EDITORIAL

Another wasteful populist scheme

By The Nation

 

The costly ‘Thai Niyom’ plan to pull the country out of the mire ignores fundamental issues and their causes

 

Hundreds of state and administrative officials from across the country were in Bangkok this week to hear Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha outline the government’s “Thai Niyom” scheme for moving the country forward.

 

How he came to believe he has the moral authority to impose such ideas is a mystery. But when the going gets tough, even someone with absolute power in his hands will turn to such devices in the hope they will improve their situation.

 

Prayut knows people are not gullible, so Thai Niyom, which translates as “Thai-ism”, comes with a price tag of Bt100 billion, of which Bt2 billion will be paid to the officials charged with implementing it. The government is hoping the expensive undertaking will encourage citizens on both sides of the political divide to abandon their animosity and work together to get Thailand back on track economically, help bring about “Thailand 4.0”, and end the scourge of social inequality.

 

It is, in essence, an attempt to buy loyalty, a populist notion of the kind favoured by the very regime the generals ousted with the 2014 coup. It will do nothing to improve livelihoods or productivity. Money will briefly appear in people’s pockets and be spent, and then we’re back where we started.

 

The plan has 10 thrusts. It seeks to make society more harmonious, assist low-income people, improve livelihoods, promote a sufficiency economy, build good citizenship, enhance understanding about the government’s work, foster 

 

“Thai-style” democracy, give workers more technological know-how, ease drug abuse, and support state agencies. Nearly 8,000 teams of community workers will visit 

 

people in 83,000 communities to find out what’s needed and seek their support for the project.

 

The scheme seems lifted from the communist Chinese playbook. Rather than winning hearts and minds and improving livelihoods, its aim appears to be justifying the junta’s continuance in power. We don’t suggest the generals want to stay in power forever, but their constitution does seal the military’s continued role in national politics. 

 

Why send teams around the country when there are already civic offices everywhere that could assess needs and encourage support? This is a recurring problem in Thailand, often addressed and never resolved.

 

Before the coup and the ban on large public gatherings, ordinary folks would take their complaints directly to Cabinet ministers or even the premier, rather than pursuing more readily available channels.

 

Under the Interior Ministry alone there are village heads, kamnan, district chiefs and provincial governors. The other ministries have similar chains of command to which grievances can and should be directed.

 

The public’s tendency to ignore these officials suggests that their mandate is too limited to address the issues raised – or that their competency is in question. If either is the case, the shortcomings should be fixed. 

 

Public regard for the military and the police is no better. In the South it is widely believed that the military’s “forward command” – by which ranking officers request government funding for community-outreach programmes – are primarily scams to enrich the men in uniform.

 

The police meanwhile bicker over expensive equipment and projects with little heed for what people think of them. The junta has nothing to say about it. It is, sadly, no better than the corrupt and self-serving regime it drove from power nearly four years ago. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30338781

 

-- © Copyright The Nation http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30338781

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Another wasteful populist scheme

Another good editorial from the Nation.

 

However, I would argue that this new populist scheme is even worse than the rice-pledging one. Yes, the rice-pledging scheme was one of the stupidest ideas ever to see the light of day, but at least it attempted to deal with a problem (even though it has a spectacular failure rate...). The "Thai Niyom" is even worse as it doesn't really contain new money to deal with issues, but rather re-uses monies already allocated for use. For example, the "Thai Niyom" plan has 30 billion in the Agriculture ministry; however, the ministry of Agriculture already had that 30 billion BEFORE the plan.

 

The essence of the 'Thai Niyom" plan is the 2 BILLION baht for lunches. Yes, 2,000,000,000.00 Baht for lunches.

 

It is simply a pot of money to be used by national officials to "consult" with local officials who should already be talking to national officials. Or, in other words, it is a political slush fund designed to allow national officials to make deals with local officials in return for future support.

 

What are the specific objectives of the plan? N/A

What are the specific outcomes of the plan? N/A

What are the specific indicators of the plan? N/A

What are the specific activities of the plan (other than lunch)? N/A

 

What kind of a plan has no real objectives, outcomes, indicators and activities , but has a TWO BILLION BAHT budget?  The political slush fund kind.

 

If this is the Junta's plan for the future, the state of Thailand is in even worse shape than I thought.

build your own ''castel'',protect your family and their loved ones,be aware of your surroundings,educate your children,and save your pennies for their future...cause this country is like a sad, broken old love song..

Edited February 14, 20188 yr by mok199
speliing

More swill for the trough; local 'authorities' are ordering their Mercs as we speak.

I am getting used to these Nation articles being brave and truthful. What the heck is going on?

14 minutes ago, canuckamuck said:

I am getting used to these Nation articles being brave and truthful. What the heck is going on?

Divisions inside the yellow camp, in particular the power struggle between the Junta and the Dem party. They were all united against the Shins but It's over. The Dems are furious about the Junta's will to reduce the influence of big established parties. My guess is they are still influent in the yellow network, i.e. among agencies, media, judiciary, universities, etc....

3 hours ago, webfact said:

How he came to believe he has the moral authority to impose such ideas is a mystery.

 

He took over the country's government by force. Mystery solved.

3 hours ago, mok199 said:

build your own ''castel'',protect your family and their loved ones,be aware of your surroundings,educate your children,and save your pennies for their future...cause this country is like a sad, broken old love song..

Or leave before it's too late. 

Crazy, i hate populist policies on all sides. Its nothing more then vote buying disguised.  Nothing will ever change here.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai Niyom, which translates as “Thai-ism”,

abhor that name; furthering the us-vs-all-others racism here

6 minutes ago, robblok said:

Crazy, i hate populist policies on all sides. Its nothing more then vote buying disguised.  Nothing will ever change here.

Only thing that's changed is that you can't vote this lot out. The corruption remains as strong as ever. I'd argue it's even more blatant now. 

 

Coups are never a good thing when they replace democracy with the forbidden D word, even if that democracy was far from perfect.

Excellent article from The Nation, for once.

 

It appears that the rats are fleeing the sinking ship.

Just now, JonnyF said:

Only thing that's changed is that you can't vote this lot out. The corruption remains as strong as ever. I'd argue it's even more blatant now. 

 

Coups are never a good thing when they replace democracy with the forbidden D word, even if that democracy was far from perfect.

True you can't vote them out, but that is about the only difference they all enrich themselves. But how do you see a PTP ever being voted out they are popular so they have the right to steal ?. 

 

Some tough laws is what is needed (without selective enforcement). It will never happen as those in power want to keep on stealing. 

10 minutes ago, robblok said:

True you can't vote them out, but that is about the only difference they all enrich themselves. But how do you see a PTP ever being voted out they are popular so they have the right to steal ?. 

 

Some tough laws is what is needed (without selective enforcement). It will never happen as those in power want to keep on stealing. 

Nobody has the right to steal no matter how popular, I don't believe anyone has said that. In my opinion what is needed is a sustained period of democracy whereby the electorate can begin to see what is happening, mature as voters and become more educated in terms of who they vote for. That might also allow for a new generation of politician to come along that is less corrupt and gradually things could improve (slowly, I'm talking decades).

 

The military resetting the clock to zero every few years prevents this from happening. Democracy never matures and politicians try and steal as much as possible in the shortest amount of time as they know they'll be ousted anyway.

 

The cycle has to break, and in my opinion the only way to do that is putting an end to these coups. They don't reduce corruption anyway, so with corruption being a constant you may as let democracy mature.  

Just now, JonnyF said:

Nobody has the right to steal no matter how popular, I don't believe anyone has said that. In my opinion what is needed is a sustained period of democracy whereby the electorate can begin to see what is happening, mature as voters and become more educated in terms of who they vote for. That might also allow for a new generation of politician to come along that is less corrupt and gradually things could improve (slowly, I'm talking decades).

 

The military resetting the clock to zero every few years prevents this from happening. Democracy never matures and politicians try and steal as much as possible in the shortest amount of time as they know they'll be ousted anyway.

 

The cycle has to break, and in my opinion the only way to do that is putting an end to these coups. They don't reduce corruption anyway, so with corruption being a constant you may as let democracy mature.  

To be honest unlike you I don't think democracy will mature here. They all are in it for the money there is no incentive for them to change (politicians). The coups are not a good thing either but I doubt that there would be less corruption without them. 

 

The one good thing is that now we got a different voting system that can help small parties to form. Before you had to win more then 50% in a voting district or your votes would be lost. This is no longer the case all votes count now so that is the only good thing i see. In Holland we got something like that all votes count no stupid voting districts so you can start small as a political party and grow. With voting districts its almost impossible for small parties to mean anything. 

 

I think change would have to come from new parties (if it ever comes)

Thailand's GPD peaked in 2013, and then dropped in 2014. It's has been stagnant ever since. I wonder why that might be? 

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Crazy, i hate populist policies on all sides. Its nothing more then vote buying disguised.  Nothing will ever change here.

Now you are starting to get it. Rather an elected corrupt government buying votes than a dictator buying votes. By the way add up all his populist policies and the cost exceeds that of YS. The biggest one was the civil service pension fund changes which slipped by because the annual cost dont break the bank but cummulative cost over the next 20 to 30 years will break the country. 

7 hours ago, Darcula said:

 

He took over the country's government by force. Mystery solved.

or maybe he felt he was bestowed with such power

7 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

I am getting used to these Nation articles being brave and truthful. What the heck is going on?

They may be paid advertisements.

I'm really liking these Nation Opinion pieces recently, I feel sure that some lackey in the bowels of Government House has to copy these pages and deliver them quivering to the desk of little p, (lower case used on purpose) Surely he must realise that it's time to step down and make way for a democratically elected party to run the country. 

 

Now he comes out with this absolute waste of money, he really is deluded.

 

I wonder how many people will attend the next rally against these thieves, a few weeks ago it was a handful followed by a couple of weeks later that by a couple of dozen followed recently by a couple of hundred. To be followed by a few thousand next hopefully.

 

And I was just listening to BBC radio 2 in the UK and believe it or not little p' new song was mentioned on the national news at 1600 hrs UK time, apparently the reception by people here was "Flat" 

 

 

 

19 hours ago, webfact said:

How he came to believe he has the moral authority to impose such ideas is a mystery.

That's rich!  Maybe all these Nation columns over the years licking his ass have emboldened him?