Jon Ungphakorn, Chair of the NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD), said that the attempt on Dec 12 to halt the National Legislative Assembly, since it was not elected and did not represent the people, and thus could not legitimately deliberate laws that would affect the people's rights and freedoms, was successful.

He said the NGOs supported the general election, and were nobody's tool. Feedback was mostly in favour of their action, though with some differing views on the approach. NLA Speaker Meechai Ruchuphan said that they should have talked instead. Jon insisted that the NGOs had tried to meet with Meechai since Nov 19 to ask the NLA to withdraw the reading of 11 bills and wait for the elected parliament, but the NLA Speaker was not ready to meet with them.

"We need a new legislative body from the election, with the people's participation in making laws. The NGOs will hold a demonstration in front of parliament again on Dec 19 at 8 am, and the public are invited to join us. We will make a human chain to block the entrance to the premises. The goal is to stop the NLA considering 8 bills that affect civil liberties and freedom. We're not worried things will turn violent, as we will gather peacefully and non-violently with preparations to prevent any provocateurs," Jon announced.

Pairoj Polpetch, Deputy Chair of NGO-COD, said the 8 bills included the Internal Security Bill that perpetuates the military regime; the Radio and Television Broadcasting Bill that maintains the military and bureaucracy's monopoly of frequencies; the autonomy bills for Chulalongkorn, Chiang Mai, and KMIT Latkrabang universities that privatizes education; the State Enterprise Privatization Bill; the National Agricultural Council Bill; and the Water Resources Bill.

On Dec 17, NLA Speaker Meechai Ruchuphan called the House to meet for three consecutive days on Dec 19-21 for urgent consideration of the UN Convention on Anti-corruption 2003, the signing on the Paris Convention on Industrial Assets Protection, and the Agreement on Patent Partnership.

And there are also 21 bills remaining from the previous meetings on Dec 7 and 12, including the university autonomy bills.

In response to calls for the NLA to stop deliberation of the bills, NLA whip Kamnoon Sittisamarn said the whips had discussed this with the NLA Speaker and had concluded that the NLA would cease all readings on Dec 21, and meetings after the election would not involve deliberation of the bills.

"In the NLA meetings this week, there will be no deliberation of bills in the first reading, except 21 bills where the first reading was left unfinished in last week's meetings. And there are 48 bills that have been vetted by NLA committees," Kamnoon said, adding that about 10 contentious bills including the internal security, water, and privatization bills belong to the latter group.

Kamnoon said that the NLA was different from previous legislative bodies as the constitution keeps it in place until a senate is established. But they took heed of the people's calls and adhered to the tradition of the legislature, so they will deliberate the bills only until the general election. On Dec 19-20, the NLA will meet until 8 pm, and on Dec 21, the meeting will probably extend beyond 8 pm, but not past 12 pm. They will just stop at whatever point they have reached, he said.

On the morning of Dec 17, about 20 community radio representatives came to parliament to protest against the Radio and Television Broadcasting Bill, saying it would be unfair to community radio operators and demanding the NLA Speaker set up a panel to probe the military personnel and television station executives that sat on the committee in a conflict of interest.

About 150 local and riot police were deployed inside and outside parliament after reports that NGOs and people's networks were planning to protest again.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Jate Mongkolhattee said that police investigators would meet on Dec 25-26 to consider pressing charges against the NGOs for their Dec 12 protest. There is clear evidence to take legal action against 5-6 leaders including Jon. The deputy commander stopped short of identifying the charges, but said warrants might be issued next week for them to meet the police.

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