“People’s Constitution” to take down “Prayut regime” rejected by parliament

Parliament rejected a draft of the so-called “People’s Constitution,” a proposed legislation to take down what Thais call the “Prayut regime” and scrap the 20 year national strategy. A former Democrat candidate told Thai PBS World that “Prayut regime” essentially allows the prime minister to control the Senate and other organisations mandated under the charter.

The “People’s Constitution” draft was rejected by parliament yesterday, with 249 MPs and 224 senators voting against it, while 203 MPs and 3 senators voted in favour. But the secretary general of the Progressive Movement and a non-party reincarnation of the now-defunct Future Forward party, urged the public not to lose hope.

Being a key proponent of the draft as well as monarchy reform, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul from the Progressive Movement says he hopes that the opposition MPs who voted in favor of the draft will include the charter issue in their parties’ policy platforms for the next election despite the fact that the current Constitution was written to make amending the country’s supreme law a difficult task.

He urged fellow reformers to keep fighting for true democracy and not to give up their hope that the current Constitution might be altered one day, added that all attempts to change the Constitution by the people, as provided by the charter, have been obstructed and have failed to pass even their first readings in parliament.

Piyabutr, together with Parit Wacharasindhu, a leader of the reformist group “Re-Solution”, appeared together in front of Parliament on Tuesday to defend the draft and pleaded members of the Thai parliament to be open-minded, claiming that the proposed legislation is intended to dismantle the so-called “Prayut regime” that gives more power to PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and replace it with a fairer system that benefits all stakeholders.

Parit “Itim” Wacharasindhu, a significant supporter of the People’s Constitution draft, expressed disappointment that the amendments draft was rejected outright by government MPs and senators.

He claims that the reformists’ proposal does not promote any drastic changes to the current political structure and will not disadvantage any political actors, adding that Parliament’s rejection was just another attempt to “close the door” on any move to change the current Constitution.

SOURCE: Thai PBS World