Thai government accused of vote buying
Updated
The Thai government has been accused of trying to buy votes with its latest spending plans ahead of this year's election.
In a marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday over 100 proposals were pushed through, ranging from housing subsidies to major rail infrastructure. At the same time the government has announced a delay in naming the election date, which is widely expected by July.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Andrew Walker, senior fellow, Australian National University; Dr Somjai Phagaphasvivat, politics professor, Thammasat University
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SNOWDON: Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has faced a lot of problems in his two and a half years in office. The global financial crisis, the worst fighting on the Cambodian border in two decades, and political protests last year in which at least 90 died under his watch. Now he's being accused of invoking 'Thaksinomics' -- the style of vote-buying spending measures much favoured by his most famous predecessor, Thaksin Shinawatra. But no-one should be surprised says Andrew Walker, from the Australian National University.
WALKER: Well this government in Thailand has got a lot of electoral ground to try to make up. They face very formidable opponents in terms of the allies of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who remains very popular in Thailand. So what we're seeing is the current government making pretty much a last minute pitch to the electorate. One of the legacies of Thaksin is that he's very much changed the culture of Thai politics and popularism has become flavour of the month.
SNOWDON: The news media and some business groups have come done hard in criticising what they see as short term spending in the several billion dollars allocated to mostly low and middle income earners. There's to be a home mortgage subsidy scheme for first home buyers, some small business loans and new spending for specific education and health projects. Political analyst Dr Somjai Phagaphasvivat says unlike 'Thaksinomics', the handouts aren't aimed at locking in long term political loyalty. Rather they are for short term electoral gain but while they won't blow out the budget, they'll do little to make the Thai economy more competitive.
SOMJAI: If you look at this package most of them are short term, that is for the political benefit because most of them try to reduce the expense. But they don't boost competitiveness amongst the Thai people, that is lacking from this package.
SNOWDON: The country remains deeply divided a year after opposition rallies by the Red Shirt movement and main opposition, which wants a pardon for self- exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin. Professor Somchai from Thammasat University believes the polarisation of Thailand will worsen after the election.
SOMCHAI: Because a number of Thais, I would suspect a majority wont accept a platform based on a lack of the rule of law. For this reason I expect the polarisation after the election would increase and would not discount the possibility of even a violent confrontation.
SNOWDON: The dissolving of parliament ahead of setting the election date was expected this week, but has been delayed. Andrew Walker says most commentators still expect the election to be held by July and constitutionally it must beheld by the end of the year -- but nothing is certain yet.
WALKER: This is Thai politics and nothing can be relied on here. And we need to remember that there are some powerful forces in Thailand that would rather that an election doesn't go ahead because they're worried that the political allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra will win the election. In particular there's many very powerful and very senior people in the army who would rather not have an election and some people have speculated that the army might try to escalate this border conflict they're having with Cambodia so that could be used as a pretext for delaying the election.
SNOWDON: Would that be Prime Minister Abhisit's view do you believe?
WALKER: Look its very hard to predict what Prime Minister Abhisit's view is. He's obviously very concerned his party wont win the election. He's got some hopes of being able to cobble together a coalition government after the election. But the fact is that Abhisit is caught between some very powerful players. He was brought in to government with the strong backing of the military and the Palace and it's probably the military and the Palace in Thailand who are most nervous about an election so I'm sure Abhisit is getting a lot of heat about that.
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