Start at bottom to 'eradicate poverty, close income gap
The head of the national reform assembly called on grassroots rural groups yesterday - and administrators throughout the country - to join in efforts to bring about social equality and eradicate poverty.
Social critic Prawase Wasi, in a speech entitled "Operation by communities to reform Thailand", said that local communities should be given more involvement in reform of the country.
He blamed slow progress towards democracy on neglect of rural communities.
"Over the past 78 years of our democracy, we failed to succeed because we focused too much on the national level. We have to encourage rural communities to govern themselves," he said, referring to decentralisation of power from Bangkok.
He said Thailand should be based on rural communities, which represent the largest part of society.
"People in power should stop sending orders from the top and they should instead provide their support. Sending orders downwards led to a national crisis. This time we have to finish the reform and Thailand will survive."
Prawase was addressing a gathering of more than 200 senior officials from local administrative organisations throughout the country at Impact Arena in Nonthaburi.
The event, organised as part of the government's plan for national reform, was presided over by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. In addition to Prawase's speech, rural administrators also expressed their views during the two-hour-long gathering.
The prime minister told yesterday's meeting his government was expediting a new law to decentralise more power to local administrative organisations, and he promised larger budgets for these bodies.
The PM also called on rural administrators to support its efforts on national reconciliation. He said that at today's Cabinet meeting, he would instruct relevant state agencies to work with rural administrators on compensation and rehabilitation for people affected by the recent political unrest, particularly those in the Northeast.
Prawase told reporters people had been approached to sit on the reform committee and that he and ex-premier Anand Panyarachun, who chairs the panel, would nominate these individuals formally on Friday. He would call the reform body's first meeting on July 14.
At yesterday's gathering, some local administrators criticised the government for lacking sincerity in decentralising power.
They said budgets allocated for more than 8,000 local administrative organisations throughout the country had been slashed. They also called for less control by the Interior Ministry on local admin bodies.