One More Step

South Viet Nam's 117-Deputy Constituent Assembly last week moved steadily ahead in its drive to complete the draft of a new national constitution by February.

On the heels of its earlier choice of a presidential form of government, the Assembly deliberated only three hours in its rococo meeting hall in Saigon before voting for a two-chamber legislature. The plan is for a House of Representatives, which would probably act as the major lawmaking body and include 150 members, and a Senate that is expected to become a senior advisory body, with an estimated 30 "elders." With bicameralism, said the committee chairman who recommended it, "the people will have a wide representation, and it will be difficult for the government to buy up the legislature."

To interpret the law, the Assembly voted for an independent judiciary, which will operate on an equal footing with the legislative and executive branches and come under the jurisdiction of a Supreme Court. In the past, South Viet Nam's judiciary has been independent only in theory; in fact, its decisions were heavily influenced by the government.

On a lower level, the Assembly called for the popular election of hamlet, village, city and provincial leaders, as well as their respective councils. Thus the constitution would reduce the power of the central government, which now appoints nearly all local and provincial officials. As the plan's supporters describe it, it would also strike a telling blow in the war against the Viet Cong. "Since the military took power," said one delegate, "we have seen only corruption at the local and central levels because everyone is appointed. This is an ideological war. People only like men they have elected. This means democracy, and democracy means a quicker halt to the war."

The central government, however, would still have a loud voice in local matters. Its national police would operate in villages and hamlets, and the government could sack any mayors or provincial chiefs who violate "the constitution, the laws or national policy."

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