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ดุลพาห
Chapter 1: Public Participation and the Thai Constitution
The constitutional foundation of the idea that the interests of the people
should be at the forefront of public policy formulation is of a rather recent vintage.
In the aftermath of both economic and political upheavals of the 1990s, there was an
evident and strong demand for a rigorous mechanism of political accountability as
well as the formal recognition of the right to self-government. This conceptualization
5
was first voiced as early as 1991 when the Secretary General of the Council of State at
the time (Dr. Amorn Chandrasomboon) wrote an influential article calling for a set of
constitutional devices that could hold political actors accountable. The introduction
6
of constitutional accountability highlighted the significance of the idea of popular
sovereignty, which recognizes the Thai people’s ultimate right to govern.
Consequently, under the so-called People’s Constitution of 1997, not
only were the state agencies obliged to protect civil liberties enshrined in the
Constitution, but for the first time in history the participation of the Thai people in
both political and public administration processes were guaranteed. To this end, it
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could be said that the 1997 Constitution envisaged that both the presence of
independent agencies and the constitutionally embedded procedures which would
ensure direct popular participation in the Thai democratic governance would be able
to keep the corrupt politics in check. However, the experiment was halted by the
eruption of large-scaled political unrest against the Government of Prime Minister
5. The Black May popular uprising against a junta government in May 1992, followed by the Asian
Financial Crisis in 1997-8.
6. Nunthawat Poramanun, Tok Ratthathummanoon, 2540,“Discuss the 1997 Constitution”, Bangkok,
P Press, 1997. At 1.
7. Likit Theerawekin, An Essay on Public Participatio in the Constitution, <www.kpi.ac.th/ media/pdf/M7_85pdf>
accessed on August 21st, 2018.
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