Cultural Politics of Thailand’s Constitutional Referendum in 2016

Abstract

This research aims at studying the Thailand’s referendum in 2016. Researcher hypothesizes that the referendum, called by the military government, is used as a political tool to make legitimate constitution. The military government attempts to take control of the civil society and take over the political society. It leads to research questions: how does the junta government define the constitution?, and what is the process of constructing referendum discourse? The qualitative methodology is used by applying content analysis of three newspapers, together with observation and in-depth interview by adopting the concept of cultural politics. The result of study shows that the junta gives 4 political meanings to the referendum 1) To be a process to get the draft constitution 'approved' 2) To raise awareness among the public about the constitution 3) To create an image of having the public involved and not simply being a decision taken by a group of people, in the establishment of the constitution after the coup. This makes the draft constitution more sacred 4) To push ‘junta’s hidden agenda’ as seen in the annex questions which allows a prime minister to be selected by senators. (Whether or not the appointed senate should be allowed to join the Lower house in selecting a prime minister) Moreover, a draft charter becomes a political space and varies by the negotiation which the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has the most powerful. Campaigning against the draft in the run-up to the referendum is banned. About 530,000 officers are deployed to explain the draft and maintain order.