Published on January 18, 2006

While Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was mingling with his rural audience on the second day of his anti-poverty mission in Roi Et’s At Samat district, academics and politicians lamented his case-by-case approach to the problem and said it was unlikely to bring about an effective solution. Due to his authority, it appears he has managed to easily solve the problems of individual villagers by just issuing instructions to local officials and state agencies.

But without such powers, lower-level officials could not take similar action, the critics said.

Sompob Manarangsan, an economics lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, said he did not think a reality show was a good way to solve the poverty problem.

“There’s no quick fix for poverty. Different areas have different problems,” he said, adding that as the leader of the administration, Thaksin should focus on formulating policies.

Pirongrong Ramasuta, of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Communication Arts, said that to tackle poverty, the PM should deal with the problem structurally, and not case-by-case. “This is not a mission to genuinely solve the poverty problem. The premier is not even able to solve each of the individuals’ problems,” she said.

Somkiat Pongpaiboon, a lecturer at Rajabhat Nakhon Ratchasima University, pointed out that Thaksin would not be able to visit all of Thailand’s 80,000 villages and dole out similar fixes to other rural people.

“It’s not that easy. To fight poverty, you have to look at the whole system,” he said.

Some residents of At Samat yesterday said they had not been contacted by any local officials after Thaksin, on the first day of his mission on Monday, prescribed measures to solve their problems.

Thaksin’s opponents have slammed the mission as a “publicity stunt”, saying it was intended to divert attention away from real problems.

Prayong Doklamyai, adviser of the Northern Farmers Federation, said Thaksin had managed to attract media attention for the wrong reasons.

“The live broadcast of Thaksin’s five-day mission has nothing to do with poverty but has gained him a huge amount of publicity,” Prayong said.

At Samat villagers would remain poor after the prime minister ended his visit even though the authorities would make sure their district will emerge in a good light by suppressing the reality of local conditions, he said.

In his play-acting to blend in with villagers, Thaksin was actually trying to escape problems plaguing his government, Democrat Party spokesman Ong-art Klampaiboon said.

“Thaksin’s reality show demonstrates nothing but his superficial attempts to fight poverty by distributing handouts in a social-welfare style,” Ong-art said.

His activities, like sleeping in a Buddhist temple, bathing in a loincloth and sharing his meals with the poor, were all for show but had no bearing on solving poverty, he said.

Although Thaksin has claimed he was conducting distance learning for government officials to follow his lead on how to fight poverty, lower ranking officials could not emulate his acts because they were not as powerful, he said.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva urged the government to make a comprehensive review of poverty-related problems rather than trying to solve each case one at a time, as Thaksin was doing.

“Even though the prime minister’s visit might raise awareness of poverty, relevant issues could not be resolved overnight and I fear attention will lapse after a week,” he said.

Abhisit said Thaksin should evaluate his CEO-style leadership and explain why he had made no headway in eradicating poverty despite his five years in power.

“Thaksin has tried to showcase his At Samat model to fight poverty even though At Samat is not classified as a poor district but enjoys quite a good standard of living,” he said.

Senator Sawai Phramanee said he was puzzled why Thaksin opted to meet a few poor families per day when the country had more than eight million poor people.

“At issue is how to allocate farm land and provide debt relief for the rural poor nation-wide, but the prime minister has spent time talking about individual problems that any government official could handle,” he said.

The government has grouped poverty-related problems into eight categories but has failed to come up with tangible measures to solve them, he said.

Former Mahachon Party leader Anek Laothamatas said Thaksin’s aides should warn him that he risked being lampooned in the media for trying to become a reality star.

“Unless Thaksin realises the need to adjust his style of leadership, he will be confronted with a growing call for his replacement,” Anek said.

Stepping in to defend his party leader, Thai Rak Thai deputy spokesman Pimuk Simaroj said the government did not finance the broadcast of Thaksin’s five-day visit to At Samat.

“The broadcast is being carried out by UBC Channel 16, a cable television operator and not the government,” he said.

Prime Minister Thaksin did not solicit the television coverage and was merely focusing his attention on listening to grievances and trying to tackle the plight of villagers, he said.

Budsarakham Sinlapalavan,

Bancha Khaengkhan

The Nation

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