Thais Love Thais Who Buy Their Votes
He [Thaksin] remains the most influential politician in Thailand, where he is adored by the rural poor who benefited from his populist policies. But the educated urban elite largely revile him, judging him corrupt and power-hungry.
The anti-government protesters have demanded a change to Thailand’s Western-style electoral system, which they say Thaksin exploited to buy votes. They instead favor a system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups. ~AP
Of course Thaksin exploited this system to buy votes, and it is because he bought votes that he is enormously popular among the people whose votes he bought. That sounds vaguely familiar. The opposition’s alternative electoral system is not something that is proposed very often these days. I don’t think I have heard of middle-class professionals arguing for a quasi-corporatist voting system in a modern democratic state. It is usually the case in democratizing states that urban middle-class voters want to dismantle the institutional privileges granted to established estates and corporations, but the goal of weighting votes and providing votes to representatives of professions is plainly to prevent another demagogue such as Thaksin from prevailing in elections. It remains unclear whether the liberals or the democrats will prevail in Thailand, but for Thailand’s sake we can hope that Thaksin and his party lose.
6 Responses to “Thais Love Thais Who Buy Their Votes”
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Your blogging output has been really high today, even by your standards. I really appreciate the non-election related posts; over the last couple months I’ve been tempted to flee to a remote location where the names ‘Obama’, ‘McCain’, and ‘Palin’ are never spoken, and to return to civilization on November 5th.
There have been a lot of interesting articles, which is unusual for a Saturday. Also, I’m going back through RealClearWorld’s archive for this week, which has provided a lot of news reporting that I needed to catch up on.
I’m trying to transition away from the campaign and settle back into a more sane balance of topics. Foreign policy will be featured more, as it has been in the past, but I also hope to return to some neglected areas that I used to spend more time on in previous years. I’d like to get back to more philosophical and theological topics in the coming months. As I believe they said in Dune, election politics is the mind-killer.
I’d like to get back to more philosophical and theological topics in the coming months.
That would be wonderful.
I think the situation is more nuanced than you perceive it to be.
There are no good guys in this story. But the lesser of the two evils at this juncture seems to be Thaksin’s party. Even then Thaksin is in self-imposed exile somewhere. So them being Thaksin’s party is questionable.
The ‘liberals and democrats” are not liberals or democrats at all. Lets call them the Bangkok Elites. The Bangkok Elites basically demand a return to the days when they wielded power. Even currently they enjoy influence in the bureaucracy, judiciary and army. Unfortunate for them rural Thais have decided to cast their votes for someone who has catered to their interests, ie Thaksin’s party.
Thaksin’s party and its latest incarnate have been repeatedly voted back into power by rural Thais. Much of this can be attributed to the policies started by Thaksin, micro credit, free healthcare etc. So Thaksin party has lavished attention and money on where the voters are and less so on the flourishing and rich Bangkok. Effective politics? Yes. But one can also call it fair after years of neglect of the rural areas by previous governments.
On the question of voting buy. I don’t know the pervasiveness of it. But even the Bangkok Elites practice it. The cases that have gone to courts have been quite trivial. Theres no rampant vote buying that has been proved yet. Maybe thats just effective concealment.
But one thing is for sure the Bangkok Elites have disregarded the rule of law by occupying Government buildings and preventing government officials from working in their offices. This is no peace loving rabble, they are armed so far with rudimentary weapons but some have been seen with guns as well. In all sense of the word they are thugs. While the Bangkok Elites may not be directly involved in this proxy war they are definitely bankrolling them.
Finally the Bangkok Elites have asked for only 30% of parliamentarians to be elected while 70% of them should be chosen by a non-elected body (made up most likely by ex-bureaucrats and ex-military officers). They believe that rural Thais are lowly, uneducated and cannot make an informed decision when voting. This just smacks of elitism to me. At the core of any democracy is one man one vote. They are not democrats by far. So I have no sympathy for their concerns.
Thaksin’s party has been guilty in the past of being too authoritarian and wanting to change the composition of the courts, military and bureaucracy in their favor. Even then I suspect that they had faced opposition within those non-elected bodies to their policies. So they tried to make it more favorable. Whatever he case at least they still are willing to let each person have their vote.
I agree entirely with Manbeer above.
A few points:
1) Really, you should get on your editors to make the re-direct happen…You’ve promised it for I think almost a year now and it has not happened. What’s the deal there?
2) Regarding Thaskin and Thailand. I think maybe you are (and perhaps rightly so) entirely anti-Bush, that anyone globally who supported the war in Iraq- you have a natural inclination to oppose. Even though W. was wrong to invade Iraq, not all his allies were wrong to engage in the War- or at least, they do not all deserve your hatred.
3) As an old-school conservative, who has enjoyed rising when- since 2001- rising for the King at the movie theatre-in Thailand- I’m not a someone who is at the heart of it pro-Thaskin….at the same time, the King and his party is awful. And the Democrat Party of Thailand is using this to usurp their way into power……..
The book to read is (although it is written from a terribly left- perspective) “The King Never Smiles”
As an “ultra” it pains me to write this, but I do believe that a good deal of Thailand being screwed up is a direct result of the Monarchy.
I would like to think that, if the Monarcy and if the King were anything other than a cipher- prositution would not be such an export.
Bavaria abolished its corporately-organized upper house a year or two ago, so I think the Seanad Eireann is the last corporately-organized parliamentary body in Europe.