BANGKOK: Thailand is marking the fifth year of its latest Constitution in a few months, but political analysts here say the country is still learning how to make best use of its democratic features.

Among the features of the 1997 ‘People’s Constitution’ are independent agencies, whose function is to protect the rights and liberties of citizens in this country of more than 60 million people.

“People often say the “New Constitution”, referring to the good political patterns in other countries, could not solve “Thai” problems,” said Issra Nithitanprapas, president of the Constitutional Court, one of the independent agencies created under the new charter.

“They argue that the laws best for other countries do not mean they would be best for Thailand,” he told a seminar this week on the role of constitutional organs in protecting freedoms, organised by the Constitutional Court and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer foundation.

But “the new laws were purposely written to correct long repeated and unsolved problems of the country on corruption, red tape and concept of human rights,” Issra said. “The critical ideas on the new constitution are, in fact, not preferable for our political reforms.”

Apart from the Constitutional Court, the other independent agencies at the seminar were the Administrative Court, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, the Office of the Ombudsman, secretariat of the Senate and the Supreme Court.

The independence of these bodies is guaranteed by the constitution, which created some new agencies and strengthened existing ones.

The Constitutional Court itself has had its independence - guaranteed by the constitution - tested by no less than cases involving the top officials of this country.

In a high-profile case last year, the court dealt with charges that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had, during an earlier stint in the government, violated anti-graft laws by transferring $98.4 million in assets to his driver, domestic worker and security guard.

This was done allegedly with the aim of concealing the assets and evading taxes on them.

In August last year, eight out of 15 judges of the court voted to find Thaksin, who had just won a clear majority of seats in parliamentary elections in January, not guilty in the case.—Dawn/InterPress Service.