The forum 'Looking at the new senators, hope or new crisis?' agreed that the EC should announce the results first and then vote them out later, fearing that the term of the old senators would be extended. They pointed out that the Senate meeting should not be held on July 8. They believe that the new senators, despite their ugly looks, have hope. They pointed out that the constitution may be amended to change the election system. 'Nantana' was hurt by the abundance of blue-shirt senators, and viewed the definition of the battle as 'brutal, backstabbing, and collusion.' They will meet with 30 prospective senators with similar ideologies today. They are considering selecting an independent organization to present their visions like a beauty pageant. The Thai Journalists Association organized a seminar at Ratchadamnoen on the topic of 'Looking at the new senators: hope or a new crisis?' with Mr. Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University; Mr. Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a form er Election Commissioner; Mrs. Nantana Nanthawaropas, a prospective senator; and Mr. Chaiyong Maneerungsakul, a prospective senator. The discussion took place after more than 10 days had passed since the senator election, but the EC had not yet announced the results. Mr. Prinya said that this senator selection system is the most complicated, but it resulted in the least number of representatives of the Thai people. It is not balanced among the provinces. Buriram Province received the most senators, 14 people, so it does not reflect the true intention. He believes that it has been set up, and in the end, whoever can set up the most will have an advantage. The senators do not only have the power to screen laws, but must also approve those holding positions in independent organizations. This is an incentive for the big house network to come in. When the election is unfair and there is a big house network, we have to see if the EC dares to announce the results. But if they do not, it will be like extending the c urrent senators' term. Mr. Prinya also mentioned the current issue of whether the EC can announce the results of the senators' election first and then vote them out later, or whether they have to wait until all 200 people are elected at once, because the law does not state that 95 percent can be announced like MPs. There is also another debate about whether the reserve list of 100 senators can be promoted to replace the missing ones. But what is unclear is that the EC has not communicated and has gone silent. It should announce how many days the EC will take to process. As for the news about the blue senators, is it true or not? Mr. Prinya said that it is a prediction and assumption with the connection of the network. However, he does not want to conclude that this senator group is useless and must be elected again. The new senator group is a hope because they come from many sources. Even though there are accusations, the EC should hurry to announce the results because if they have to wait for everyone to b e pure and clean, they may have to wait over a year, which will drag on for the current senator group. In the near future, there will be the election of 2 more Constitutional Court judges, so it may be seen that it is dragging on for this reason. As for the senator meeting on July 8, it must be asked whether it is a matter of conflict of interest or not. Mr. Prinya concluded that this system of electing senators should be the last. There should be a move to amend the constitution because it is something that everyone agrees on. Nang Nantana said that she was personally noticed that she was not a media person, but her first job was media. She knew that it was a low-paying job, with honor and dignity. She had food but no money to spend. She confirmed that she would push for this issue because the income of media is low, but she had to wait for the EC to approve it first. She strongly agreed that the EC should announce the approval first and then take action later because the old senators were working hard now , arranging a meeting to inspect the new senators, even though the role and duty of the senators is to screen laws. If they can get in, they might inspect the old senators as well. She thought that the old senators should end their roles out of courtesy, even though the EC has not yet announced the approval. Nang Nantana also mentioned that the selection of the senators this time was 'brutal, backstabbing, and collusion.' They had to get through the checkpoints to receive the awards. The brutality involved eliminating the strengths of the candidates with good profiles and reputations from the self-selection round. This is why it can be seen that the famous senator candidates will be eliminated. As for backstabbing, the first round of selection requires handshaking, but the next round requires tricking people into choosing. There was backstabbing and pointing fingers at each other in the middle of the circle. In the end, there was collusion because when the scores came out, there was a group that got a lot of outstanding scores in a row. Ms. Nantana said that she tried to gather a group of about 30 senators with the same ideology to meet and discuss and exchange ideas internally today. As for the rumor that the Blue Line senators came in the most, this is a painful story and it is true. As for whether the new senators will be a new hope or a new crisis, Nang Nantana stated that even though this group of senators is not pretty, they do not all come from the same source. Any voting will not go in the same direction. Therefore, there is no hope left. The new generation of senators must communicate with the people. The new senators are transparent, communicate, and serve the people. They are ready to propose that the agenda for selecting an independent organization should include a vision statement like a beauty pageant, and broadcast the Senate meeting live so that the people can receive information, not secretly select each other. Mr. Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, former EC member, said that the NRC designed the elect ion of the senators this time to be free from interference from capital groups. Therefore, 20 professional groups were given the choice and there was a process for both self-selection and cross-selection to prevent collusion. But today, we have the answer that we have some of these things, but not all of them. And the representation of professional groups is loose, which did not occur at the constitutional level. But it is caused by the regulations that allow for the improvement of professions to be certified, causing the application to be based on the applicants and the person who controls where they will go, rather than the background, knowledge, abilities, and aptitude of each person. Mr. Somchai continued that this group of senators was clearly interfered by political parties and was not neutral. This could be observed from the election at the district level. We saw that they applied without wanting to be senators, but applied to change the motor, receiving a fee of approximately 2,500 baht, which the vi llagers thought was worth a day's work, by voting to pass the first round. Then, we would like the EC to investigate whether a lot of blank papers were sent in for the second round, resulting in a large number of spoiled ballots because the employer only said, 'Just vote in the first round.' When it comes to the national level, there will be ready-made ballot papers for all 20 groups. No matter which group you get, you will be given a ballot paper. Some of the papers are the names of people who really want them, but some of the papers come from agreements and requests for benefits, such as if they want us to support them, they can pay to use this income to spend. This shows the results of the votes, which are groups with high scores, who vote in similar groups. Mr. Somchai pointed out that the future of the Senate still has hope, but the future of Thai politics is considered critical. The new Senate still has hope. Not all of them are good-looking, but there are many good-looking. Don't think that they can't do their jobs. There are suspicious backgrounds. We have to accept the consequences and the rules that have occurred, which will be resolved in the future. He also saw that the Senate meeting on July 8th, why would they be diligent? He questioned the establishment of a special committee to consider, study, and inspect the selection of 67 Senators. Mr. Chaiyong said that the selection of senators this time found that the candidates had studied the law and prepared themselves sufficiently. They considered which groups to apply to and would have a chance of being selected. For example, in the group of 18 media, it was found that radio hosts, loudspeaker announcers, and villagers at the provincial level were selected to apply in districts with few applicants because this group did not have applicants in every district. As a result, the candidates were able to pass through to the second round immediately, which was a method of people who did not come from the political side, a way of thinking like Srithanonchai. He personally observed that those who passed the round were those who knew and interacted with others, had studied the law, and the election system, so they passed. Even though there were some irregularities among the senators, he still saw hope because from checking the 200 names, there were about 20 people who did not match the description, which was considered a minority. He personally saw that having senators who were representatives of professional groups was a good thing and a hope for the country, not just because they were knowledgeable. It can be seen that the current senators had good profiles but never came out to speak or express any opinions. Therefore, everyone was equal. The new senators should not be as bad as many people fear. Mr. Chaiyong also believes that Thailand is still unable to leave the resolution of the crisis to the Senate this time, but this Senate may be able to drive and solve some problems better than before, and believes that it is necessary to amend the constitution if there is a way, which he personally supports. -319-Thai News Agency Source: Thai News Agency