There is much talk of vote buying in relation to Thailand’s political crisis. Hard evidence is hard to come by but dark rumours persist of electoral handouts in return for votes. Well, New Mandala has some firm evidence due to the eagle eye of Nich Farrelly. Have a look at these snaps from the February 2005 election campaign. Political corruption at its worst – promises of free health care, 1200 baht per month bribes for senior citizens, slush funds for farmers, cash for local volunteers. And more! Yet another electoral outrage!
What’s that I hear??!! What party logos? Mahachon? Democrats? Surely not the anti-populist opposition parties. The photos can’t be real. Shame on you Nich! Clearly another Thaksin plot to discredit his enemies.
2 responses so far ↓
1 XKMasada // Sep 25, 2006 at 6:16 pm
The Mahachon party’s February 2005 campaign is one of reason I think that the Democrat party’s aborted October 2006 was doomed for failure.
Mahachon had what was essentially a “dual-track” campaign strategy. Mahachon tried to appeal to Bangkokians by trumping Acharn Anek, the party leader, and being the only party to explicitely promise that it would not privatize state enterprises. For rural voters, it tried to “out-Thaksin Thaksin” and beat TRT at its own populist game. Thus, while Thaksin promised and delivered 30 Baht healthcare, Mahachon promised free healthcare. While Thaksin promised and delivered education reform, Anek promised to give free education to the Bachelor’s degree level.
The result: humiliating defeat for Mahachon. I think they got only 1 seat in the first election (they added one or two more in by-elections).
The Democrats repeated the Mahachon strategy over the past few months (see Wikipedia for details and citations). The Democrats promised not only that tuition would be free, but that there would be no hidden costs and that textbooks, milk and lunchtime food would be free. The Democrats also cloned Mahachon’s 0-baht free-as-in-beer healthcare plan.
Why did Mahachon fail, and why were the Democrats doomed for failure? I believe the issue was credibility. Anek, Snoh, Abhisit, and all of their proxy bulldogs had used the broadest of brushstrokes to paint Thaksin as an evil monster out to bankrupt Thailand by overspending on populist handouts. Yet it was obvious that they were copying and amplifying his populist campaign.
It is as if the US Democrats spent 3 years protesting war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but in the election campaign, suddenly came out to say that it was also neccesary to wage war against Iran and Syria.
Political memories in Thailand are short, but they’re not *that* short, and the Bangkok elite always underestimates the intelligence of their upcountry brothers. Hopefully, the TRT will not be banned from the next election, and we’ll see whether the Thai people can be completely brainwashed about TRT’s track record in delivering on populism.
2 New Mandala » Diplomatic intent // Sep 27, 2006 at 3:16 am
[...] Right now, we are, however, hearing much banter about Thaksin’s supposedly “corrupt domination of the rural vote”. The realities on the ground often defy such convenient generalisation. [...]
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