By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A PROPOSED DISSOLUTION of the Constitutional Court is a simple, yet challenging solution to what has appeared to be today’s political troubles stemming from legal battles such as the one surrounding the court-suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, suggested a former scholar over the weekend.
Panat Tasneeyanond, former dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Law, advised that political dilemmas and dead-ends which could probably be attributed to those legal battles should be ultimately resolved where they may have literally taken place and that is the Constitutional Court.
The former Thammasat law dean commented that the Constitutional Court has evidently gone to the extremes of delivering austere, legal penalties, rendering the possibility of political parties being dissolved at the order of the court with their executive board members being subsequently prohibited from engaging in political activity for a number of years or even for life.
“Given the fact that the legal battle literally takes place at the Constitutional Court, this type of court should be dissolved to put an end to it once and for all,” Panat said, adding that the existing courts of justice and administrative courts should be enough to effectively handle varied lawsuits including those involving politicians.
Panat said such comprehensive, legal authority of the Constitutional Court has arguably overruled the people’s power manifested in nationwide elections under democratic rule to the extent that it could possibly depose their representatives of legislative or executive status at any given time.
For instance, he said, the woman prime minister, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, could possibly be found guilty of allegedly perpetrating conduct in severe breach of the ethical code and in lack of evident honesty, then impeached and ousted by court whilst, he said, definitions of one’s ethics and honesty remain vague, perplexing and subjective.
“But since she admitted that the voice in the circulated audio clip is hers, how could she be fairly judged dishonest?,” Panat said in reference to last month’s leaked telephone talk between Paetongtarn and Cambodian leader Hun Sen about Thai-Cambodian border conflict.
He said court decisions based on account of the defendant perpetrating “a breach of the ethical code” or “a lack of evident honesty” may be considered by many people as too inclusive, ambiguous and contentious to serve justice at all.
The former Thammasat law dean who had unsuccessfully run for senator in last year’s controversial races to parliament had declared his ultimate design to amend the coup junta-designed constitution of 2017 to the extent that the Constitutional Court and a few other “independent” agencies be dissolved.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Suspended prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Photo: Thai Rath
Insert: Former dean of Thammasat University’s Law Faculty Panat Tasneeyanond. Photo: Naewna
Front Page: Constitutional Court logo. Photos: Thai Rath
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