July 2005 : State of Emergency Decree The cabinet approved a draft executive decree on state of emergency which shall firstly be applied on the three unrest southern provinces. The Parliament passed the amendment Constitution bill on article 297 on the composition of the selection panel of the National Counter Corruption Commission and the ICT Ministry appointed panel voted to accept the first shipment of 6 million smart ID cards. Emergency decree The cabinet on July 15, 2005 approved a draft state of emergency decree which shall be first applied on 3 unrest provinces in the south; Yala, Pattani and Narathiwas currently under the martial law. Main points of the decree are: 1. The prime minister, with cabinet approval, is empowered to declare a state of emergency all over the country or in certain areas as warranted by a situation. 2. To quickly end a situation that necessitates a state of emergency, the prime minister is empowered to a. Prohibit people from leaving their residences for a certain period of time. b. Prohibit publication of news and distribution of printed materials or other types of media which may cause the people to panic or with an intention to distort information. c. Evacuate people for their safety. d. Examine letters, books, printed materials and telegrams, or tap telephone calls. 3. Use military forces to help bring the situation back to normal as soon as possible. Authorities performing duties as ordered by the prime minister’s orders are exempt from civil, criminal and disciplinary actions. Though the state of emergency will be effective for three months imposing and renewable every three months, the government is apparently under intense public pressure. Civic groups is seeking to get the Constitution Court to rule on whether the government’s sweeping powers violates the basic constitutional principles of the people’s rights and freedom while the Upper House are collecting one-fifth of their members support to get the Parliament President to forward the case to the Constitutional Court. Abhisit Vejjajiva Democrat leader feared the decree allows the prime minister to exercise his security powers excessively in the name of national peace. Press freedom could be at stake as the decree allows a ban on publications deemed to incite unrest and finally, the sate officials could get away with any crime because the decree grants them amnesty. Four provincial violence in Thailand deepest south, Songhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwas started on January 4, 2004 and continues until now. The situations became worsen despite of the government remediation; policy revised, reshuffle of state officials and setting us the National Reconciliation Commission chaired by former prime minister Anand Panyarachun. The latest militants’ attack on Yala town on July 14, 2005 when 20 places including a power sub-station, downtown commercial area and several residences were blasted and set fire. Two policemen were shot dead and more than 20 civilians and state officials were injured. From January 1 to June 20, 2005 there were 808 lives and casualties in the four provinces; 601 were injuries and 207 lives lost, 186 of them were civilians. Constitution Amended The Parliament session on July 1 voted 484 to 156 with 23 abstained to pass the Constitution bill to amend article 297 on the composition of the selection panel of the National Counter Corruption Commission. The new 15 members of the selection panel should comprises of the presidents of the Supreme, Constitution, and Supreme Administration Court, the Election Commission chairman, the auditor general, the National Human Rights Commission chairman, a parliament ombudsman, six university rectors and two representatives of the political sector. Sutham Saengprathum from Thai Rak Thai and Satit Wongnongtoey from Democrat were named as the political sector’s representatives while Pruang Kitraporn of Phra Nakorn Rajabhat University, Supol Wuthisen of Ban Somdet Chaophraya Rajabhat University, Monthon Sa-nguansermsri of Naresuan University, Surapol Nitkraipoj of Thammasat University, Thirawuth Boonyasophon of King Mongkut’s Institute of technology North Bangkok and Sawang Phuphatwibul of Phibun Songkhram Rajabhat University were voted by their peers to the panel. In regards to the undertaking selection process of president of the Constitutional Court the selection panel currently comprises of 14 members as written in the constitution. The application of a new NCCC members is between July 28 to August 3 and up until July 31 there were 7 applicants. Smart ID card accepted An eight-member panel set up by the ICT Minister to examine the electronic ID cards voted 5-3 on July 18 to accept the first six million of the 12 million cards ordered. The panel, chaired by Mrs. Tananutch Tritipayabutr deputy ICT permanent secretary, comprised of 6 representatives from ICT and one each from Interior and Science and Technology ministries. An e-citizen initiative project was approved by the cabinet on early 2004 to give Thai citizen smart electronic identification cards holding, in a microchip, not only personal details such as names, birth date, gender, address and a fingerprint, but also personal information related to social welfare, public insurance and tax numbers. A 800 million baht budget was allocated for 12 million smart cards scheduled to be issued by the end of 2004. The Information and Communication Technology Ministry was assigned to oversee smart card technical specification and bidding. The first bidding in May 2004 was cancelled on ground that the price was too high and a new bidding was held a month later which saw CST Consortium winning the contest with a 74 baht each. The cards shall be delivered to the Interior Ministry who responsible on an online registration system through 1,077 offices run by the Bureau of Registration Administration. The project was delayed after the two ministries failed to come to an agreement on technical problems and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra assigned the national Electronics and Computer Technology [NECTEC] to settle the issue. NECTEC found the card technology was based on a closed proprietary system non-conform to the international security standard and therefore unable to be read by the Interior Ministry hardware. Prime Minister Thaksin gave the ICT Ministry a final decision and the ministry appointed a panel to make a decision.