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No referendum, No coup instead of voting no against draft Constitution

At a seminar at Thammasat University on last Sunday, I commented that if we just call on the people to vote 'no' against the CNS draft Constitution, there will be several problems consequentially.

 

Firstly, to vote in the referendum is to commit ourselves to or accept, in theory, the referendum and the whole process that produces the draft charter--the coup d'etat, the tearing up of the previous Constitution, the junta-installed Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA), etc., although we 'reject' the draft.

 

As a consequence, besides that being a legitimization of the process, if it turns out that the majority vote for the draft, then we have to accept the result, in principle.    

 

I suggested at the seminar that if we are to reject the whole process, or in effect to reject the coup, the best way is to 'tear up' the ballots rather than just vote 'no'.   I think to 'burn' the ballots would be more original, as Chaiyan Chaiyaporn has made the 'tearing up' a shameful act instead of a splendid gesture of protest.

 

However, I said that I did not wish anyone would 'tear up' or 'burn' the ballots because of the risk of being arrested and jailed--particularly considering how the judicial power tends to be used these days, that would unnecessarily make trouble.

 

At the seminar, I proposed an idea that instead of calling on the people to vote 'no', we better campaign not to vote at all, to protest the referendum and the whole process.

 

But on a serious second thought I have a new proposal to which any comments are welcome as follows:

 

(1)  I think the option of 'tearing up' or 'burning' the ballots should not be overlooked or dismissed for now.   I have come to see that the 'tearing-up/burning' of a certain number of ballots could be a very strong message of protest, especially if that is done by 'public figures' with creditability.   That would make very good public relations for the main act of protest in 2.

(2) The main activity should be to spoil the ballots by marking a cross on the whole paper and writing 'CNS Get Out'.  

(3) Of course, combined with the number of people who vote 'no', all the votes against the draft charter, including those who reject the coup and those who just dislike the draft, will get a large portion of the whole cast votes.   It means spoiling the ballots will not affect the overall rejecting votes; my previous proposal to boycott the referendum has this shortcoming as the government will count only the cast votes.

For example, if 30% of the voters spoil the ballots, another 30% vote 'no', and the rest 40% vote 'yes', the 'yes' votes would still remain a minority of the referendum.   And the draft charter should be 'dropped'.  The 'spoiled ballots' will still affect the outcome.

 

(In case the government-CNS foresees this and pass the law to count only the valid ballots, I think this tactic still works, because if they choose to do just that, that would expose the corrupt nature of this referendum more obviously; as no referendum anywhere else count only on the majority of valid ballots, but the majority of all the ballots.)

 

(4) We have to publicize the rejection of the whole process, and have to point out that a referendum on any laws, especially a Constitution, must only be done under Democracy ; that is, there must be political parties and freedom in which all sides can run their political campaigns freely on every issue.  A referendum must not be done under the dictatorial rule, barring freedom of speech and controlling the media as of now.  

Campaign slogans could be like these:

'No Constitution Dictated by the Coup'

'Reject the Junta's Constitution by Spoiling the Ballots'

'Reject the Coup, Spoil the Constitution Ballots'

'Referendum under Dictatorial Rule is Bogus'

 

Etc.

 

(5) If the result comes out in favor of the draft Constitution (for example, 20% spoiled, 20% no, and 60% yes), we will still continue to fight on, saying that the whole referendum is not democratic.  We can say that we have never accepted the referendum under the dictatorial rule in the first place .  We have never had an opportunity to truly campaign on the issue under the dictatorial grip, and we had a very limited means to campaign to spoil the ballots.   (I am certain that the upcoming referendum law will ban any attempt to reject the draft Constitution, including this article.)  And we can go on fighting the coup under such banners:

'Constitution of Dictatorship is Null and Void'

'Return the 1997 Constitution'

'Scrap the Coup's Constitution' 

 

Somsak Jeamtheerasakun

History Department, Faculty of Arts, Thammasat University

 


 

 

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