Citing political ills, the Thai junta has ironically proposed a so-called political culture bill as a solution to reform the nation’s politics, saying the bill could foster democratic political culture.
On 7 March 2017, the junta-appointed Committee on National Reform, National Strategy, and Reconciliation announced 42 national reform priorities from the Government House.
As one of the 42 reform goals, the political culture bill was proposed as one of the solutions to Thailand’s political ills.
The committee claimed that the bill will make politicians more accountable for their actions and foster the development of democratic system of governance.
The bill was proposed by the National Reform Council and the political and subcommittee of the National Reform Steering Assembly.
The idea to legislate the bill was mentioned earlier on 3 March by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, at the meeting on national reform.
In 2015, the former set of junta-appointed Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) laid out plans to create a ‘National Virtue Assembly’, a supra-governmental body which could determine the moral or ethical standards of public officials.
Under the plan, the assembly can vote whether to kick start a moral inquisition of politicians and public officials deemed ‘immoral’. If it finds elected politicians and holders of political posts or local administrators guilty of overstepping its moral codes, the committee can call for a public referendum to be held in general elections and allow voters to decide if they want to impeach any officials it identifies.
The Assembly can also make recommendations and leave parliament to decide whether or not to impeach non-elected public officials, such as high-ranking civil servants. If impeached, politicians and civil servants will be barred from holding public office for five years.
