Die Zivilgesellschaft soll direkt an Staat und
Regierung teilnehmen dürfen. Diese Forderung wird häufig
gestellt, nie erfüllt – fast nie. In Thailand wurde eine moderne
zivilgesellschaftliche Körperschaft geschaffen, die Regierung
und Parlament berät sowie Epertisen erstellt. Ihre Mitglieder
kommen zum Teil aus dem Graswurzel-Sektor der Gesellschaft.
Kriengsak Chareonwongsak aus Bangkok ist Mitglied dieses
Gremiums und beantwortet unten auf Englisch die wichtigsten
Fragen dazu, diskutiert kritisch pro und contra – vielen Dank!
"NESAC"
1. What is it?
* The organization is called the "National Economic and
Social Advisory Council (NESAC)"
* First established in Thailand in 2001 in line with the
Constitution B.E. 2540.
2. What are the principles and reasons for establishing NESAC?
* The establishment of NESAC was initiated as a concept of
the France Economic and Social Council
o An organization established under the French
Constitution,
o With authority to give opinions to the government in
relation to drafts of law proposed by the government;
o Gives opinions on drafts of law as delegated for
consideration by the Assembly of the Council;
o Advises on economic and social problems as requested by
the government;
o Advises on plans or drafts of law for economic and social
projects, which the government must propose to the Council.
* The Council of Constitution Draft, the organization
established to draft a new Thai constitution, found the
following problems of national administration conducted by past
governments:
o Policy operation conducted by those governments was not
successive,
o Process of government policy setting was not holistic:
* No problems and suggestions were aired by
whole groups of people;
* The policy probably operated to patronize
some interest groups;
* Neglected to solve the problems of
grass-roots people.
* So the Council of Constitution Draft proposed two new
ideas for the constitution:
o Basic policies of the State: The provision in Chapter 5
of the Constitution (Section 71-89),
* As a guideline for the government in national
administration and enactment.
* Enabling governments to process policies
successively.
o NESAC (Section 89)
* Gives consultancy on the government's
performance according to the basic policies of the state,
* Mobilizes people to participate in national
administration primarily based on fairness and transparency.
3. What are the duties of NESAC?
* NESAC has the following duties:
o To consider and acknowledge people's petitions,
particularly on national economic and social issues for the sake
of proceeding based on basic policies of the state;
o To give advice and consultancy to the cabinet related to
economic and social problems for the sake of proceeding based on
basic policies of the state;
o To give opinions on the national economic and social
development plan and other plans as lawfully provided for
proposal to the Advisory Council prior to promulgation;
o To give consultancy or opinions on any matter that the
cabinet deems appropriate and to hear opinions accompanying the
consideration of policy setting in such matters;
o To consider the studied preparation of an advisory report
proposed to the cabinet for the setting of guidelines on
national economic and social policies and appropriate matters.
* NESAC has the following authoritative aspects:
o It is an organization reflecting economic and social
problems;
o Negotiates with no interest of any person or group;
o Gives opinions and advice to the government only;
o Has no authority to make decisions nor to force the
government to comply with them;
o The government must show their reaction to NESAC's
opinions and advice;
o Able to ask for information from government agencies or
to call any officer to clarify the information.
4. What are the components and background of NESAC?
* NESAC consists totally of 99 members.
o Members are elected by organizations that represent
people :
* 50 persons from the economic sector,
* 19 persons from the social sector,
* 16 persons from the resource base sector,
* 14 persons are prominent persons and experts
in Thai society
o Having a 3-year period in the position and a maximum of 2
consecutive periods.
* How to recruit and select the Advisory Council:
o Request applications from people organizations that want
to offer representatives to be NESAC candidates.
* These organizations must be strong and
contain continuous administration and operation,
* Both official and non-official organizations.
* In 2001, more than 6,213 organizations
applied for membership of NESAC.
o The selection committee selects organizations that meet
the provided qualification.
o The selection committee selects representatives from
organizations for the final election.
o Representatives who pass the final election (685 persons)
elect members among themselves, divided into 14 subgroups:
* The first group of NESAC consists of reputable persons,
e.g.
o Former prime minister
o Former deputy minister of education
o Former senator
o Former senior official
o University lecturer
o Reputable NGO leader
o Businessman
o Leader from a minority group
* I am one of the 99 persons
o Elected from the experts and prominent persons sector
o With a second ranking out of 14 experts
5. How does the structure and system in NESAC work?
* The operational structure of NESAC consists of:
o One chairman and 2 vice-chairmen elected by the assembly
of NESAC.
o NESAC appoints 13 permanent commissions and over 30
temporary commissions as follows:
o The 13 permanent commissions:
* the agriculture and cooperative commission
* the economic, commerce and industry
commission
* the science, technology, environment and
energy commission
* the education, religion, arts and culture
commission
* the public health and development of life
quality commission
* the labor and social welfare
o The temporary commissions:
* Drafting of conference regulations of the
NESAC commission
* Public Relations commission
* NESAC seal commission
* NESAC annual report commission
* Study of retail business commission
o The secretary-general office of NESAC is the "Office of
the National Economic and Social Advisory Council."
* The National Economic and Social Development
Council (NESDC) functioned initially as the secretary-general
office,
* But now the secretary-general office is
separated from NESDC.
* The secretary-general and officers are
government officials and employees.
* System of operations:
o The commission will perform study, plus the hearing and
preparation of opinions and advice:
* Pubic hearings
* Exploration and field survey
* Research
* The holding of conferences and seminars
o The Office does administration and facilitates working
membership.
o The commissions' proposals will be put forward for
consideration at the general conference of NESAC (99 persons),
held every 2 weeks.
o Before submitting opinions and advice to the cabinet.
o The cabinet will consider NESAC's opinions and advice and
reply, as well as publish NESAC's opinions and the cabinet's
reply for the general public.
6. What are your duties on the Advisory Council?
* Each member can function in two permanent commissions.
o I am Chairman of the Education, Religion, Arts and
Culture Commission,
o Vice Chairman of the Economic, Commerce and Industry
Commission,
o And a committee member of several temporary commissions.
* During the period of joining the Advisory Council, my
performance included:
o Preparing opinions and advice and proposing these to the
cabinet in 8 out of 56 reports submitted to the cabinet by the
Advisory Council;
o Holding more than 20 seminars; and
o Preparing 22 proposals to develop the operation of NESAC.
7. What kind of experience have political researchers collected?
* There is still little research relating to NESAC in
Thailand. Two major items are the following:
o Tiwa Ngernyuang (1995) made research related to the
structural form of economic and social consultancy and advice,
and stated that the Constitution should contain the provision of
the economic and social council.
* It is important and necessary to prepare
economic and social development plans.
* The plan shapes the framework,
direction and policies of economic and social development.
* Budgetary provision is mostly
subject to the strategy provided in the plan.
* The plan optimizes the usage of
limited resources.
* The economic order enables us to
see a trend to the government's economic development.
* It is a public document that may
be verified by the public and private sectors.
* The plan arises from hearing
views on the administration, from the parliament and the people.
* It is necessary to form an economic
consultancy and advisory organization.
* This is an organization that
gathers views, jointly considers and presents ideas about the
plan.
* Components of the organization
must be varied and represent several careers.
* It should be independent and its
advice and views must be bound to public interests.
* The limit of authority is made
clear and violates no decision-making power of the political
sector.
* It is open wide for the
involvement of all who wish to participate.
* It also works closely with the
legislative sector by sending a representative to explain in
parliament and parliament has to appoint the Commission of
Economic and Social Development Plans to deal with it.
o Rangsan Thanapornpan (2004) analyzed that from the view
of economics it was unnecessary to have NESAC.
* It is unnatural to force the setting of an
Advisory Council in political society because:
* The political party that won the
election is competent to find its own advisors. Significantly,
its power naturally attracts advisors.
* The government may hear the
advice of the Advisory Council, or otherwise. The Constitution
does not force the government to hear and follow any comment of
the Advisory Council.
* NESAC has inefficient organizational
management.
* It puts the Office of the
Advisory Council under the bureaucratic system.
* The too-many and ungainly 99
members contain no efficiency in giving advice.
* Having NESAC is a financial burden because
its operation cost is quite high.
* It is expected that it will wind up very
soon, just like the National Economic Council established in
1950 that needed to be changed into the National Economic
Development Council later.
8. Please evaluate the past 3-year performance of the Advisory
Council from your point of view.
* In addition to the role of preparing views and advice for
the cabinet, as provided by the law,
* I proposed further roles that NESAC should have operated
in Thai economic and social development, as follows:
o The role of presenting vision for national economic and
social development,
o The role of presenting models for desirable national
development,
o The role of presenting strategic plans for national
development,
o The role of persuading several social sectors to join the
commission,
o The role of jointly considering the economic and social
development plan (together with the National Economic and Social
Development Council),
o The role of attending the MP meetings,
o The role of publicizing information and hearing people's
views,
o The role of supervising policy continuity,
o The role of evaluating its own performance,
o The role of explaining the principles of the Advisory
Council.
* After having worked for 3 years, I find that:
o NESAC prepared 56 issues of views and advice to the
cabinet.
* Considering and giving comments on the draft
of the 9th National Economic and Social Development Plan.
* It gave no comments on other plans provided
by the law because no law states which plan NESAC has to given
comments on before its declaration.
* The cabinet assigned NESAC to consider one
case,
* While there were 54 cases NESAC saw that were
very important and should have been proposed to the cabinet.
* NESAC was trustworthy and known by people at
a certain level, anyway not so much.
o But as for the additional roles proposed by me, NESAC
could only perform them a bit because of the following
obstacles:
* The government did not pay much attention to
the views and advice of NESAC because the Prime Minister had his
own advisors and preferred their comments.
* There was no enforcement for the government
to comply with proposals or to answer them completely.
* The government provided limited budget to
NESAC. This was a problem that took place for every independent
organization established under the Constitution.
* The Office did not have enough
personnel and some did not fit their work.
* NESAC had no regular scholars
serving in the commissions, so productivity was limited both in
quality and quantity.
* NESAC lacked materials and
equipment for working, particularly operation rooms for the
commissions.
* The Secretary General and officers had no
chain of command to NESAC members.
* Its organization chart and office
system did not meet its members' needs.
* There was a conflict between
members and the office.
* The operation was based on
bureaucratic regulations.
* Many NESAC members were "practitioners" in
NGOs but inexperienced in working in terms of policy.
* There was no coordination among commissions,
so their operations were scattered.
* Its members' operation was out of
procedure, e.g. regulations on meetings, etc.
* They lacked priority on
operations, e.g. the budget provision was divided equally
between every commission.
* The process of operation was too long, so the
preparation of views and advice could not run after government
operations that issued many policies and managed work quickly.
* It lacked interlinks to coordinate with
network organizations.
* Thus, they could assimilate
nobody to assist with the work because they could not set up a
commission.
* They lacked an efficient channel
to communicate public recognition of the performance of NESAC.
* They lacked a database for
hearing problems and following up government operations.
9. What should be improved to strengthen NESAC's operation:
* Set conditions to coordinate with the government, e.g.
o Set a condition that the cabinet shall disclose the views
and advice of NESAC as well as the cabinet's considerations
through the media, and publicize it in the government gazette.
o The Prime Minister has to explain and answer the
questions of NESAC at least once a year.
o Budget should be provided sufficiently for NESAC.
* Manage the media, e.g. request a regular time when the
government media communicates with the public.
* Prepare composite indices for government performance
based on the State's Basic Policies.
* Prepare a competent academic database that fits NESAC
operations.
* Create activities that continually interlink with
network.
o Communicate with members regularly through NESAC's
newsletter,
o Function as a center and information hub for coordinating
with network organizations,
o Be open for outsourced persons to hold positions in NESAC
in order to attract more people to join the work.
* Exercise potential and fully utilize the members'
network, as well as put every member in the right position
according to his/her strengths.
* Systemize coordination among commissions: Plan operations
together and the common usage of resources.
* Manage NESAC's operation process to be able to consider
urgent cases very quickly.
* Amend the law that the office shall be subject to the
command of NESAC's chairman.
* Arrange sufficient personnel and equipment for the
operation of each commission.
o Sufficient regular secretaries serving in the
commissions,
o Regular scholars serving in the commissions, and
o Operation rooms for the commissions.
10. Are there any links on the Internet, which I could use for
getting more information?
* Information relating to NESAC and its performance may be
searched in
http://www.nesac.or.th (only in Thai).
Prof Dr Kriengsak Chareonwongsak MP [mailto:kriengsak@kriengsak.com]
Website:
http://www.kriengsak.com |
