Read on Twitter
THREAD: It'll be a busy day or two at parliament today as it debates 7 different draft bills for constitutional amendments, while at the same time pro- and anti-govt protesters will be outside the doors. (cont.) #ThaiProtest2020 #ม็อบ17พฤศจิกา #ประชุมรัฐสภา
2) First here's my @ChannelNewsAsia summary of what's going on and an overview of the different bills we have and what they seek to change in the 2017 constitution. We'll take a closer look in the next tweets. #ThaiProtest2020 #ม็อบ17พฤศจิกา #ประชุมรัฐสภา
3) Reminder that the 2017 constitution - Thailand's 20th - was drafted during the military government following the 2014 coup. Although confirmed in a public referendum, it reduced the powers of elected officials and fortified those of unelected ones, esp. w/ military influence.
4) Looking at the different drafts, you can see that the govt coalition covers the bare minimum to enable a path to establish a drafting committee, while the various opposition drafts target to curb the powers of the Senators, who were all appointed by the previous military junta
5) And then there's the proposal by civic group @iLawclub, brought into parliament with a petition signed by over 100k people. It aims to essentially reverse many of the political and legal legacies of the prev military govt incl. the curbs on elected politicians and parly.
6) Drafts 1-6 have already been debated in Sept, but the ruling @pprpthailand did a last minute bait-and-switch to delay the whole process leading us to today. https://twitter.com/SaksithCNA/status/1309119970463416320
7) The @iLawclub draft faces an uphill climb in parly today as it is the most far-reaching draft to change the constitution - more than many elected and non-elected lawmakers are comfortable with. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2020531/fate-of-ilaw-bill-hangs-in-balance
8) It's no surprise many Senators (who are all appointed) don't like many of the proposals since it seeks to basically kick them out and reverse the powers of those that have put them there in the first place (the military govt). Expect a lot of nationalistic virtue signaling.
9) What can't be ignored in the current wave of #ThaiProtests2020 is the role of the King, defined in Chapter 2 of the constitution. Changes *after* the referendum were made at his behest. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-king-constitution-idUSKBN14X0IF
10) While all coalition parties and even the opposition @PheuThaiParty block the possibility to amend chapters 1 (general provisions) and 2 (role of the King), opposition @MFPThailand and @iLawclub say that one shouldn't generally shut the door on that.
11) The core demands of the #ThaiProtests2020 are, in case you forgot: a) the govt of PM @prayutofficial should resign, b) a new constitution, c) reform the monarchy. Out of these, b) seems to be the most realistic and attainable goal - but that's gonna take a while, too.
12) Of course their demands to reform the monarchy has triggered the ultra-nationalist royalists to come out to voice their opposition. Here's my recent @ChannelNewsAsia report on them:
13) The royalists are at parly this AM to oppose any charter amendments, treating it like it's some form of holy scripture that MUST NOT be touched - a stance not even the coalition holds. https://twitter.com/bangkokpostnews/status/1328535739877900288?s=21
14) The fact that the royalists are petitioning their opposition to any constitutional amendments to the Speaker of the fully-appointed Senate and not of the elected House of Reps also shows their distrust in the MPs and the parliamentary process.
15) Meanwhile, the pro-reform protesters will converge on parliament this afternoon and stay "until there's a vote" on constitutional amendments - which could be on Wed. They also appear to take it to the waters at parliament since the roads are blocked. https://twitter.com/freeyouthth/status/1328302108144070656?s=21
16) The #ThaiProtests2020 demand for constitutional reforms is the most realistic goal (for now), but at the moments it'll take months, if not years until anything is being changed in there - especially if there's a new public referendum at the end of it.
17) And today's parly session is only the FIRST reading of those 7 constitutional amendments drafts. It needs to pass two more readings and votes at a later time - after they somehow mash all drafts together before any re-write process begins.
Conclusion: It's essentially whether or not it's possible to reverse the legacy of the previous junta that put up tight guardrails for the parliamentary process. But due to the #ThaiProtests2020 it's also now whether Thai politics is capable of vast reforms at all. (END)
