By Thai Newsroom Reporters
CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY’S political scientist Khemthong Tonsakulroongruang has strongly suggested judges of the Constitutional Court be legally obliged to practically take responsibility for enormous damage which might possibly be caused unduly by their arbitrary rulings.
Given the fact that the Constitutional Court has never been held responsible for untoward consequences possibly caused by their arbitrary judgments which may have been primarily based on authoritarian rules of law to the extent that a party be dissolved with members of its executive board being immediately banned from assuming political positions for 10 years, it is now time the “independent” agency was legally held accountable for any contentious acts which they may perpetrate in the future, according to the Chulalongkorn political scientist in reference to last week’s dissolution of the Move Forward at an unanimous order of the nine Constitutional Court judges.
Khemthong pointed out that the Constitutional Court judges may have passed debatable, unjust verdicts on any lawsuits and should be legally responsible for such wrongdoings and punished by law.
According to the academic, the Constitutional Court had unreluctantly cited articles and sections of relevant laws without bothering to question whether they may have been made under design and influence of the powers-that-be.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the Constitutional Court’s arbitrary power may be practically contained in the course of justice whilst judges of such an “independent” agency may be held responsible and subject to legal penalties, given the possibility of their making wrongful, unjust decisions.
For instance, Khemthong suggested any members of the judicial branch who might ever endorse a future coup junta for their ouster of an elected government be finally brought to justice, held accountable for their authoritarianism-based performance and sentenced to terms in prison.
In the past, Thailand’s judicial branch simply shrugged off coup juntas and ironically regarded them as a “sovereign” power despite the fact that they had inarguably, forcibly undermined rule of the country.
The Chulalongkorn academic made his comments on the highly contentious rulings passed by the Constitutional Court to dissolve the reformist party and prohibit its former executive board members from assuming political positions at any level for a 10-year period whilst the People’s Party which 143 MPs of the dissolved party have formally joined has planned to put forward a motion at parliament to amend the constitution’s organic law pertaining to political parties to lessen the severity of legal penalties for an accused party in the future.
Given the planned motion, the draconian lese majeste law need not be amended in the lawmakers’ effort to curtail the severe legal penalties for a party which might possibly be judged by the Constitutional Court guilty of undermining rule and thus subject to being dissolved.
People’s MP Parit Wacharasindhu said many lawmakers of other parties such as those of the Pheu Thai would unreluctantly endorse the People’s fresh motion to amend the constitution’s organic law on political parties at parliament and finally cast a yea vote for it.
Khemthong suggested the planned motion, if fruitful, be made effective to the extent that no more accused party as a whole be dissolved by court and that legal penalties be only handed to any individual wrongdoers, albeit with partisan status.
The Move Forward had been accused of attempting to undermine rule of the country with the monarchy as head of state by putting forward legislation to amend the draconian lese majeste law, also known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
In another development, it remains to be seen whether one of the nine judges of the Constitutional Court, namely Jiraniti Hawanon, will give a special lecture on the upcoming Wednesday to Chulalongkorn University law students on the court’s criteria for verdicts which may terminally lead to a dissolution of a party as had been the topical case of the Move Forward.
The Student Council of Chulalongkorn University has invited Jiraniti, concurrently a special law lecturer at the university’s Law Faculty, to lecture on the debatable issue following last week’s verdict of the Constitutional Court, all judges of which had been named by the 2014 coup junta and junta-named senators, to dissolve the Move Forward.
The Constitutional Court is one of the “independent” agencies set up under the coup junta-designed constitution of 2017 to pass arbitrary judgments on political parties which have been found highly debatable and rarely acceptable to members of the public. Other “independent” agencies include the Election Commission and National Anti-Corruption Commission, among others.
CAPTIONS:
Constitutional Court logo, above, and signage, Front Page. Top photo: Naewna, Front Page photo: Thai Rath
Insert: Academic Khemthong Tonsakulroongruang. Photo: Chulalongkorn University
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