Thailand 2017 Constitution

CHAPTER XVI. NATIONAL REFORM

Section 257

National reform under this Chapter must be carried out to achieve the following objectives:

1. the nation enjoys peace and order, unity and solidarity, sustainable development in accordance with the philosophy of sufficiency economy, and a balance between material and spiritual development;
2. the society is peaceful and fair, and provides comparable opportunities to eliminate disparity;
3. the people are happy, have good quality of life, and participate in development of the country and democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State.

Section 258

National reform in various areas shall be carried out to at least achieve the following results:

1. Politics:
   1. ensuring that people have correct knowledge and understanding on the democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State, that people participate in the organisation of political activities as well as the scrutiny of exercise of State powers, that they are able to tolerate different bona fide political views, and that the people exercise the right to vote in an election and in a referendum independently and free from influence by any mean;
   2. ensuring that activities of political parties are organised in an open and transparent manner to enable political parties to develop into political institutions of the people who share a common political ideology, and have clear and concrete processes to ensure that members of the political party truly participate and are accountable for political activities and the selection of persons with knowledge, competence, integrity and good morality and ethics to be persons holding political positions;
   3. having a mechanism to determine accountability of a political party for promoting policies that have not been subjected to a thorough assessment of impact, cost effectiveness and risk;
   4. having a mechanism that requires persons holding political positions to perform duties with integrity and to be held accountable to the public in the performance of their duties;
   5. having a mechanism to resolve political conflicts by peaceful means in accordance with the democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State;
2. Administration of State Affairs:
   1. ensuring that suitable technology is applied to the administration of State affairs and provision of public services for the benefit of the administration of State affairs and for the convenience of the people;
   2. integrating databases of all State agencies to provide a data system for the administration of State affairs and the provision of services to the people;
   3. improving and developing the structure and system for the management of State operations and manpower planning for the public sector to promptly respond to changes and new challenges, provided that the undertakings must be carried out in a manner compatible with the different missions of each State agency;
   4. improving and developing personnel management of the public sector with a view to incentivising persons genuinely having knowledge and competence to work in State agencies and to be able to attain career advancement in accordance with each person’s competence and achievements, be persons of integrity with courage to make decisions and act righteously while having more regard to public interest than to personal interest, and be creative persons capable of developing new innovations for the purpose of efficiency in the discharge of official functions and administration of State affairs, and having measures to protect personnel in the public sector from abuse of power by their superior officials;
   5. improving the procurement system of the public sector so as to be flexible, open and transparent with a mechanism to prevent corruption at every stage;
3. Law:
   1. having a mechanism for revising laws, regulations, rules or bylaws in force prior to the date of the promulgation of this Constitution so as to be consistent with the principles under section 77, and to develop them to be in conformity with universal standards, by providing for the application of permit systems and committee systems only insofar as is necessary for flexibility in the performance of functions, with a clear responsible authority and without imposing undue burden on the people, to increase competitiveness of the country and to prevent dishonest acts and wrongful conducts;
   2. reforming the system of legal learning, instruction and education with a view to developing legal practitioners into well-informed persons who have a legal mindset and who adhere to the morality and ethics of lawyers;
   3. developing a legal database system of the State by using various technologies with a view to enabling the public to conveniently access legal information and to easily understand the substances of the laws;
   4. establishing a mechanism to give assistance to the people in the preparation and proposal of draft laws;
4. Justice Process:
   1. ensuring that time limits for justice process at every stage are clearly specified so that justice is delivered to the people without delay, and that there is a mechanism to aid persons with insufficient means in having access to justice process, as well as the establishment of a mechanism for strict enforcement of law with a view to reducing disparity and injustice in society;
   2. improving the system of criminal inquiry by providing a proper check and balance between inquiry officials and State attorneys, by clearly specifying time limits for the performance of duties of all relevant officials so as to avoid the preclusion of action by prescription and to promote public trust in the performance of duties of inquiry officials and State attorneys in the course of criminal inquiry, as well as by requiring the use of forensic science in an inquiry and providing forensic science service through more than one agency which are independent of each other to ensure that the public has alternatives to such services for the proving of facts;
   3. promoting and developing the organisational culture of relevant organisations in the justice process with a view to facilitating convenient and expeditious justice for the people;
   4. enforcing laws efficiently by making appropriate amendments and revisions to the law relating to duties, powers and missions of police, and amending and revising the law relating to personnel management of police officials to secure efficiency, to guarantee that police officials receive appropriate remuneration, that appointment and transfer thereof are handled with fairness, and that the consideration of allowances and merits is done clearly in accordance with a merit system; in the consideration for appointment and transfer, regard must be had to seniority in combination with knowledge and competence in order that police officials can perform the duties independently, without being under the mandate of any person, efficiently, and with pride in the performance of their duties;
5. Education:
   1. ensuring the commencement of care and development of young children prior to education under section 54 paragraph two with a view to developing their physical body, mind, discipline, emotion, society and intelligence in accordance with their age free of charge;
   2. completing the enactment of a law for the establishment of a fund under section 54 paragraph six within one year from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution;
   3. having a mechanism and a system for producing, screening and developing teaching professionals and instructors to engender a spiritual mindset of being a teacher, to possess genuine knowledge and competence, and to receive remunerations appropriate to their teaching competence and efficiency, as well as having a mechanism to promote a merit system in the personnel management of teaching professionals;
   4. improving learning and instruction at every level so that students are able to study according to their aptitudes, and improving the structure of relevant agencies with a view to uniformly achieving such a goal at both national level and local level;
6. Economy:
   1. eliminating obstacles and promoting the competitiveness of the country in order that the nation and the people benefit from participation in various economic groups in a sustainable and resilient manner;
   2. establishing a mechanism to promote and support the application of creative ideas and modern technology in the economic development of the country;
   3. improving the taxation system with a view to promoting fairness, reducing disparity, increasing State revenues from various sources in an efficient manner, and improving the system for preparing and expending budgets to be efficient and effective;
   4. establishing a mechanism to promote cooperatives and business operators of all sizes to ensure their appropriate competitiveness and to promote social enterprises and environment-friendly enterprises, as well as establishing a mechanism to increase opportunities for employment and occupation of the people;
7. Other Areas:
   1. having a water resource management system which is efficient, fair and sustainable, with due regard given to every dimension of water demand in combination with environmental and climate change;
   2. ensuring a fair distribution of land holding, as well as an examination of ownership and holding of land throughout the country with a view to systemically solving the problems of land ownership and possessory rights;
   3. establishing a system for managing and disposing solid waste in an efficient and environment-friendly manner, and for recovering such waste for use for other purposes;
   4. adjusting the health security system in order that the people are granted comparable rights and benefits from the management thereof and from access to quality and convenient service;
   5. establishing a primary health care system in which there are family physicians to care for the people in an appropriate proportion.

Section 259

Subject to section 260 and section 261, national reform under this Chapter shall be in accordance with the law on plans and processes for implementation of national reform, which must at least contain procedures for the preparation of plans, participation by the public and relevant agencies, processes for implementing national reform, the evaluation of results of implementation, and a time period for implementing every area of the national reform. Such law shall stipulate that the implementation of each area of reform shall commence within one year from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution, as well as stipulate the outcomes expected to be achieved within a period of five years.

The enactment of the law under paragraph one and the promulgation thereof shall be executed within one hundred and twenty days from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution.

While the law under paragraph one has not yet come into force, State agencies shall implement the reforms based upon their existing duties and powers for the time being.

Section 260

In the amendment to and revision of laws under section 258 d. justice process (4), there shall be one committee appointed by the Council of Ministers consisting of:

1. a qualified member with evident knowledge, integrity and equity who has never been a police official, as the Chairperson;
2. persons who are or were police officials, which must at least include the Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, in the number prescribed by the Council of Ministers, as members;
3. qualified members with evident knowledge, integrity and equity, and who have not been police officials, in the same number as the members under (2), as members;
4. Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Secretary-General of the Court of Justice and Attorney-General, as members.

The Committee under paragraph one shall complete its undertaking within one year from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution.

Upon the expiration of the time limit under paragraph two, if the amendment to and revision of such laws have not been completed, the appointment and transfer of police officials shall be carried out on the basis of seniority in accordance with the rules prescribed by the Council of Ministers and published in the Government Gazette.

Section 261

In respect of the reform under section 258 e. education, there shall be one independent committee appointed by the Council of Ministers to carry out studies and prepare relevant recommendations and draft laws for achieving the goal, and to present them to the Council of Ministers for implementation.

The Council of Ministers shall complete the appointment of the committee under paragraph one within sixty days from the date of the promulgation of this Constitution, and the Committee shall complete the studies and preparation of the recommendations and draft laws and present them to the Council of Ministers within two years from the date of appointment.