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A military-appointed council was set Friday to approve its final
draft of a new constitution that is meant to guide Thailand back to
democracy after last year's coup.
The document will go to a referendum next month but campaigning
is already under way to reject it, a result which analysts fear
could prompt fresh turmoil in the troubled country.
Once the Constitution Drafting Assembly approves the document,
some 19 million copies of the 150-page charter will be distributed
to every household in the country ahead of the referendum.
The military, which ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawata last
September, is pressing hard for voters to approve the charter that
they say will rein in the powers of future premiers.
Shortly after the generals seized power, they tossed out
Thailand's 1997 constitution, which had been widely hailed as the
most democratic the kingdom had ever known.
But the military accused Thaksin of exploiting loopholes in the
charter to consolidate power in the prime minister's office and to
enrich his business empire.
They say the new charter will improve the system of checks and
balances, limiting the prime minister to eight years in office and
making it easier to launch impeachment proceedings.
It would also bar the premier from major holdings in private
firms, particularly media companies, and expand financial
disclosure rules to cover the entire cabinet and the
parliament.
Parliament would be slightly smaller, and the Senate would have
nearly half of its members appointed by a special panel of judges,
election officials, and civic groups.
'The constitution is really anti-political parties and
anti-politician,' said political analyst Thitinan
Pongsudhirak.
'It's a retribution for the Thaksin years,' he added.
Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party grew into a political powerhouse
in part by swallowing up smaller parties. The new charter would
prevent that in the future by making it more difficult for parties
to merge.
Diverse groups are already campaigning to defeat the
constitution. Buddhist monks are against the charter because it
does not enshrine their faith as a national religion.
Democracy advocates oppose it because the document was written
by a military-appointed panel without enough public input -- unlike
the 1997 constitution that resulted from years of public
consultations.
And Thaksin's allies are opposing the charter to show that they
remain a political force at the ballot box, even though a court has
officially disbanded their party and Thaksin is in exile.
Analysts say that opposition to the constitution threatens to
turn the referendum into a new flash point in the country's
raucous politics.
If voters approve the charter, opponents could take to the
streets.
If they reject it, the military has reserved the right to impose
its own constitution, which would cast doubt on the legitimacy of
future elections, Thitinan said.
Tensions are already mounting, with the head of the
constitutional committee calling its critics 'thugs.'
'I want everyone who wants to reject the constitution to
explain their reasons why. Otherwise people will not understand,
and then they are just like thugs,' Prason Soonsiri said.
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