The Red Shirts blog states that the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship has now submitted a letter to the Constitutional Court, seeking clarification on the court’s earlier decisions and pronouncements on how the government can or cannot amend the constitution.
According to the report, the court’s July 2012 ruling was “that amending the constitution does not pose a threat to the monarchy…”. The oddity is that this even required a ruling; but it was a bunch of mad monarchists making the claim that changing the military junta-dictated constitution amounted to republicanism.
But the Court also threw one of its large royalist spanners in the works when it “suggested that the government hold a referendum regarding the amendments.” Because this is a suggestion, no one understands if it has any legal basis or merit. But, hey, don’t mess with the Constitutional Court or they’ll dissolve you party and ban you or even have you jailed!
In its letter, the UDD asks the following:
1. Does the suggestion from the Court that the government hold a referendum regarding constitutional amendments constitute advice or an order? What law or article of the Constitution was consulted by the Court in this decision?
2. Does the Court disagree with a parliamentary vote on the Constitutional amendments? If so, what law or article of the Constitution was consulted by the Court in this decision?
In the circumstances of Thailand’s recent politics and its remarkable judicialization, these seem like reasonable questions. However, as we know, even before receiving them, a court spokesman had rejected the idea of clarifying anything and the very moment these questions were received, the deeply politicized court president Wasan Soypisudh had rejected the notion that the court would clarify its not-a-ruling-but-a-suggestion intervention, which he thinks is “clear.”
Political Prisoners in Thailand 