2007 Constitution - Bad for Thailand

One of the stated reasons for the coup and an important principle behind the 2007 Thai Constitution was help eliminate corruption from Thai government. Others more cynical than I may assert that the real reason for the coup is that the country's elite did not like the populist billionaire Thaksin running the show, and that the constitution was drafted to keep him out of power.

Let's assume that the coup leaders and drafters of the Constitution, who were appointed by the coup leaders, really did have Thailand's best interest at heart. The anti-corruption provisions have become little more than a weapon for one's political enemies.

The recent court verdict overturned the current government, and banned thirty-four people from politics for five years. Understand, not all thirty-four of those people did something wrong. If an executive of the party is found to have engaged in electoral fraud, then the entire party leadership is banned from politics. An entire government was thrown out because of fraud on the part of a few people.

This is the second time the court has struck down a prime minister. The court removed PM Samak from office because he had a weekly cooking show on television. They ruled that since he was paid for his effort, this represented outside employment prohibited by the constitution. Perhaps the thought behind the provision was to ensure that the PM was not under the employment, and possible control of his employer. This was a public TV station and it was all out in the open. Instead of ruling that he was not eligible to be PM, they could have ruled that his employment was prohibited and given him the option to resign his show. I'm not advocating this for the benefit of Samak, rather for the benefit of Thailand. It is important for Thailand to have a stable government.

There were some cabinet members under investigation because it was believed that they might not have declared all their credit card debt as required. Others were removed for illegal business dealings.

I think the idea of removing corruption from Thai politics is a noble, if not extraordinarily difficult endeavor. As a tool for doing so, I think the 2007 Constitution is a hammer when a scalpel is needed.