Courts are
supposed to independently and dispassionately apply the law, without being
influenced by the preferences and demands of politics…but not in Thailand.
All this
"stuff" about the Constitution from the Thai courts is merely a
charade in Thailand and Constitutional law is nothing more than just politics
in black robes. The Constitution Court justices just vote their own political
preferences. They have delivered rulings that have dissolved political parties,
banned hundreds of politicians and brought down two democratically elected pro-Thaksin
governments.
The impartiality
of judges, who are often accused of serving the interests of the anti-Thaksin
establishment, is often questioned. But any questions have now been put to rest
as the Constitution Court President, Wasan Soipisuth, openly admitted to such
in a seminar on the court’s role in maintaining the balance in Thai politics (organized
by the court itself, of course).
Wasan
confessed that the rulings to disqualify former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej
and to dissolve political parties were, in his word, "careless" and
that the court procedures relied too much on individual judges’ personal
opinions, and failed to clearly establish what the facts were before making the
decision.
He referred
to the court's resolution to dissolve the People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima
Thipataya parties: “If various groups had not staged so many rallies at
the time, the decision might have been different.” “If the country at that time had been
peaceful, the government and the opposition could have joined hands, the
country could have moved forward, and I believe most of the judges would have
decided not to dissolve the parties," he said. "But the country at
that time was chaotic and the Constitution Court had to use its judgment to
maintain law and order," he said.
Of course when
Wasan says “use its judgment,” he actually means “abuse its power.” In 2010, there was even more chaos but when
the ruling Democrat Party’s dissolution case came up, the court went out of its
way to dismiss it due to a technicality.
He also said
that the ruling to dissolve the Palang Prachachon and Chart Thai Pattana
parties was also "necessary in order to avoid political chaos".
I suppose it didn’t matter if they were guilty or not.
The favorite
law book of Wasan and his cohorts on the bench must be Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland.” Sentence
first, verdict afterwards (we’ll actually debate the case later if we
have time). This would confirm the notion that the Constitution Court is a
backwards court.
In an effort
to try to paint himself and fellow judges as knights in shining armor protecting
the kingdom from the evils of Shinawatra, self back patter Wasan went on to say
that “the Constitution Court has historically sought solutions for the country
in times of political gridlock.” Never mind that these court “solutions”
actually did more harm than good and instead of moving Thailand “forward” as he
suggests, the court put the country in “full reverse”.
In order for Thailand
to be a democracy, the judiciary, i.e. the Constitution Court, needs to be
independent and non-political. If not then what is good for the people and for Thailand
will continue to be ignored in favor of judgments that favor a particular
political party or viewpoint.
