What Can The (democrat) Government Do

[JoeThePoster]

What Can The (democrat) Government Do

[Plus]

They need to speed up mass transit investments - it would generate tons and tons of economic activity.

They need to poor money in Isan to keep those guys happy. The govt has already lost too much on fixing rice prices but they can still support other crops, or find some other ways to make sure farm income doesn't decrease.

The most important thing is still investment in infrastructure. At this point the economy can't rely on exports or domestic consumption, or private investments - only on government spending. This year Samak spent an equivalent of four years of free education without any visible benefits, btw. Dems should invest in something that generates business, not just handouts like free buses and water.

[Plus]

To stop the political fighting and get back to the real meaning of a democratically elected government, these mechanisms have to be put in place:

No changing parties without resigning from the current party you belong too for a period of more than two years, before re-registering for another party.

....

Saw this interesting quote two days ago:

"Speaking at a seminar yesterday, Boonsrang said in 1974, constitutional scholar Amorn Chandara-somboon had named the three charter provisions that were the root cause of all political maladies. He said the provisions that allow MPs to have party affiliations, permit party control over lawmakers and allocate a House seat to the premier only bring about a tyranny by majority, he said."

Things haven't changed much since 1974. Parties still own politicians and all the horse trading and intimidation goes on between party bosses. MPs are supposed to represent people, but I don't see any evidence of that.

It's even worse when it comes to selecting the PM and appointing the cabinet. Absolutely nothing to do with democracy of the people.

http://nationmultimedia.com/worldhotnews/r...newsid=30090620

Edited December 11, 2008 by Plus

[Sarge]

What Can The (democrat) Government Do

this is a deceitful question asked by undemocratic people, there should be no government without election. Let's have a general election with a proper national debate, voters can then scrutinise parties' policies and integrity. Any party that gets the electoral mandate then has the legal and moral authority to unify the country and move forward.

I was thinking, what would it take for the dem's to actually be affective? So I started working on a 'platform'

EDUCATION

1) Strengthen the Free education system by supplying all school uniforms free

2) Strengthen the free education system by providing breakfast and lunch at schools .... free

3) Strengthen the free education system by making HARSH penalties for school administrators that extort money from families for public schools

4) Penalize all school administration employees if they do not prevent such extortion from taking place

FARMING/Social Support

1) Do away with the village loan scheme that strengthens the local political machine and replace it with government programs that do NOT create more debt. Such as providing seed crops ... a farm education program similar to the county extension agents in the US etc.

2) Eliminate as much debt created by the village loan scheme etc as is possible. Just wipe the slate clean but not before putting some kind of social services net in place to help farmers.

3) Help farmers eliminate middle-men as much as possible by creating their own co-ops for sales and distribution

There's got to be more -- but face it I don't know farming!

Good Governance

1) Strengthen the checks and balances needed by democracy

2) Harsh laws to deal with corruption including 'whistle-blower' protection etc

3) Actually fulfill the promises of decentralization that have been around for a long time! Let provinces elect their own governors etc (Remember --- this requires points 1 and 2 of good governance be in place)

Actually having some local autonomy to specifically help people would be the best thing there could be I think.

...and have you budgeted for all of this? Every man and his dog can draw up a wish list of things he would like to see happen, but how'd you pay for all these freebies? BOT making extra print runs? Have you thought out how to actually set up these programs and the complexity to admin them?

[jasreeve17]

They need to speed up mass transit investments - it would generate tons and tons of economic activity.

They need to poor money in Isan to keep those guys happy. The govt has already lost too much on fixing rice prices but they can still support other crops, or find some other ways to make sure farm income doesn't decrease.

The most important thing is still investment in infrastructure. At this point the economy can't rely on exports or domestic consumption, or private investments - only on government spending. This year Samak spent an equivalent of four years of free education without any visible benefits, btw. Dems should invest in something that generates business, not just handouts like free buses and water.

I agree that these were pointless (the free buses far more so), as they don't go to the root of the problems. If somebody can't pay 7 baht for a bus then they must be struggling to eat and house themselves. Why? A free bus journey won't help.

Helping farmers to develop, rather than just throwing money at them, must be a better strategy.

Infrastructure projects are excellent for jobs, expansion, encouraging business and investment, but they reek so much here that they're a liability. This fact shouldn't stop them, but we know that 50% + of the allocated funds will be blatantly stolen, making them a very bad investment for the country. (The singularly best investment for corrupt politicians - they all love an infrastructure project.) Checks & balances...

[SomNamNah]

LOL!

Wrong, it was colonised by the chinesse hundreds of years ago but as usual the thais didn't notice.

Build the Thai canal : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_canal

About a quarter of all oil carried by sea passes through the strait, mainly from Persian Gulf suppliers to Asian markets such as China, Japan, and South Korea. In 2006, an estimated 15 million barrels per day (2,400,000 m³/d) were transported through the strait.[3]

opposed by the west who want to be able to block the Strait of Malacca should they have trouble from the yellow peril...

and also keep singapore happy.

Panama Canal revenue : US$2 billion pa.

Suez : $3.6 billion pa.

The Thai Navy might actually be useful! Thailand could actually rival singapore!! And Thais may learn to pronounce 'R' 'V' and 'L'!

Then will come support from China? Japan? US? (maybe not the US?) and maybe just maybe with Thailand acting as a key strategic player in the region... the trickle down might actually reach farmer joe.

Thats what i would do if i was in charge.

Or.. i would turn Thailand into a shithole like Burma with the currency worth nothing, but safe with my foreign currency and serfs.. and live the life of a medieval warlord! ahh thats the life!

Edited December 11, 2008 by SomNamNah

[nitecm]

I was thinking, what would it take for the dem's to actually be affective? So I started working on a 'platform'

EDUCATION

1) Strengthen the Free education system by supplying all school uniforms free

2) Strengthen the free education system by providing breakfast and lunch at schools .... free

3) Strengthen the free education system by making HARSH penalties for school administrators that extort money from families for public schools

4) Penalize all school administration employees if they do not prevent such extortion from taking place

FARMING/Social Support

1) Do away with the village loan scheme that strengthens the local political machine and replace it with government programs that do NOT create more debt. Such as providing seed crops ... a farm education program similar to the county extension agents in the US etc.

2) Eliminate as much debt created by the village loan scheme etc as is possible. Just wipe the slate clean but not before putting some kind of social services net in place to help farmers.

3) Help farmers eliminate middle-men as much as possible by creating their own co-ops for sales and distribution

There's got to be more -- but face it I don't know farming!

Good Governance

1) Strengthen the checks and balances needed by democracy

2) Harsh laws to deal with corruption including 'whistle-blower' protection etc

3) Actually fulfill the promises of decentralization that have been around for a long time! Let provinces elect their own governors etc (Remember --- this requires points 1 and 2 of good governance be in place)

Actually having some local autonomy to specifically help people would be the best thing there could be I think.

Most of the time a lot of money are going down but the problem is always the percentage of money able to reach the bottom

[mommysboy]

RESIGN

[JoeThePoster]

Build the Thai canal : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_canal

It will never happen as long as Singapore keeps pulling the right strings.

[Ricardo]

Instruct the BoT to stop wasting its' hard-currency reserves, on maintaining an over-strong Baht, which is causing Thai factories to close down & their workers' jobs to be lost. Time to let the Baht float ! Smoothing is one thing, but the current level of intervention, seems to me to be very harmful to the domestic economy.

[JetsetBkk]

Education

make sure the english teachers an speak english.

i also agree ...

And also make sure they know when to capitalise words, e.g.

1. words derived from proper nouns, e.g. "English",

2. at the beginning of every sentence,

3. the nominative form of the singular first-person pronoun "I",

etc.

Also on the correct usage of 'etc.'

When used at the end of a list introduced by 'such as', 'for example', 'e.g' or any similar expression, 'etc.' is incorrect.

Etc can only be used when the contents of a noninclusive list are obvious to the reader.

But who gives a rat's arse, tinker's cuss, monkey's c*nt, etc. etc.

Dämn - you got me! It's a fair cop, guv.

[Koo82]

I agree that these were pointless (the free buses far more so), as they don't go to the root of the problems. If somebody can't pay 7 baht for a bus then they must be struggling to eat and house themselves. Why? A free bus journey won't help.

Improving the root takes a lot longer so the free bus and free train work immediately to improve poor people's lives now. They can go up and down Thailand for free, and will buy things (more jobs for other people), stay in guesthouses in seaside (more jobs for people) & eat out, visit their families / relatives more often (strengthen relations), buy things back home to sell, and carry things out to sell in other provinces or BKK without worrying the cost will add up.

Many of us don't see the importance of these because we always drive our own cars. But poor people don't have cars and can't afford the oil bill 1,500 Baht per time.

The money they save from using free buses and trains are not only 7 Baht. They spend a lot more than that to reach a location and to come back. How many of them live in Bangkok?

[tijnebijn]

Increase taxes jasreeve ?

It will only go in the pockets of those in power , no matter who is in power ,

to pay for their gamble debts .....

Don't think it will benefit the poor as it should be , a lot more in time got to change

in this country before these things actually will work , and benefit the poor for that matter .

[Journalist]

Free school uniforms is certainly the apotheosis of macro-economic fiscal and monetary policy. Governing countries was never easier.

Can we assume you are a professional educator Jdinasia?

Longer bar hours is part of my manifesto. That'll stave off national bankruptcy.

[scorecard]

Totally agree that education must be the first priority for the long-term future development of Thailand and it must start NOW, with several critical success factors (CSFs), but the main CSF is quality and therefore radical change in teaching methodology.

Like it ot not, the economy must also be first priority with strong professional attention and I believe Khun Korn (deputy leadre of the Democrats) is the man for this post.

Equal justice and the plight of the farmers must also be priorities, but I suggest making the farmers more aware of the bigger world, and providing the means by which they are not reliant on political handouts is also key.

I suggest there is another critical matter. The Democrats must quickly gain the confidence and the support of the people by their PERFORMANCE in governemnt so that they secure a situation where an election (which could happen quickly) will sweep the Democarats back into power with a bigger majority so that they don't need to get into bed with unsavoury other parties.

[quiksilva]

I'd really rather hope that Korn only has deputy finance minister position because I'd like to see him around for a while....

The OP's question was not what policies we'd like to see as farangs but what do we think they could do to ease tensions and heal the rift in society.

Yes education is an important issue that must be worked on immediately but without support of the majority of the nation their policies no matter how good will never see the light of day.

Therefore they need to fight fire with fire i.e. They need to buy votes with their policies. Policies which support the rural population and the agricultural industry as a whole.

Fortunately the Dem's are rather good at drafting policies, Thaksin even stole a few.