Human rights activists and legal experts yesterday demanded the military- installed government dump the newly proposed internal security bill, saying it gave too much power to the military.

The bill, if passed into law, would allow the junta "to perpetuate its power to control the country forever," claimed Prinya Thewanaruemitkul, a law academic from Thammasat University.

The Cabinet last week approved a proposal from the Council for National Security to have a new security law to give more power to the military to control the Kingdom.

The bill is now being considered by the Council of State, the government legal advisory body, before going to the National Legislative Assembly to be passed as a law.

The bill stems from an idea to restore the role of the International Security Operation Command (Isoc) after it diminished due to abolition of the anti-communist law years ago.

Lecturer Prinya said the bill gives full authority and too much power to the Army chief, as the director of Isoc, to violate many basic human rights of the people.

Article 25 of the bill authorised the Army chief to control the movement of people, prohibit demonstrations, impose an unlimited curfew and control the trade in goods, he said.

The Army chief would have power over all state agencies and no single judicial authority would be able to counter that.

"This government should not issue such a law as it is against the rules of law and democratic principles," he said.

"Even the bad mannered junta who staged the coup in 1991 never issued such an authoritarian law," said Prinya, a former student activist who played a key role in the bloody uprising to overthrow the military rulers in 1992.

Army chief Sonthi Boon-yaratglin, who is also the junta chief, defended the bill, saying neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore also had internal security

Acts that could heavily limit freedoms and rights of the people, but the laws helped keep their respective societies in order.

"Singapore and Malaysia are developed, their people are happy. I think we have to look at the big picture. We have our own norms and culture, we don't need to listen to outsiders who criticise our human rights and democracy," said Sonthi said during a television programme "Siam This Morning" when asked about Thailand's worsening human rights reputation. Lawyer Pairoj Pholphet, from the Union for Civil Liberty, said the proposed bill would allow the military to intervene in all areas of the nation and went against the rules of law.

The coup-installed government and legislative body had no legitimacy to issue any law to limit the basic rights of the people, as they were not elected representatives of the people, Pairoj said.

Pro-junta activist Pibhop Thongchai demanded that the bill be rejected by all concerned parties - including the government and legislative body - because it went against the basic principles of democracy.

"All democracy lovers who are now sitting in the junta-backed Cabinet, the National Assembly and the constitution drafting panel should resign if the bill comes into force," he said.

"To that extent, we also should reject the junta's constitution as its basic principle of guaranteeing rights will be undermined by the new security law," he said.

Supalak G Khundee

The Nation