Thaksin’s tsunami performance sure to win TRT seats at election

Published on January 5, 2004

A crisis can always be turned into a golden opportunity.

Whether or not Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has borne this in mind while visiting damaged areas of the six southern provinces ravaged by the killer tsunami over the past week is unclear. What isn’t unclear, however, is that his popularity and that of his ruling Thai Rak Thai Party have drastically risen at a time when the race for the general election is coming to its sprint finish.

While the nation has been in collective mourning and political parties have toned down their campaigns for the general election on February 6, Thaksin, as prime minister, is the only political candidate able to hog the limelight.

As the electorate nationwide is fed a constant staple of news about the death and destruction caused by the killer tsunami, Thaksin can shine as a leader by handling the crisis as efficiently as he did when two years ago the Thai embassy was torched and Thai lives imperilled in Cambodia.

Thaksin’s impressive performance does not, of course, affect his popularity with supporters already loyal to him. But it will surely hold much sway over numerous undecided voters, whose numbers are considerable in Bangkok and in the urban areas of other provinces.

Recent election surveys have found that most upcountry constituencies of the total 400 constituencies nationwide can already be predicted to go Thai Rak Thai way, while several of those in the capital (where historically voters often delay making up their mind until the last minute) remain down to the wire.
Thai Rak Thai will win the election, no doubt. The only question is how many seats the party will get.

And winning the heart of undecided voters will mean not only more seats for individual Thai Rak Thai candidates but also more seats for Thai Rak Thai through the party list, whereby a total of another 100 candidates can be elected beyond the 400.

TRT was humiliated by the defeat of its proxy Pavena Hongsakul in the Bangkok gubernatorial race in August. This was followed by increased pressure on Thaksin to dissolve the House for failing to keep a lid on violence in the troubled deep South. Since, however, the ruling party has dramatically recovered with the help of its populist policies aimed at convincing voters that another four years of Thai Rak Thai rule will mean another fours years of unparalleled prosperity for the country.

It seems to be working like a charm.

Forget the parliamentary checks and balances by an effective opposition that the Democrat Party tries to warn voters the country needs to remain a functioning democracy. Most Thais do not care about who is in parliament as long as they have the financial means to provide for themselves and their families. The poor need someone who can pull them out of poverty and help them with their most desperate needs.

Thaksin shows enough potential of leadership to deliver.

With only a month left before the general election, the tsunami catastrophe has proved that the more often Thaksin shines as a true leader, the more seats his party should and will get.

Weerayut Chokchaimadon
The Nation

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