The spokesman for the Constitution Drafting Committee on Tuesday played down concerns from village and subdistrict administrators that sections of the draft constitution aimed at reforming local government would end their careers, saying their status will not change.
Village heads, subdistrict chiefs and deputy district bosses from across the country on Monday petitioned Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, National Reform Council chairman Thienchay Kiranandana and CDC chairman Borwornsak Uwanno to cut three sections in the draft -- 82(3), 284(5) and 285 -- which reallocate authority among local administrative organisations from the village to provincial level.
The protesters believe those sections call for dissolution of regional administrations. They are concerned that once local administrative organisations are reorganised, they will lose their jobs.
Spokesman Kamnoon Sidhisamarn confirmed that the draft preserved the status of sub-district and village chiefs as defined by the Local Administration Act, but admitted that they and other bureaucrats working for regional administrations would be affected by reforms outlined in sections 284(5) and 285.
He said the changes would facilitate future development and would not happen anytime soon as scrutiny of the constitutional draft continues. The two reform sections had been proposed by the National Reform Council's reform committees, he said.
Pairote Promsarn, an NRC member working on local-administration reform, announced his support for the protesters and pledged to propose that sections 284(5) and 285 be left out and codified in an organic law.
He said he understood the protesters' feelings that, under the two sections, regional bureaucrats would have no active roles in local administration.
Sections 284(5) and 285 seek to introduce a law and facilitate a mechanism to create local administrative organisations across each province within a year after the new constitution takes effect.
Section 82(3) calls for decentralisation and reallocates authority among central, regional and local administrators. It outlines the steps to transform provinces, when ready, into large-scale local administrative organisation.
Mr Pairote said sections 284(5) and 285 could be scrapped because section 82(3) sufficiently covered local-administration reform.
Meanwhile, a group of bureaucrats and members of local administrative bodies led by Wijarn Kunchanarat submitted a letter to Mr Borwornsak indicating their support for the draft.
Mr Wijarn, who heads an association for provincial administrative organisation workers, slammed the tambon chiefs and village heads who came out to protest yesterday. He said the draft has been well designed to facilitate decentralisation and accused the protesters of opposing it because they are worried that their positions and authority would be diminished.