undemocratic force under whatever excuses.
Meanwhile, those who were opposed to the Enlightened Jurists' declaration refueled their smearing campaign against the pro-democracy side seeking an end to the enforcement of all the post-coup laws. That was obviously the core of hidden agenda behind every coup attempt. It remains to be seen if the courageous academics' standpoints toward the making of a brand new constitution could terminally deny or preclude a future coup, if it ever materialized.
The Puea Thai-led government might consider their proposals and push for the making of a new constitution whereas the mainstream media which endorsed the previous coup might accuse them of only making moves in favor of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Problems about rice prices, flooding, income disparities and poverty have remained and will remain unchanged for governments of the past, present and the next 50 years! Those issues did by no means top up the national agenda. The current government is bound to be a driving force behind popular movement which could guarantee the country will have no more question about democratic rule from now until the next 50 years.
For that matter, a constitution-drafting committee should be set up as soon as possible so the draft could be subject to legislative process and become the country's supreme law. Though the current government might not be able to get it done so promptly as some people earlier speculated, they simply can in due course.
Many countries around the world never succeeded in transforming themselves from dictatorial rule to democratic one because some sector of society inside those states invariably chose to stand for power-abusing, arbitrary dictatorships. In order to achieve democratic rule, all sectors, including political parties, academics and media, needed to make concerted moves toward the shared goals.
In the wake of those courageous academics who spoke out in support of democracy, some media networks, lawyers and politicians came off in sheer opposition. Those antagonists never seemed to understand the calls for democratic rule were primarily and purely designed for the sake of everyone and not for a particular person, or namely for Thaksin.
The media, lawyers and politicians would not lose anything if the Enlightened Jurists' views were turned into action. On the contrary, they would gain a great deal from democratic rule. Taworn Senniam, Abhisit Vejjajiva, Sakontee Pattiyakul, Chavanond Intarakomansut and the likes would stand on the receiving end only if they no longer gave the military a helping hand in staging a coup. They only feared Thaksin and suspected those pro-democracy academics were only serving his personal interests one way or the other.
Vorajet commented he had no intention to argue with politicians such as the Democrats and jokingly suggested Abhisit resign from parliament and go back to learning about democratic rule. He wondered why the Democrats looked so worried about his colleagues' views despite the fact they substantially promoted rules of law and, importantly, had no connections or shared interests with Thaksin.
Besides the Enlightened Jurists, all others who earlier made movements against the undemocratic powers were indiscriminatingly called the pro-Thaksin people. They were all discredited and unduly criticized since the last several years. It's time Vorajet and the other courageous academics went straight ahead!
The Enlightened Jurists who were unjustly accused as ''persons under the cloaks of academics'' performed the duty of law experts more interestingly and admirably than the Democrats doing their political chores. Strange but true was the fact those politicians stood submissively by the coup junta. Isn't it about time they signed off for good?
by ML Nattakorn Devakula The Daily Dose |
