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Bangkok. Thailand’s ruling Puea Thai party yesterday submitted a controversial plan to rewrite the country’s Constitution, in a politically sensitive move that risks reigniting turmoil.

The current charter was written in 2007 by a committee handpicked by the military after it had ousted then-premier Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006, and effectively led to the dissolution of two pro-Thaksin parties.

In trying to rewrite the charter, Puea Thai — led by Thaksin’s sister Yingluck — is likely to be seen as challenging anti-Thaksin forces, including the military.

In 2008, the last time an attempt was made to amend the Constitution under a Thaksin-loyalist government, protests backed by conservative elites and sections of the military erupted in the streets of Bangkok and contributed to the fall of the government.

Puea Thai hopes to pull it off this time by submitting the draft of a new charter to a national referendum.

House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont told reporters that the plan would be put on the parliamentary agenda within 15 days.

Under Puea Thai’s proposal, after an amendment is made to enable the process to start, a Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) will be set up. It will comprise 99 people, including representatives elected from Thailand’s 77 provinces and 22 legal experts, but will exclude members of political parties.

The CDA will have 180 days to draw up a new Constitution, and a nationwide referendum will then be held.

Puea Thai, which had promised the charter change during its election campaign last year, said the 2007 Constitution was ‘undemocratic’ because it had been drawn up under a conservative, military-appointed government.

Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit told Bloomberg: “It weakens political parties, weakens politicians and limits the freedom of people. The Constitution should be drafted by people for people.”

Also, the 2007 Constitution — the country’s 18th — is seen by many as a conservative backlash to the Thaksin years, when the billionaire PM rode roughshod over independent institutions, amassing power in the hands of his ruling party.

Still, critics charge that Puea Thai’s latest move is designed to whitewash Thaksin — who fled Thailand after being charged with corruption — and eventually pave the way for him to return from self-exile.

“The CDA will have a blank cheque,” said Senator Anusart Suwanmongkol, who was on the committee that drafted the 2007 Constitution.

Royalists are likely to object, because they see Thaksin as a closet Republican. The anti-Thaksin People’s Alliance for Democracy — the ‘yellow shirts’ — has already indicated that it will take to the streets again if the new Constitution tries to give the former PM an amnesty. At present, however, the movement lacks the steam it had in 2008.

Puea Thai leaders insist that the CDA will be independent.

“It is a fact that it is not possible to democratize Thailand without benefiting Thaksin,” admitted Chaturon Chaisang, formerly a Cabinet minister in the Thaksin administration.

But he added: “The Puea Thai party will try to leave the whole thing up to the people. That should be fair enough.”

Yingluck’s party — which together with its coalition allies controls 299 seats in the 500-seat Parliament — is confident that a referendum will back the amendments.

The 2007 charter also won approval in a referendum, but voting patterns showed it had been turned down in the populous north-east — Puea Thai’s main power base and a stronghold for the largely pro-Thaksin ‘red shirt’ movement.

Even if a referendum fails, the ruling party, which controls more than one-third of Parliament and the Senate, can propose a second drafting exercise.

Nevertheless, the process of setting up the CDA and drafting an amendment is a long one, and a referendum is several months away. In the meantime, extra-parliamentary pressures could mount and affect the process.

Said Buranaj Smutharaks, who is part of the opposition Democrat Party’s shadow Cabinet: “This is an acid test of whether Thailand will be a country based on the rule of law or on the intentions of Thaksin’s political machinery.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.