It's an exciting time:
"Thai constitution drafters say Senate to be unelected" by Thanyarat Doksone, Associated Press February 27, 2015
BANGKOK — A committee appointed by Thailand’s military rulers is laying the groundwork for a new method of choosing the country’s leaders and lawmakers — and it involves giving voters less power to choose.
Thailand’s new 200-member Senate will be not elected directly by voters and the prime minister will no longer have to be an elected lawmaker, according to the committee that is drafting a new constitution.
The proposals have to be approved by the military-appointed National Reform Council, the Cabinet, and the junta leaders. Critics called them a setback for their hopes for a return to democracy, saying it limits the people’s power represented in Parliament.
Drafting of the constitution is being done by a 36-person committee picked by the junta after it overthrew a civilian government and abolished the last charter in a May coup.
The committee on Thursday agreed that under the new constitution the prime minister, who must receive more than half of the votes from the entire House of Representatives, does not have to be an elected lawmaker, in case of a crisis.
The drafters agreed that ‘‘there should be an option in case the House of Representatives sees that there really is a crisis, under which an outsider who is acceptable from every side can serve as the prime minister to successfully solve the problem,’’ Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, the committee’s spokesman, told reporters.
The committee resolved that prime ministers can only serve for two consecutive terms.
Senators will be chosen from pools of candidates, including former premiers, ex-military leaders, and representatives of professions, another committee spokesman, Lertrat Ratanavanich, said Wednesday. They can only serve one six-year term.
Under the last constitution, half of the 150 senators were elected and the rest appointed.
Analysts said the changes are to limit the power of elected politicians, after years of landslide electoral triumphs by parties allied with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
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Other than the tyranny, is there anything else going on in Thailand?
UPDATE:
"Somali Pirates Release 4 Thai Sailors Held Nearly 5 Years" Associated Press, Feb 27, 2015
Somali pirates have released four Thai sailors who were held hostage for nearly five years, the longest period of captivity of hostages held by Somali pirates, a U.N. official said Friday.
The four released on Wednesday were sailors of the MV Prantalay 12 vessel, a Taiwanese flagged fishing vessel seized by Somali pirates on April 18 2010, said the U.N. Special Representative for Somalia Nicholas Kay.
The ship was used by the pirates as a base before it eventually capsized in July 2011 and the remaining crew members were taken ashore, said Kay.
Six members of the original crew of 24 succumbed to illness and 14 crew members from Myanmar were released to the Puntland Maritime Police authorities and repatriated in May 2011, Kay said in a statement.
The mission to recover the hostages was conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, funded by the Contact Group for Piracy off the Coast of Somalia's Trust Fund, Kay said.
Somali pirates are still holding 26 more hostages, abducted from the FV Naham 3, Kay said....
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