Composition and Legislative Functions of the 24th National Assembly of Thailand: Unification, Evidence, Information and Assessment-based Opinion

Abstract

     The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the composition and legislative functions performed by the 24th National Assembly of Thailand in the period of August 2011 to April 2013. Evaluation is based on integration of collected data, evidence, and various opinions.It is evident that although selection of National Assembly members is based on constituency-based and proportional representation election, members of the assembly
are come from a limited range of sectors, and some sectors are poorly-represented, particularly women and the disadvantaged. Thus, it is not true representation. For legislative performance, the National Assembly has served its roles in procedures of bill enactment, i.e., introduction, debate, consideration, amendment, and voting. All of these may reflect efficient quantitative performance. However, the essence of several bills did not serve the true interests of the people. Because there was a lack of awareness of public needs and little evaluation of public acceptance, and because underlying problems and public interests were overlooked during each step in the process of bill consideration, public trust and confidence in the assembly diminished. The key to solve this problem and regain public trust and confidence depends solely on realization and
awareness on the part of MPs of both opposition and government parties as well as members of the Senate.