Letters, e-mails used to boost 'worthy' candidates
people campaign in Khon Kaen yesterday to encourage people to vote in tomorrow’s Senate election.
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Anxious about not getting enough independent candidates into the upper house to scrutinise the Thaksin regime, letters, e-mails and SMS messages are being used to persuade people to vote for certain candidates tomorrow.
Senate candidates are barred by law from conducting election campaigns. Sticking to the traditional form of letter writing is octogenarian social critic Sulak Sivaraksa, who has sent hundreds of letters with his personal signature urging people whom he knows to vote for and help promote candidate number 183 - Suraphong Jayanama. Sulak explains why people should vote for Suraphong, a former senior diplomat: "So that the Senate will have people who are knowledgeable about foreign affairs to monitor the government and inform the Senate as well as the public . . . otherwise we'll easily fall prey to and be manipulated by transnational corporations and super powers like the imperialist USA and China." The social critic, who was an advisor to the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), said Suraphong was not well known locally as he had spent much of his career abroad as ambassador to Germany, South Africa and Vietnam respectively, but assured receivers of his letter that Suraphong was an honourable man who would place public interest above his own. The letter also contained a few colourful pictures and a short profile of the candidate. Meanwhile, human rights activist Sarawut Pratoomraj has sent out e-mails informing his circle of friends and colleagues that he had already cast an advance vote for candidate number 241, Rosana Tositrakul. Rosana, a consumer-protection activist, is widely known for her recent and successful role in stopping the privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), through a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Administration Court. Rosana is also a leading anti-Thaksin crusader associated with the PAD and has been involved in an anti-corruption campaign. Sarawut, who sent the e-mail a few days ago, did not specify that everyone should vote for Rosana, but that people should vote for "good and hard working senatorial candidates only". While more such solicitations have been made through various media, the Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel), chose to circulate a "black list" of candidates instead. The election observer stated in its e-mail that it had compiled a background list of "some interesting candidates that can be linked to politicians . Anfrel said it might keep the list for future post-election reference to scrutinise these people.
Pravit Rojanaphruk The Nation
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