May 2007 : Thai Rak Thai Dissolved The Constitution Tribunal dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party and banned 111 executives from the electoral process for 5 years. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond addressed the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on his administration outstanding achievements in the last six months and promised 6 policies to be done in the next 6 months. The cabinet endorsed the draft bill to establish a public organization to operate a commercial-free public TV station. The cabinet commented the draft constitution on 5 main issues; Directive Principles of Fundamental State Policies, conducting of a treaty with foreign countries, financial expenditure of the interim government after the dissolution of the parliament, endorsement of the Office of the Attorney General as an independent organization and recognition of particular personal rights similar to the 1997 Constitution. The cabinet approved a draft bill to change Kamnan and village head to retire at the age of 60. The Council of State amended at least 3 issues of the Referendum bill to increase penalty to the offender. The cabinet agreed with the Finance Ministry to retain Value Added Tax (VAT) rate at 7 percent for another 12 months until 30 September 2008. The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) voted to pass the bill on computer forgery after long deliberate. The cabinet approved a draft retail bill proposed by the Commerce Ministry with principle to establish two committees; national and provincial, of different functions to supervise retail business. The Finance Ministry is regulating criteria on the principle, definition, establishment and selling of local authority’s bond. The cabinet approved financial mechanism totaled 3,128 million Baht to revitalize economy in the three southern provinces. The cabinet approved in principle to authorize responsible agency more power to tackle drug crimes. The cabinet approved setting up new 81 disrticts or amphur. Thai Rak Thai Dissolved The Constitution Tribunal on May 30 read a 11-hour verdict on the two cases on 1. Thai Rak Thai and 2 small parties, and 2. Democrat and 1 small party which found all 3 parties in the first case guilty of electoral fraud and ordered 5-year disbanded of their executives while acquitting the Democrat but dissolved another political party. The two cases were submitted to the General Attorney by the Election Commission and the General Attorney then submitted to the Constitutional Court on June 19 and 26, 2006 respectively. The key charge on Thai Rak Thai was that the party had paid two small parties; Pattana Chart Thai and Thai Ground, to run in the April 2, 2006 vote to overcome an electoral rule for a single candidate running unopposed to garner more than 20 percent of votes in order to secure victory in 37 constituencies including those particularly 35 in the South. The Tribunal found that there were outlining evidence and testimonies that two TRT executives, Thamarak Isarangura and Pongsak Ruktapongpaisal were linked to the bankrolling and Pattana Chart Thai Party has rigged its membership records to enable its candidates to overcome the 90-day rule to qualify for running. The judges said in their decision that should the party dissolution turmoil, the party executives must be held accountable for exploiting the public trust to advance personal gains. The verdict on Thai Rak Thai was that: “The Thai Rak Thai Party acted to advance the personal fortune of its leader and tampered with the electoral process in order to grab and cling to power-this not a genuine party with any ideology.” For the Democrat Party and Progressive Democrat Party, the Constitution Tribunal cleared the Democrat Party from all charges of election fraud in a unanimous decision while ruled Progressive Democrat Party guilty. The PDP was not only dissolved but its executives were disbanded from political process. PM’s address Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanond addressed the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on May 24 that his administration outstanding achievements in the last six months were a reduction of petroleum fund debt from 50,407 to 28,746 MB, revoked the 30 Baht charge of the national health program and increase allocation of 1,659 Baht per head per year to 1,899 Baht. The government, he said, had abolished the policy to direct inject money to the grass root level through village and urban funds and the mobile cabinet meeting in which almost 90 BM has already been allocated to the upcoming 2008 and 2009 fiscal budget. In the next six months, the government would: Support the drafting of a new constitution and hold a general election. Promote social reconciliation and educational development. Promoting dialogue and international talks to end conflicts in the region and to build “right understanding” among Islamic Countries towards the problems. Adapt His Majesty the King’s theory of Sufficiency Economy to the free market system. Secure economic growth through financing and monetary policy. On the social front, the government had approved a five-year strategic plan (2007-2011) to turn the country into a peaceful society by stimulate human and public health development, educational reform and conduct national cultural plan and moral development plan. To meet these policies the cabinet has approved a 2008 fiscal budget of 1,635 Trillion Baht, which is 120 Billion Baht deficit, to be submit to the NLA. After the PM’s address, Prasong Soonsiri, a leading member of the NLA said the government has not remarkably accomplished anything particularly in the economic sector. He asked the government to improve its management to tackle with increasing household debts, declining national income, diminishing in export goods due to strong Thai Baht, etc. “The government should improve its performance in order to tackle these problems including violence in the deep South”, said Prasong. Public Television The cabinet meeting on May 15 endorsed the draft bill to establish a public organization to operate a commercial-free public TV station run by an appointed executive and management team under supervision of a 9-members board representing media and newspaper council. Regard to no commercial program and advertisement the public TV would be fund by about Bt 2 billion annually which is approximately 1.5 per cent of the tobacco and alcohol excise-tax collection and TITV will be transferred from the Office of the Prime Minister to become this public agency. The draft bill will be submitted to the National Legislative Assembly for enforcement. 5 issues on the constitution drafting The cabinet meeting on May 15 asked the Office of the Secretariat of the Cabinet to summarize the cabinet’s comments on the constitutional drafting on 5 main issues to submit to the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) as follow: To give more flexibility to implementation of Directive Principles of Fundamental State Policies. To amend on the conducting of a treaty with foreign countries. To amend on the financial regulation of the interim government spending after the dissolution of the parliament. To endorse the Office of the Attorney General as an independent organization. To retain personal rights similar to the 1997 Constitution. Kamnan and village head to retire at 60 The cabinet approved in principle a draft bill submitted by Ministry of Interior to change an access to the position of Kamnan and village head from election to be pre-election screening and finalize by the provincial governor. Upon appointed, both positions shall remain until retirement at 60 years of age under similar regulations and penalty as other civil officials. However, Kamnan and village head holding position will be evaluate every 5 years and one who fails will be sacked. More than half of the people in the locality can requests to remove a Kamnan or village head from the position, too. Moreover, authority and functions of Kamnan and village head will be amended to avoid overlapping with the Tambon Administration Authority and shall be minimize to keep social security and order and other functions as stated by law. More penalty in referendum bill The Council of State committee 1 chaired by Meechai Ruchuphan amended at least 3 issues of the Referendum bill submitted by the cabinet and increase penalty to the offender. The first issue is to change the name of the bill to focus on the wrongdoing in regards to referendum then increase the offense to include an intentionally misguiding the voters to accept or not-accept, selling of alcohol between 18.00 hrs on the day prior to the vote until the completion of the vote and prohibition of advertise or announcement of the referendum poll result until completion of the ballot casting. Penalty on destroying of ballots is increase to 1-10 years jail and fine of 20,000-200,000 baht and also disband from political process for 5 years. 7% VAT retain for another year The cabinet meeting on May 8 approved the Finance Ministry proposal to retain Value Added Tax (VAT) rate at 7 percent for another 12 months until 30 September 2008. Previously it was planned that after September 2006 the rate should be escalated to 10 percent but due to economic situation the 7 percent rate was extended until September 2007. The interim government whose term is only one year decided that the decision should be waited until the next elected administration though an increase of 1 percent would contribute a remarkably sum of 40 billion Baht annually. Draft bill on computer forgery passed The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on May 9 voted 119 to 1 and 1 abstained to pass the bill on computer forgery after long deliberate on the penalty on electronic mail of which some members pointed out that since e-mail can be sent from either home of public places such as internet cafes, it should be clear on the “forgery or conceal” of sender which is liable to maximum of 100,000 Baht fine. The bill shall be submitted for royal endorsement before becoming an act. Retail bill approved The cabinet meeting on May 8 approved a draft retail bill proposed by the Commerce Ministry with principle to establish two committees; national and provincial, of different functions to supervise retail business. The retail bill was first submitted to the cabinet on March 27 and was withdrew for reconsideration and amendments came out as follows. The national committee shall set up policy, classify the businesses, set standard for petition and penalty while the granting and revoking of permission is decentralized to the provincial committee. Any retail business seeking a permit to do business is automatically grant but there will be term of conditions attached to the permit. There were many outcries from many small retailers particularly in the provinces that their sales have considerably dropping since a big state-of-the-art retailer set foot into the country. They request the government urgent measure to restrict or suspend establishment of those big retailers by using Town Planning or Building Acts until the retail act effective. Criteria for local authority’s bond The Finance Ministry is regulating criteria on the local authority’s bond principle, definition, establishment and selling to ensure transparency and good governance. It is expected that the criteria will be finished by this fiscal year. Local authority is entitle to issue amortizing bond of not more than 20 percent of its annual budget to finance investment project, to gain capital fund and refinance debt on condition that total amount of all bonds issued should not exceed 50 percent of its annual budget. Local authority must submit fiscal plan and bond information to the Interior Ministry and Public Debt Management Office for consideration and the central government is not oblige to any liability or binding to the security of local bond. Regards the constitution framework and under the central government supervision local authority is eligible to borrow money from any source of fund and 731 local authorities nationwide have borrowed 1.365 billion Baht from financial institutions and from other sources; 941.8 and 424.1 million Baht respectively. 3.128 BM loan to boost economy in the deep South The cabinet meeting on May 8 approved the Finance Ministry plan to securitize promissory notes totaled 3,128 million Baht issued by three financial institutions ; the Agriculture Bank, the EXIM Bank and the SME Bank, to the Bank of Thailand. The banks shall provide loan of 1.5 percent interest rate to local entrepreneurs in the three southern provinces; Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. It is expected that the money and other mechanisms such as tax incentives, security and infrastructure projects can revitalize the ailing economy. The three banks shall receive 1,800, 1,058 and 270 million Baht respectively, of 0.001 percent interest rate, schedule to be due on July 31, 2008. More axes on drug crimes. The cabinet approved in principle a draft bill on Drug Prevention and Suppression which authorize the responsible agency to 1. increase a temporary close or revoke of permit of any public places found guilty of drugs related from 15 to 30 days, 2. allow officers to urgently search or enter suspect places, vehicles and people without warrant, and 3. to be able to seize and pre-investigate on a suspect before hand-over to the investigator. However, the detain period is reduced from 3 days to 48 hours. 81 new districts The cabinet approved a draft regulation proposed by Interior Ministry to set up new 81 disrticts or amphur. The regulation is being sent to the Council of State for consideration before being effective.