WATCHDOG: Another four years of the short-cut platform?

Published on December 05, 2004

With the ruling Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party looking as if it stands a strong chance of winning a second four-year term of office when the general election takes place in the next two months or so, it might be useful for both the party’s supporters and detractors to consider a distilled version of its underlying political philosophy as well as that of the opposition Democrat Party as a guideline to follow while in the voting booth.

The ruling party’s platform will most likely continue to be of the “short-cuts and high risks” variety, while that of the opposition party is still probably best exemplified by the ideas like “slow but sure” and “for the long haul”.

The philosophy of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s TRT can be summed up by the TRT founder’s very own words: “Democracy is the means to an end, not the end itself.”

So if you vote the TRT back into power, the end and the means in Thailand’s democratic system of governance could easily get mixed up, and you will continue the roller-coaster ride for a few more years. But that scenario can still be managed for the better in terms of risks if you vote in Democrats in larger numbers than in the last election to serve as a more effective check and balance in the next Parliament.

A minimum threshold is 200 opposition MPs, which would give the opposition the power to censure the premier in the House. Even if the Democrats, who received about 130 House seats in the last election, don’t win the needed 200 House seats this time, more Democrats will still be better for the opposition bloc.

Korn Chatikavanich, who will stand as a Democratic candidate for a Bangkok constituency, suggested to me the other day that in the past three or four years we’d seen the ruling party resort on several occasions to certain means to achieve certain policy results that in the end had hurt the broader objectives of having a democratic system of governance.

Examples of this are numerous, among them the weakening of several of the independent bodies set up under the 1997 Constitution to strengthen democracy, a decrease in the freedom of the mass media, the government’s worsening track record on human rights and the weakened integrity of Parliament.

In a nutshell, the six-year-old TRT has experimented with means that could be called “short-cuts” to securing the populace’s “well-being”, such as the Bt77-billion village-fund programme or the promotion of Otop indigenous products, but these short-cut routes have often been risky, with potentially negative long-term consequences. In addition, they will not be sustainable for long.

As for the opposition Democrat party, its underlying philosophy was probably best exemplified a few years back by the character of the ex-premier and the party’s previous leader Chuan Leekpai, who is still remembered as a man of integrity. During his tenure, Chuan was never seen as being a quick or highly efficient decision-maker, at least if we compare him to Prime Minister Thaksin.

In short, the previous Democrat-led government was slow but sure and in it for the long haul.

Democratic MP candidate Korn has also suggested that while some of the TRT’s policies and strategies, such as those related to its political marketing and domestic confidence-boosting measures, may have been applauded by a significant number of opposition MPs, the means the government has employed to achieve its results are suspect to many Democrats because they have tended to challenge sound democratic and economic-management principles.

Korn, a former top executive in the financial sector, said: “We Democrats may not have been able to present better policies to voters just yet, but we’re positive that we would be able to prevent bad policies from being entertained while in office.”

He told me that in his opinion a democratic system of governance that adhered to sound principles was probably the only way forward that would allow us to really achieve sustainable, long-term growth and development.

Speaking about Banyat Bantadtan, the Democrat’s current leader, Korn said Banyat might not be seen by the general public as a strong candidate for the premiership in the upcoming election, but Banyat, who has been a member of the party for over three decades, would certainly make a competent leader who would uphold sound democratic principles.

But since the Democrats appear at least for now to have a very slim chance, if any at all, of heading the next government, it may not be productive to draw up scenarios of what a Democrat-led government would look like just yet. A more certain proposition is that more opposition MPs in Parliament would make the next four years better and safer for all.

NOPHAKHUN LIMSAMARNPHUN

The Nation

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