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Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee announced this week plans to double the budget for a group of so-called "special organisations" to promote a knowledge-based economy after a period of "neglect". Perhaps "neglect" was a bit misleading. The budget for these organisations, which totalled billions of baht, was in fact slashed by the Surayud government.

But with the Surayud government out of the picture and the pendulum swinging back to those who preceded it, getting things back on track appears to be the name of the game.

No one knows how this will translate in real terms but Surapong stated this week that the budget to create a knowledge-based economy would more than double to Bt1.7 billion for the next fiscal year. He said that China spent Bt60 billion last year on supporting its knowledge-based economy, the UK has been funding its own for years, and yet Thailand just started this four years ago. So what's the big deal with the budget hike?

The beneficiaries of the hike, these so-called special organisations, include the Thailand Creative Design Centre (TCDC), the National Discovery Museum Institute, Thailand Knowledge Park, the National Thailand Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences and the Centre for the Promotion of National Strength in Moral Ethics and Values. All are supervised by the Office of Knowledge Management and Development.

Surapong criticised the previous government for not appreciating these outlets and claimed it threatened to dissolve the TCDC.

What Surapong conveniently overlooked was the fact that there was a great deal of criticism from other sectors of society, including the media, concerning billions of taxpayers' baht that had gone into these outlets during the Thaksin Shinawatra government, of which he was very much a part.

While no one doubts the need to promote creativity among artists, architects and designers, the question is whether these outlets deserve such a huge amount of money when only a handful of people actually benefit from them.

There is no doubt that these organisations are fascinating and put on great shows - ones full of sights and sounds, light displays, the works. They may have been the result of self-indulgence on the part of a handful of pretentious Thai elites from the Thaksin camp. The problem is that taxpayers had to pay for it.

From the start, a sticking point for many was how to make the activities of these organisations accessible to a wider audience. The government could then at least justify their enormous budgets, most of which went to building infrastructure and the six-figure salaries of some senior staff members.

Clear benchmarks to define success were never put in place. Surely we can't rely on head-counts taken of students on field trips. That would be too easy. They could just as easily have gone to the zoo.

Besides the need to reach out to more people, how about picking a product up and developing it?

What is needed is a national policy to sustain this drive to create a knowledge-based economy. If it has to depend on the whims of the government of the day, Thailand will continue to fall behind others in creativity, regardless of how many billions of baht are spent in the name of creating a knowledge-based economy.

Those who initiated these organisations never asked about ordinary people. Poor people have inspiration, too. And what about other government agencies? Don't they deserve the expensive sight and sound displays?

If Thaksin and his cronies want to leave a legacy, why don't they use the billions in their offshore and domestic bank accounts or ask the people they rub shoulders with to help? They can look at how foreign philanthropists do it.

Perhaps Surapong has never heard of endowments. But then again, it's always more fun to use the people's money.

Thailand is full of knowledge and history. From the Malay-speaking South to the Lanna-speaking North, every region in the country has a history of its own, not to mention local knowledge and wisdom.

From the historic Kru Se Mosque in Pattani to Wat Prathat at Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, there are sites throughout the country that are rich in local history.

Meanwhile, in front of the Government House yesterday, about 3,000 workers were calling on the government to push their minimum wage to Bt233 per day. Most of the people in this country share their predicament - working hand to mouth trying to make ends meet. Perhaps Surapong should lecture to them about the benefit of creativity.