A day ago we posted on the rewards heaped on the military junta’s allies amongst the anti-democrats. In that post we mentioned the appointment of Chirmsak Pinthong to the puppet National Reform Council (NRC). We noted that Chirmsak, a former senator, captivated by the People’s Alliance for Democracy and opposed to electoral democracy. His position moved to the extreme right as he joined the ultra-royalist Siam Samakkhi group.
Chirmsak’s rightist anti-democratic views are clear in a report at Khaosod. He declares:
The drafting of the Constitution needs to produce long-term benefits without bias against any individual, but if the drafting is meant to prevent people who abuse their power – people like Thaksin – from entering politics, it can be done….
Chirmsak equates elections with “the power wielded by the state…”. That’s an amazing conclusion but expected from anti-democrats who fear the power of voting that can produce benefits for the non-elite. He demands that “political parties that win elections in the future” should ever be allowed to claim “a popular mandate and alter… the Constitution…”.
Of course, the real story is that no elected party has changed the constitution since 1997. Rather, the military has intervened twice to throw out constitutions.
Chirmsak dismisses any suggestion that the NRC, the handpicked servants of the military junta, was biased. Given that it is stuffed full of his allies, Chirmsak’s dissembling is to be expected. He thinks “democracy” and “involvement” in reform will be a referendum. That idea is that citizens will be presented with a long and complicated document and asked to vote in support of it, in total. You get the idea that Chirmsak’s notion of democracy is badly mangled.
Meanwhile, as a footnote, another NRC puppet, Amorn Wanichwiwat, “promised to reform Thailand” declaring that this would be through a “Buddhist moral system” that only allows “Good People” to take political office. That it plagiarized from those who wrote the royalist script known as Thai-style democracy in the early 1960s. The emphasis on Buddhism will alientate non-Buddhists, but the anti-democrats couldn’t care less.
Political Prisoners in Thailand 