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The government’s latest suggestion is to spend some 2 billion baht (US$58 million) on what would only be a loaded dice throw it called a referendum. The issue to be thrown to the public is whether the government should stay or go. Ostensibly the “majority rules” democratic aspect of such a referendum would placate, somehow, intense pressure on the government to resign – especially directed at Thaksin-appointed Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who the PAD has been calling the guy with the “nose of a pig and mouth of a dog.”
It’s no wonder that the Thai government is looking for ways to shut down the PAD-affiliated ASTV signal coming out of Hong Kong via satellite that carries such messages. But with current court protection in accordance with free speech and constitutional rights rulings, the efforts are going nowhere.
Under Thaksin Shinawatra’s administration, it was far easier to silence criticism. Thaksin would anonymously order the TV or radio program either to be shut down or its offensive speakers removed.
The idea of a referendum at this point, or possibly any point, is relatively worthless. There is still a groundswell of support for the former and dissolved Thai Rak Thai party and its populist spending founder Thaksin. The support carries over into that for the current nominee Palang Prachachon, or People’s Power Party, of Samak Sundaravej, where the six coalition partners are old – literally and figuratively – war horses of the political elite that Thailand should have dispensed with decades ago.
Referendums are a mixed kettle of fish. But there is no mystery as to the motive behind suggesting one in Thailand at this time. A public plebiscite would affirm the current government, allowing it to claim legitimacy and the right to demand that protesters back off and allow things to coast back to normal. It would do nothing to resolve the underlying issues that started the protests in the first place, revolving around immense corruption, cronyism, pork barreling and total lack of transparency in dealing with state funds.
The Samak administration has repeatedly shown it is determined to amend the 2007 charter to prevent Election Commission-initiated advice that the PPP, the prime minister’s party, be dissolved. As well, amendments would be made that would restore the right of some 111 former Thai Rak Thai party executives to engage in politics. That they have already done so de-facto, largely through family member proxies, does not seem to worry anyone.
Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Jan. 29 approved the election of Samak Sundaravej as the country’s 25th prime minister, allowing the formation of a new government. Earlier Parliament had voted 310 to 163 in favor of Samak, split right along ruling coalition and opposition party lines.
The role of the monarch in approving such electoral results is, according to a well-placed royal observer, a pro-forma function of the king and carries no personal connotation as to whether the monarch had any opinion regarding Samak’s credentials to lead the country. Yet those credentials, or perhaps more rightly a lack of them, have become the focus of growing efforts to have Samak leave his post.
What is clear is Samak’s meddling with the Constitution, slipshod if not totally incompetent handling of the Phrea Vihear situation – where Thailand seems to have lost sovereignty over its own territory near what is to be a Khmer World Heritage site – and bungling over budgetary issues. Never mind his own appeal against a prison term.
Many wonder – except for his coalition partners jointly feasting on public ignorance – why this guy still remains in power. Will his stubborn resolve in statements like “I won’t quit!” require another bloodbath, like one he allegedly participated in inciting in 1976, before he does step down? Or, as many hope, will King Bhumibol again step in and offer wise counsel that will restore stability?
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com -- he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
