Needed now: Alternative politics to us out of this mess

It wasn't very widely reported, but Pheu Thai leader Yongyuth Vichaidit's bold statement recently to a group of visitors to his party's headquarters about his confidence in the party's electoral longevity was strikingly upbeat.

"I am sure the Pheu Thai Party will win every election from now on if we continue with our present policies. We will win and win - eternally," he declared.

He then suggested that Thai politics was entering a new phase of a two-party system in which Pheu Thai and the Democrats will compete with each other in the political arena while smaller parties are eventually be absorbed into the big camps.

If that is the case, Yongyuth obviously is coming to the conclusion that the Democrat Party, Thailand's oldest political grouping, will continue to lose - for a long time to come yet.

A few days after that, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva told his own party members that the only way to get the country out of the vicious circle of conflicts was "for the Democrat Party to win the election".

He made it official - perhaps for the first time - that without an outright electoral victory, his party would find it hard to ever assume power again.

He was quoted as saying: "If we don't win the election, we will not form the government. And if the party undertakes to set up the government without winning the election, then the party will have to vote in a new leader."

But what if you don't trust Pheu Thai but are frustrated with the Democrats? What if you think the "small parties" that form the coalition government now are simply opportunists waiting to jump onto the bandwagon without regard for principle and integrity?

The difference between the two big parties now isn't about populism. The Democrats, in trying to court voters away from Pheu Thai, have also adopted a similar platform, albeit less blatantly but nevertheless tantalisingly populist in gist if not in form.

The battle for votes will make it less likely that either of the two major parties will come around to making the necessary but unpopular changes to the tax and property, as well as land use, laws that are vital to reducing social injustice. This has been a common theme for both parties in their respective election campaigns.

An alternative way out of the current political gridlock - in the form of a "third political party" that could restore faith, confidence and respect in the country's politicians - will inevitably become the subject of public debate, especially in view of the deadlock that has plagued the country for too many years now.

Pheu Thai's strength is its popular base and the "single command" mode. But that's also its main flaw. The concentration of power in the hands of Thaksin Shinawatra is also the party's weakest link.

The Democrats' strong point is its long tradition and established hierarchical system. But that too is its own undoing. The country's oldest party is stuck in its own conservative structure that has blocked any attempt at a long-overdue shakeup.

As a result, the two main parties suffer from the same malaise: the country's up-and-coming "best and brightest" aren't drawn to these parties to fulfill their dream of becoming future leaders.

Will a third party emerge that could be run professionally, democratically, with a refreshing new platform, that could get Thailand out of its political dead-end and put the country on a new road that will attract young people who want to devote themselves to genuinely serving the public?

There is little doubt that the failure of the two major parties to solve the country's critical problems has become increasingly obvious. The need for "alternative politics" is becoming urgent. We can't expect the current politicos to get us out of this mess that they are so much a part of.