Two years wasted on reform blueprint

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

Two years wasted on reform blueprint

By The Nation

 

Many proposals from the National Reform Steering Assembly are simply too vague to be of practical use

 

BANGKOK: -- The military junta has wasted more than Bt1 billion over the past two years paying 200 political opportunists to produce a vague, outdated and redundant “reform agenda”.

 

Established in October 2015, the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA) has representation from the military, civil service and non-governmental organisations, as well as politicians whose ideology aligns with the ruling junta. Most members are politically conservative and would prefer to see Thailand less democratic and less progressive. That’s what they came up on completing their missing last week.

 

The noble aim of reform is here reduced to a pretext. After an anti-democracy movement colluded with the military to create chaos and thus justify the coup of 2014 that toppled an elected civilian government, the coup makers arrived without a set reform agenda. Two months passed before the notion was officially addressed in the interim constitution as one of the junta’s three prime missions. 

 

The interim charter established the National Reform Council (NRC), which identified 11 areas in need of reform in a formal reform blueprint. Seeking to extend military rule, the NRC rejected the first draft charter two years ago, before being dissolved. Some members, notably the most obviously pro-junta ones, were then appointed to the new NRSA.

 

The NRSA served as a think-tank on issues related to the reform agenda. In other countries, reform usually involves moving forward, making progress. In Thailand it means looking inward and entrenching the military in politics.

 

NRSA vice-chairman Alongkorn Poonlaboot said the assembly’s job was to carry on the work of the NRC by turning its blueprint into an action plan. To do so, it has presented numerous implementation plans, including new regulations to implement its agenda. The original 37 agenda items had by July 27 expanded to 190 proposals. 

 

Almost 70 per cent of the proposals involve “fixing what’s broken”. Another 20 per cent focus on building on existing strengths. The rest entail creating something new. Alongkorn noted that there are now clear structures and procedures, plus supportive administrative mechanisms like the National Legislative Assembly, to push forward the NRSA proposals. 

 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has so far endorsed at least 176 of the proposals, but the independent NGO iLaw has complained that, rather than warranting celebration once it was completed, the NRSA’s work represented no meaningful reform despite 22 months of effort. Of the “hundreds of plans” for national reform the assembly presented, more than half are hazy and intangible, iLaw says. The NRSA submitted 131 reform reports covering more than 1,300 issues, but only about 320 of them – less than a quarter – were “concrete” enough for quick implementation.

 

It seems as though the assembly members did not understand what they were talking about while meeting for two years. They produced little more than meaningless political discourse, some of which ignored what the junta was actually doing in the streets. While the junta was suppressing democracy and gagging dissidents, the assembly said in a report that the government promoted the “political culture of democracy”. 

 

It is ridiculous to talk about de-mocracy under military rule. Some agenda items, notably regarding media reform, are even more absurd. Rather than promote press freedom, the reformers suggest more state-imposed regulations.

 

Quite apart from the woeful waste of taxpayers’ money, we are now being saddled with a reform agenda that would through the country backward instead of paving its path into the future.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30322398

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-01

[canuckamuck]

51 minutes ago, webfact said:

It seems as though the assembly members did not understand what they were talking about while meeting for two years.

Nothing unusual or surprising there. This is not a country that embraces clarity or precision in communication.

[colinneil]

Many  proposals from the national reform steering assembly are too vague to be of practical use.

Hello what do they expect??

These clowns just love meetings, time/money wasting, have no idea what they are  talking about.

[JAG]

Hardly surprising.

 

The mantra of the movement to prevent the last election was "reform before elections".

 

Given their antipathy to elections (they consistently lose them) one can expect the whole "reform" process to bumble along indefinitely.

[smutcakes]

Pretty punchy editorial. Particulalry coming out and straight up saying that the military basically colluded with the PDRC to create the need for the coup.

 

 

[over it]

18 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Many  proposals from the national reform steering assembly are too vague to be of practical use.

Hello what do they expect??

These clowns just love meetings, time/money wasting, have no idea what they are  talking about.

You forgot the part about hear themselves talk.

 

Moreover, without vagueness, where's the room for graft?

[mark01]

Let's hope a few more people/establishment/organizations/countries start saying it like it really is in Thailand.

Enough already.

[Eric Loh]

Can someone petition the NACC to slap a malfeasance charge on the NRSA for not doing a proper job and wasting tax payer money. A billion baht spent on 200 members in a year and half is not small change. These exclusively selected pro establishment members are paid too well to do a lousy job.  

[Lupatria]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Two years wasted on reform blueprint

18 more years to go...

[mikebell]

2 hours ago, smutcakes said:

Pretty punchy editorial. Particulalry coming out and straight up saying that the military basically colluded with the PDRC to create the need for the coup.

 

 

Totally agree Mr cakes.  What beats me is that you can get arrested for publishing a selfie of you and a beer, yet a newspaper can openly report that the military staged a coup then paid a billion for a worthless report.  Is it a language thing?  The Junta has no one who reads or can understand English,

[YetAnother]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

we are now being saddled with a reform agenda that would through the country backward

questionable english but i think we get the point; seems that is EXACTLY the intent of the coup and all that has gone on since then; junta calls it 'military democracy' just as a facade for the rest of the world, who then see thru it and call it 'military dictatorship'

[Srikcir]

5 hours ago, smutcakes said:

Pretty punchy editorial. Particulalry coming out and straight up saying that the military basically colluded with the PDRC to create the need for the coup.

 

 

Collusion is surely wild speculation.

June 14, 2014

Suthep: Prayut and I have been planning a coup since 2010

https://asiancorrespondent.com/2014/06/suthep-prayuth-and-i-have-been-planning-a-coup-since-2010/#1Dt8RUJJuxktDVhP.97

 

 

[AGareth2]

just money for the boys(and girls)

[ib1b4]

49 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

just money for the boys(and girls)

So all would have to agree that is mission accomplished?   1 billion baht into the hands of the good  (selected ) people. and held off any chance of elections.   ..WIN...WIN.?

[thurien]

" BANGKOK: -- The military junta has wasted more than Bt1 billion over the past two years paying 200 political opportunists to produce a vague, outdated and redundant “reform agenda”

 

neither time nor money wasted - both was cleverly used by the "powers" to assist their planned scheming: Who are we to know whether or not exactly this kind of result was to be achieved?

Edited August 1, 2017 by thurien

[realenglish1]

What do you expect from a dictator

He will tell you want you should do 

He has no interest in the well being of Thais