Road map of political reform starts

Somchai was speaking after his meeting with House Speaker Chai Chidchob, Senate Speaker Prasopsuk Boondet and opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajaiva. Their talks have been dubbed the quadrupartite consultation to overcome the political turmoil.

"It has been agreed today that the amending of Article 291 is the best way to involve the people in the reform process by having their representatives sitting on the CDA," he said.

All parties concerned have pinned their hopes that the political reform will put politics back on course, he said. The prime minister vowed to support the work of the CDA and not to meddle with the revamp of the political system.

He said his government had no ulterior motive to rig the reforms in its favour. He wanted to see change and not cling to the old politics as usual.

In regard to a draft charter spearheaded by anti-coup activist Weng Tojirakarn, he said it would be up to the House to decide whether to drop it or move on with a debate. This is the discretion of MPs in which the government could not interfere, he said.

A number of MPs from the People Power Party have sponsored a motion to sanction the draft as a starting-off point for charter rewrite, but the House has yet to debate the issue.

House Speaker Chai said he would soon host the meeting to be attended by coalition and opposition leaders in order to discuss details of how the CDA would bring about the reforms.

The meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place on Monday.

Opposition leader Abhisit said the 1995-1996 model of the charter rewrite might be the blueprint for the soon-to-be-formed CDA.

"Everyone is duty-bound to ensure the public participation in every step of the reform process," he said.

The ultimate goal is to ensure that the political reform will reflect on the people's aspirations.

Abhisit said the prime minister and the six coalition parties had a joint responsibility to deal with the Weng draft which might hamper the CDA if it was to remain on the House floor.

He said he anticipated that it might take two weeks to amend Article 291 and that the CDA might take about seven months to complete the charter rewrite.

He urged the People's Alliance for Democracy to allow time to review the outcome instead of making an outright rejection of the political reform.

"The only way to bring about new politics is through the charter rewrite, hence all sides should get involved rather than shut doors," he said.

Abhisit also suggested for political reform to go one step beyond the charter rewrite by reviewing the justice system. The prime minister had not responded to his idea, he said.