Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

166 KPI Congress XI
create a public participation process at both national level and local level.
Expansion of direct democracy is to create direct participation of the
people in politics such as providing for people’s initiatives in the
legislation, the right to recall high level administrators and the right to
have a referendum, etc.
Apart from that, at least two important laws have been issued to
enhance and support civil politics: the Council for Political Development
Act 2008 and the Council of Community Organizations Act 2007.
More than two years after the promulgation of 2007 constitution, it
has been found that different pressure groups in the Thai society have
pushed for civil politics in the context of social and political conflicts.
The creation and establishment of civil politics, in terms of institutionalization,
expressed in principle and objective in the constitution seems to
be beyond the imagination of social and political pressure groups
including the main political institutions like Parliament and the
government. For example, ancillary laws that were to be issued within
one or two years in accordance with the constitution’s provisions have
not been passed, and there has been very little progress. Besides, some
principles, such as existence of an independent environmental
organization, etc., have deviated from the constitution’s objective. Both
of these ancillary laws to enhance civil politics still are unable to move
effectively.
Institutionalization and mechanisms of civil politics are instead only
of interest as political tools for each side to pursue their own short term
political aims. There is evidently no intention to instill civil politics in
society in order to provide a space for people to effectively push for the
public policy and monitor the performance of state both at national and
local level, which are essential to create civil politics and prolong
democracy.