The Thai electorate's New Year wish

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

The Thai electorate's New Year wish

By The Nation

 

Prime Minister Prayut has named his targets for 2018, but he’s proved to be a poor shot

The Nation surely is not the only entity making a New Year wish for 2018 that Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha would stop threatening to delay the anticipated election. 

 

The junta chief at the weekend shared his New Year resolutions – to reduce poverty and to introduce conflict-free democracy. After three and a half years of military rule, neither goal seems particularly realistic. The government-in-uniform has yet to properly address the problems of poverty or income disparity, instead taking wrong turns. Its so-called Pracha Rath approach might have managed to erect more low-cost housing, but it depends too much on transferring state funds into the hands of big corporations. 

 

Prayut has often expressed his distaste for populist policies of the sort prior Democrat and Pheu Thai governments relied on to win and maintain support. In the general’s specific view, he means simply giving money to the poor, which he correctly notes would not represent a permanent, sustainable solution. But he’s offered no viable alternatives and done nothing to help the underprivileged stand on their own feet.

 

He faults farmers for charging too little for their produce, but does nothing to raise the value of those commodities.

 

Soldiers are not economists, so the population can only hope the military gets out of government sooner rather than later, in the expectation that conditions will rapidly improve thereafter.

 

As for Prayut’s wish that democracy can take root unimpeded by political conflict, we would all be better off if he were simply a retired general spending his days playing with his grandchildren. Instead, he is our prime minister as well as head of the dictatorial junta, and the only real reforms he’s introduced have been aimed at perpetuating a military role in politics.

 

The coup was staged to end the violence that was plaguing the country and choking the economy. For better or worse, it was successful in that regard. But three years on, the generals still cling to power – and they can hardly be considered neutral in the conflict or honest brokers in efforts to effect reconciliation. 

 

As have all coup makers in the past, Prayut is now plotting to maintain his influential role after the election. The military-sponsored interim charter envisions handpicked senators supporting his government. Amendments to the Political Party Act give newly formed parties an 

electoral advantage in return for backing the generals. Prayut has even launched a personal election campaign with his mobile Cabinet meetings, which put him in direct touch with the electorate upcountry – contact denied mainstream politicians.

 

Despite all of this, it seems he remains insecure about his chances at the polls, and hence his reluctance to fix an election date. The promised election is in effect being held hostage. The junta can be expected to cite continued threats to national security – whether real or imagined – in order to keep postponing the election. There may well be more curious “discoveries” of hidden caches of military-grade weapons, and fingers pointed at the usual suspects clad in red.

 

So, our wish is that the junta would simply stop doing this. The ruse no longer works. We have glimpsed behind the curtain. We wish, with little hope of an answer, that the generals would attempt genuine structural reform in politics to seed the ground for viable democracy. We wish they would open the gates to free and fair elections and let the people choose people who are better qualified to run the country.

 

Full story: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30335189

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-02

[Samui Bodoh]

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

So, our wish is that the junta would simply stop doing this. The ruse no longer works. We have glimpsed behind the curtain. We wish, with little hope of an answer, that the generals would attempt genuine structural reform in politics to seed the ground for viable democracy. We wish they would open the gates to free and fair elections and let the people choose people who are better qualified to run the country.

 

Wow!

 

Good on you, Nation. I didn't expect an editorial like this, but I am very glad to see it.

 

It is true That the Junta has not delivered effective government and that Thailand has suffered because of that; one needs merely to compare economic growth rates among the neighbours.

 

It is time for the Junta to go, and time to dismantle the many laws which were created to perpetuate the military's hold on power.

 

The military can have an honourable role in Thailand, but not in government.

[canuckamuck]

Here here!

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

steven100,  enjoy this gem from The Nation:

 

"we would all be better off if he were simply a retired general spending his days playing with his grandchildren. Instead, he is our prime minister as well as head of the dictatorial junta, and the only real reforms he’s introduced have been aimed at perpetuating a military role in politics. "

[RichardColeman]

Expect the writer of this article to be in prison by the end of the week !

[PattayaAngel]

'Giving money to the poor'   what a terrible idea!  how could any government do such a thing?   what's needed is submarines not hospitals and care for the elderly!   still that 1,000 baht per baby 'Gift Set' was very welcomed

 

'Make Populist Policies Great Again'

[PatOngo]

At most, you could wish for less BS but I don't think that's possible.

[Jimbo in Thailand]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The Thai electorate's New Year wish

By The Nation

Excellent article except that the title certainly isn't accurate.  What <expletive deleted> "electorate"?  Who elected any of them?!  Since Little P illegally seized the kingdom in a military coup, calling him and his band of luxury-watch fetish underling(s) an "electorate" is a misnomer.  I think the word dictatorship more aptly describes the current state of affairs.  

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Instead, he is our prime minister as well as head of the dictatorial junta

Wow. The Nation printed the d-word...

Can we use it now, too? Can we? Can we?

ddd, dic, dict...

I tried, I can't.

[connda]

Spot on editorial.  Good job Nation.

[canuckamuck]

39 minutes ago, Jimbo in Thailand said:

Excellent article except that the title certainly isn't accurate.  What <expletive deleted> "electorate"?  Who elected any of them?!  Since Little P illegally seized the kingdom in a military coup, calling him and his band of luxury-watch fetish underling(s) an "electorate" is a misnomer.  I think the word dictatorship more aptly describes the current state of affairs.  

The dictionary defines electorate as the body of persons entitled to vote in a an election. So the headline is correct, but in effect there is no electorate in Thailand any more. Just lords and serfs

[churchill]

'Thailand will hold a general election in November 2018, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday'

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-politics/thai-junta-sets-firm-date-for-election-after-many-false-starts-idUSKBN1CF0M5

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, Jimbo in Thailand said:

Excellent article except that the title certainly isn't accurate.  What <expletive deleted> "electorate"?  Who elected any of them?!  Since Little P illegally seized the kingdom in a military coup, calling him and his band of luxury-watch fetish underling(s) an "electorate" is a misnomer.  I think the word dictatorship more aptly describes the current state of affairs.  

If you consider that if the "electorate" refers to the eligible 30+ million Thai voters, the title is accurate. Obviously, the junta and its appointee government officials are not the electorate.

[Happyman58]

The guy who wrote this better watch his step  Criticizing the junta maybe lead to re-education You are indeed a brave person

[Jimbo in Thailand]

50 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

If you consider that if the "electorate" refers to the eligible 30+ million Thai voters, the title is accurate. Obviously, the junta and its appointee government officials are not the electorate.

 

3 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

The dictionary defines electorate as the body of persons entitled to vote in a an election. So the headline is correct, but in effect there is no electorate in Thailand any more. Just lords and serfs

 

Sorry guys, you're both right that the term electorate refers to the voting public.  Obviously the title did indeed throw me off.  Doesn't matter as the end result is the same, i.e., since elections have been verboten post-2014 military coup—effectively—there are no voters hence no electorate.  The term dictatorship still seems apropos for the state of the kingdom.  Sorry for the confusion.