The Move Forward Party (MFP) is proposing amendments to the 2017 Constitution aiming at erasing the legacy of the 2014 military coup, including mechanisms to prevent future coups and repealing articles in the Constitution that turned orders of the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO) into law.

Parit Wacharasindhu (left) submitting the three bills. (Photo from Move Forward Party media team)

MFP MP and spokesperson Parit Wacharasindhu said last Thursday (25 July) that the Party believes that it will take at least 1 – 2 years to write a new Constitution, and so parliament should also be working on amending articles in the Constitution to solve urgent issues. The Party is also taking the opportunity of the election of a new Senate to submit these bills so that they will be discussed in a joint session between the House of Representatives and the Senate.

MFP has submitted three bills proposing amendments to the Constitution. The first proposes the repeal of Article 279 in the Constitution, which made all announcements or orders made by the NCPO or Head of the NCPO constitutional and lawful. The party believes that this would allow the public, especially those effected by these orders, to argue against the lawfulness of these orders if they violate people’s rights and freedoms. Parit noted that MFP submitted a bill repealing NCPO orders in July 2023, but the bill was deemed a finance bill and is now waiting for the Prime Minister’s approval.

The second bill will add articles to the Constitution protecting people’s rights and freedoms, requiring state officials to refuse orders made by their superiors planning to stage a coup, prohibiting courts from certifying coups, prohibiting amnesiesy for coup makers, allowing citizens to sue coup makers for treason, and making these provisions common law that will always be valid even if the current Constitution is repealed.

Parit said that MFP intends to pursue other means of preventing future coups, including military reform and other campaigns for all political issues to be solved through democratic mechanisms.

The third bill will repeal the 20-Year National Strategy and the National Reform Plan by repealing Article 65 and Chapter 16 of the Constitution, as well as other related legislation. The Party said that these plans lack legitimacy because they were written by the junta and without public participation. They are not flexible, because they were written into the Constitution and other legislation, leading to the expansion of a bureaucratic state, instead of allowing elected governments to design policies and development plans. They may also be used for harassment, since mechanisms available through the courts or other independent organizations can be used to punish government agencies for not following the National Strategy and the Reform Plan.

Parit said that MFP hopes the three bills will soon be placed on parliament’s agenda and a joint meeting of the Senate and the House will be called to discuss them. The party also hopes that MPs and the newly-elected senators will approve the bills to erase the legacy of the coup and to kickstart the process of amending the Constitution to address urgent issues as well as pushing for a new Constitution.