New Mandala

7 responses so far ↓

• 1 LMS // Nov 4, 2006 at 9:40 pm

  Thaksin didn’t so much buy votes as buy politicians. After funding them in a fairly big way, they were then able to go out and buy the votes themselves

• 2 Andrew Walker // Nov 4, 2006 at 9:47 pm

  Thanks LMS – “buy the votes themselves”. Do you have any examples that show how this worked?

• 3 Bystander // Nov 5, 2006 at 5:09 am

  There’s this red card, yellow card thing that disqualified MPs. I don’t really follow it but I think a number of MPs get into trouble with this.. maybe you should start from there as well.

• 4 chris white // Nov 6, 2006 at 5:41 pm

  Hi Andrew

  I’ve got a story about ‘local electoral culture’ to do with the 2004 campaign. But its a bit too mundane – nothing salacious really. Its just a story of the local Mahachon candidate being driven around and introduced by the head man of the tambon.

  However, concerning all this stuff about vote buying; have you come across William Callahan’s article ‘The Discourse of Vote Buying and Political Reform in Thailand” published in Public Affairs Vol 78 No 1 2005?

  It’s quite an interesting read.

• 5 patiwat // Nov 7, 2006 at 12:29 pm

  Aurel Croissant and Daniel J. Pojar, Jr. wrote an article that surveyed vote buying in the 2005 election.

  They found widely varying accounts. Some academics claimed that there was less vote buying than in 2001, some that there was much more. PollWatch claimed things were worse. There were reports of cellphone cameras being used to take snapshots of ballots as evidence of voting for a candidate (this is why the EC in April 2006 decided to change the format for voting booths – for this they were jailed). Some researcher claimed that much less was spent on vote buying in 2005 compared to 2001. But that person also claimed that 2001 was the dirtiest election in Thai history – despite many other academics claiming 2001 was the cleanest in Thai history. The EC was either warmly praised or viciously blasted by commentators. The police claimed that political violence fell by more than half.

  Basically, any account of vote buying and fraud must be taken with a shovel, no – a barrel, of salt

• 6 Andrew Walker // Nov 8, 2006 at 7:11 am

  Chris – let’s hear your story about the Mahachon candidate. And thanks for the reference tot he article. And Patiwat, thanks for your refernce too.

• 7 chris white // Nov 9, 2006 at 2:05 pm

  Sorry – this is a long post.

  In a previous post I referred to the 2004 elections. I must have been hallucinating at the time. There weren’t any elections in 2004 – they were held in early February 2005. I apologise if I mislead anybody.

  My story about ‘local electoral culture’ is about the local Mahachon Party candidate. In a previous post I’ve written about his ‘caravan’ and the fantastic morlum concert/election rally he put on (which absolutely everybody went too) and the visibility of his campaign (in terms of election posters plastered on everything that didn’t move and reflective stickers stuck on everything that did). He is the son of a well-connected and extremely rich Sino-Thai rice miller/money lender and seemed to have the financial and/or physical support of many of the Sino-Thai businessmen in the district – including Mr. WT the headman of the local tambon. Late in the campaign the candidate was being lead around from house to house in the village by Mr. WT who performed the introduction and ‘broke the ice’. The Marhachon Party candidate seemed like a nice young fella, he was extremely polite and appeared genuinely responsive to voters concerns. Prominent amongst many ‘issues’ that the villagers brought up concerned the surfacing of the village roads. Only a small stretch had been concreted in the past and the amount of dust/particulate matter floating around in the air was causing lots of eye/lung infections amongst the kids. The candidate promised to ‘fight’ to get money for the village to fix the problem. Other prominent issues were the price they were getting for their rice, the revolving village fund and ‘universal’ health care. The candidate promised that he would match the scheme that TRT was putting forward to guarantee a ‘floor price’ for rice and would ‘fight’ to retain ‘universal’ health care and the village fund. All pretty boring and straight forward electioneering really.

  The ‘hua khanang, Mr. WT, was I think, hired to help with the electioneering for the duration of the campaign. (I ran into him at the rice mill when some of the villagers were selling some of their rice a week or two before). I’m not sure how tambon heads are get their position – if they are appointed by Bangkok or chosen by and from the ‘collective’ of village leaders. However, the gossip (and that’s all it could be) around the village is that he ‘bought’ the job off the previous the tambon head so that he could have a monthly wage. Mr. WT is a pretty interesting fella. He proudly identifies himself as Sino-Thai and associates himself with other Sino-Thai businessmen in the district. However, I don’t think that life has always been too easy. Like a lot of the 40 + year old men in the tambon, he spent a number of years working in Iraq as a ‘foreman’ (everyone who went to Iraq tells you that they were a ‘foreman’ – but I actually believe this guy) of a steel tying/concreting gang building the power stations, bridges, hospitals etc. that were later demolished by ‘the collation of the willing’. On his return from Iraq he had either saved enough money, or could borrow enough, to somehow got his hands on an old ‘back-hoe’ and four older dump trucks and set him self up in as an ‘earth mover’. You find these types of businesses working all over the northeast in the dry season. They buy and sometimes steal ‘top soil’ from the rice fields and then sell it to the villagers who use it to build up the soil around their house – this soil then gets washed away again during the wet season and finds its way down the Mun and Mekong River and eventually, I guess, into the South China Sea. He also built himself a huge modernist style concrete house/bunker; an architectural type typically associated with Sino-Thai living in the northeast. But that was 20 or so years ago and the house is showing signs of decay and in need of renovation.

  While the candidate was having ‘polite’ discussion with some of the householders Mr. WT turned his attention to me. Being the headman of the tambon I always try to engage him as a potential informant; as some one with a lot of local knowledge. However, perhaps just because I’m a white fella (and that he thinks that this is what white fellas want to hear), he always very quickly steers the conservation towards his sexual prowess and problems with the ‘Thai’ character that prevents economic development taking off. I’m still working on strategies to get the conservation past this point and then I can, hopefully, get a better idea of what he is about.

  We had to return to Australia a week or so before the election so I can’t offer any observations of what went on during this time. However, I’m sure Mr WT would love to be in a position of power and influence, and when it comes to tambon business I’m sure that he has. People treat him with smiles and respect when he is around and gossip about him a fair bit when he is not. But, when it came to convincing voters of whom to vote for on Election Day the evidence was, as expressed by the amount of votes the Mahachon Party candidate received, that his influence did not extend to this act.

  BTW. By the time we had returned in May 2006 most the streets in the village had been sealed (all the busy ones at least) and the rate of eye and lung infections amongst the kids had been reduced remarkably. I guess that TRT was making the same promises.

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