Composition Reform Council draws criticism and praise
Bangkok Post opens today with a large article about the National Reform Council (NRC), a body of 250 members that has to formulate reform proposals in many areas, the composition of which has been leaked. The selection procedure is under fire.
Former government party Pheu and the red shirt movement predict that the reform process will fail because of the one-sided composition of the NRC: many sympathizers of the regime but no cross-section of the population. “The same old faces, the same team that works for the NCPO. This group does not bring change," said former deputy prime minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul.
Opponents of the previous government and yellow shirts, on the other hand, are delighted: many experts in various fields and no military dominance. Some prominent figures are the well-known anti-Thaksin senator Rosana Tositrakul [whom I have written about many times before] and well-known academics.
It is also interesting to see who has not been selected, although candidacy. I mention former DSI head Tarit Pengdit (the man who started a witch hunt on Abhisit) and Electoral Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, whose blood the red shirts can drink. Somchai is not bothered; he says that members of [existing] independent organizations are not eligible for the NRC because the reforms will also affect those organizations.
Former Democratic MP Atthawit Suwannaphakdi thinks that the NRC alone will succeed in drafting a new constitution. The reform process will encounter obstacles, in particular those raised by the bureaucracy. To prevent this, the NCPO should dictate the NRC agenda, he says.
The well-known activist Suriyasai Katasila, coordinator of the Green Politics group, is confident. Of the 173 members [nominated by eleven selection committees; in addition 77 represent a province] only 25 are from the military and they are all academic army officers. Surayasai notes that the agricultural and labor sectors are not represented.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Sept. 30, 2014)