Sml Populist Projects Under The Trt

[marshbags]

I was going to put this in the thread relating to the Thaksin,s Wife Guilty Of Tax Evasion where debate is now bringing this issue up but as a precaution of not going completely off the topic,

With hopeful permission i,ve opened a seperate one on this part of the debate.

We moved into why many people in Issan ( and elsewhere ) are now sinking deeper into debt and why.

I hope it generates further interest as it is an important issue. IMHO

From todays B.Post .... General news....Thursday March 29, 2007

Quote:-

Uncle Prayong to the rescue

A Magsaysay winner for community leadership is helping the government implement programmes to eliminate poverty / The man sidelined by the previous PM has finally been promoted to the top post at the National Intelligence Agency / The National Legislative Assembly is proving to be a thorn in the government's side

The government of Surayud Chulanont has hailed Prayong Ronnarong, recipient of the 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership, as a hero. It has also asked Mr Prayong to help spread his experience and expertise in eradicating poverty at Ban Mai Rieng community of Chawang district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, to all Thai communities.

At 70, Mr Prayong, or Uncle Prayong as he is endearingly known, is still fit enough to support the government's policies on sufficiency economy development under the so-called Yu Dee Mee Suk (Happy Living) project. Last week he led an army of Government House-beat reporters on a visit to his Ban Mai Rieng community to learn of the success in developing community and human resources which he carried out 20 years ago.

"I want the Surayud government to adopt this project [Yu Dee Mee Suk] and practise it so that people feel that it is a part of their lives.

Unquote.

Please go to the following url for the complete article:-

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/29Mar2007_news24.php

There are 2 other articles that follow on from the one i am posting about as follows.

1) The promotion of Sirachai Chotiratana to director of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA)

2) NLA giving govt a hard time

Obviously the first one is relevant to the topic on SML,s, makes a lot of sense and covers several important points, including Education and Vocational Training

marshbags

Edited March 29, 2007 by marshbags

[sbk]

Interesting article marshbags, esp the description of his program:

The Yu Dee Mee Suk project, on the other hand, empowers local people to manage budget allocations for solving problems in their own villages. The government insists that it will disburse funds to launch the project after considering community development blueprints submitted.

Also interesting is the success of a community managed latex factory. Just goes to show what motivated and intelligent people can do.

[samran]

I always recommend people looking at (former) senator Meechai's (Mr Condom) projects. He does a lot in the north east.

[John K]

This is a good thread MB, but I don’t know how much I can contribute as I am in Bangkok and the people of rural Thailand will have a lot to say. This does provide valuable information for people in the city.

[soundman]

We moved into why many people in Issan ( and elsewhere ) are now sinking deeper into debt and why.

marshbags

I really want to expound on this because from a grass roots level this is one of the biggest crimes Toxin committed.

He put into "poor peoples's" heads the idea that they can be better off. This is true they can. If by way of education, hard work, community pooling & many other concepts.

However....

What that stupid ex priminister has done is made "money" available to the poor with pretty much no strings attached. This form of loan does not really engender any resposability to pay it back, unless you want to loan some more money.

So this is what is actually happening: People are proving they are poor to be eligible for the loan. They quit work on the expectation that they will not be refused. They get the money & take two or three months to spend it on consumer goods. After the money is finished they stop being lazy & go back to work. After the twelve months comes up, they borrow money on the last day, pay back the loan, & the next day pay apply for another.

Net result: They are in the hole for the whole amount of the first loan, plus some riduculous interest from the moneylender for the bridging loan.

From firsthand knowledge, all "poor people" around where I live are in a much worse financial position than in year 2000. And they all still cheer TRT. Idiots.

Soundman.

[marshbags]

We moved into why many people in Issan ( and elsewhere ) are now sinking deeper into debt and why.

marshbags

I really want to expound on this because from a grass roots level this is one of the biggest crimes Toxin committed.

He put into "poor peoples's" heads the idea that they can be better off. This is true they can. If by way of education, hard work, community pooling & many other concepts.

However....

What that stupid ex priminister has done is made "money" available to the poor with pretty much no strings attached. This form of loan does not really engender any resposability to pay it back, unless you want to loan some more money.

So this is what is actually happening: People are proving they are poor to be eligible for the loan. They quit work on the expectation that they will not be refused. They get the money & take two or three months to spend it on consumer goods. After the money is finished they stop being lazy & go back to work. After the twelve months comes up, they borrow money on the last day, pay back the loan, & the next day pay apply for another.

Net result: They are in the hole for the whole amount of the first loan, plus some riduculous interest from the moneylender for the bridging loan.

From firsthand knowledge, all "poor people" around where I live are in a much worse financial position than in year 2000. And they all still cheer TRT. Idiots.

Soundman.

Loans were made available not only via the last administration but also by the financial institutions who were also under the influence of Thaksin.

The local million baht schemes, ect. were reduced considerably after the chosen few had took their share out of it.

While making sure there where a few bags of low quality rice, nice little packs of foodstuffs and not forgetting the odd 100 baht notes and TRT merchandice ( Jackets, shirts and caps. ) to keep the lazy locals sweet.

Of course this was only a vote buying exercise and a way of getting the village leaders to suport the TRT and in turn get them to influence Order the locals to support and vote for the TRT officials / representatives.

To re quote this observation you have made :-

He put into "poor peoples's" heads the idea that they can be better off. This is true they can. If by way of education, hard work, community pooling & many other concepts.

This is the only way to forward if the locals are to regain their self esteem and respect otherwise no amount of monetary support will have any influence on their futures.

The only thing to come out of it will be a lack of respect for earning their keep and instead they will continue in the easy come, easy go mode along with expecting to be bailed out debt wise, while local life continues to go down the pan.

The ones who have earned their keep will finish up footing the bill for them via taxation and other ways that effect the local enviroment and the benefits they have worked hard for, in the local communities.

As you also note, we only have to look around our respective Moo Bans to see the effects of poor money management, living beyong the income levels, ( in many cases these are and have always been practically "Zero " ) and getting by on village handouts that were available to get them dependant on the TRT " Populist policies "

We also know that unless it is outlawed and forbidden in the new constitution, come the next election they will vote for who ever is crossing their palms with the monetary incentives, along with doing as the village elders tell them, who are also infuenced to do so, via the lions share of the bribes of course.

" Should the blind eyed mentality go on as before, due to corrupt election officials that is. "

Let us hope that come December when the elections are due to be held ( in todays Nation ) that those who can influence these voters will remember the last 12 months and take on board all the negatives from the last administration.

The mind set in my neck of the woods is definitely changing regarding the...................................

Honest / Dishonest intentions of the TRT and it,s CEO

marshbags

Edited March 30, 2007 by marshbags

[gummy]

The old saying is very true. If you give a hungary person food today they will be hungary tomorrow. But If you give them education today they will feed themselves tomorrow.

To balance that of course one could argue tha the 30 baht health care scheme was a populist policy. However had that not been instigated do you really think the current governments 0 baht scheme would have come about ?

[steveromagnino]

The old saying is very true. If you give a hungary person food today they will be hungary tomorrow. But If you give them education today they will feed themselves tomorrow.

To balance that of course one could argue tha the 30 baht health care scheme was a populist policy. However had that not been instigated do you really think the current governments 0 baht scheme would have come about ?

Actually, if you give hungary person food and beer, then they will probably be thanking Buda and getting pest :-) (try, hungry!).

The 30b scheme was actually not new, but rather a broadening and price reduction of Dr Atit's 75b healthcare scheme for the genuinely poor that was implemented during Chuan 2, but relatively poorly promoted, plus not available to everyone, just really poor. It was financially sustainable and due to the cost of it, it meant no difference in drugs from std treatment.

30b healthcare was implemented primarily as a vote grabber and to shift funds, alledgedly, to the family of the health minister who held monoepoly distribution rights on many of the drugs used in the program. It does seem strange to me that a friend of mine who didn't even carry a Thai passport but was born here, and earning 100,000+ baht a month as a model/actor was eligible to get 30b healthcare; in his case he used to go and pick up cheap aspirin, antihistemine and diaorhea medicines for his friends. Great, really really logical.

In my mind, there should be several tiers, and that was kind of how the previous Democrat govt had set it up. Pity they didn't tell anyone about their scheme.

LIke most other things, the poor people don't understand where many things came from, so they think Herr Taksin was directly responsible for:

- increase in rubber prices and commodity prices

- paying off the IMF loans

- cheap healthcare

[sbk]

The Chuan govt paid off the IMF loan and was roundly unpopular for installing govtl austerity measures to do so, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, it is nice to see some people making things work for their community instead of complaining and expecting a govt bureaucracy to solve their problems for them.

[marshbags]

B.Post General news Sunday April 01, 2007

Quote:-

LOOKING AFTER OURSELVES

Nakhon Si Thammarat village becomes sufficiency economy training centre

STORY AND PHOTO BY ANUCHA CHAROENPO, NAKHON SI THAMMARAT

A man shows how to mill rice with locally-made tools that help Nakhon Si Thammarat farmers save money in the rice-making process. The activity is part of villagers' initiative to translate the sufficiency concept into practice.

Ban Payang village, in tambon Tha Ngiew of Muang district, is like any other farming community in the country. Most of the people have not received much formal schooling and receive low pay for their work.

But what makes it different from other villages is the people here know how to survive and rely on themselves despite the odds because they have put His Majesty the King's sufficiency philosophy into practice.

The Surayud Chulanont government has designed it a model village for its Yu Dee Mee Suk (Happy Living) project approved by cabinet in February. The village has become a training centre for farmers in nearby provinces to learn about the sufficiency economy.

Unquote.

Please go to the following url for the complete article.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/01Apr2007_news11.php

Yet another encouraging example of how Locals / Farmers are using the self sufficieny concept to their advantage.

These stories are encouraging in regards to how the local Isaan population and other communities can re discover independant means to saving money, while providing support for the less fortunate / low educated and teaching self reliance.

O.K. they are not about to become millionaires overnight but at least they and their families have enough to eat and now have rediscovered their all important much valued self esteem and pride.

This can only grow as they continue to share the knowledge they have gained, along with the continued support of the government to provide financial backing to keep it going.

Populist versus Sufficient Economy.

The Populist monetary incentives of the last Administration that rewarded the local Puyai and bribed the locals to support them at the polls while giving them false hope with no prospects in the years to come apart from the pathetic hand outs / scraps and debt.

Sufficient Economy provides the real support for the locals, who in turn can escape the above culture and create a secure, long term future for their Families , and themselves of course.

It shouldn,t take a mastermind to work out which one benefits the local community, in real terms that is.

How many fields can you work with the materialistic things locals got into debt for ? come to that how many have managed to pay it off without having them reclaimed for non payment ?

No incentives, no will do a job and now even less FACE than before.

marshbags

Edited April 1, 2007 by marshbags