Public participation in the 1997-2017 constitution- making process of Thailand

Abstract

This research aims to study the public participation in the drafting process of the three most recent constitutions of Thailand by using qualitative research methods and secondary document analysis. The research found that the drafting of the Thai constitution, under the principle of drafting the constitution, must allow the public to participate in the process of drafting the constitution as much as possible in order to express the will of the people under self-governance. However, in the drafting of the 1997 Constitution, 2007 Constitution, and 2017 Constitution of Thailand, it was found that the public participated in drafting the constitution at a very low level. Only the 1997 Constitution was initiated by the political elite with the support of the civil society sector. While the 2007 and 2017 Constitutions, the initiative and role in drafting the constitution were clearly under the influence of the coup group. Although the drafting of all three constitutions involved two-way communication between the public and the organization that drafted the constitution, the results of the communication were not used to improve the constitution. The highest level of participation, which was the referendum method, was flawed and incomplete, resulting in limited participation in drafting the entire constitution. Meanwhile, the public participation in drafting the 2007 and 2017 Constitutions was only symbolic participation. All of these resulted in the problem of constitutional legitimacy. Therefore, there should be an amendment to the future constitution drafting process that should allow the public to participate widely, both directly and indirectly, in the drafting process.