On December 19, 2007, advertising trucks announced yet another supposedly non-partisan campaign event by members of the “House number 111″ group, especially the local hero, Chaturon Chaisaeng, and his political pal, Adisorn Piangket. Picture 1 shows such a truck parked near sala thai, while its driver played football with his friends on the adjacent multi-purpose field, which is used as a sports ground by many groups in the evenings. He provided me with the leaflet shown in picture 2. The headline says, “From the heart of Chaturon to the people of Chachoengsao.” The text reflects what he had said in his speech on December 12.
Picture 1
Picture 2
I saw this truck when I was observing the final campaign speech event organized by the constituency committee 2. About 20 people, most of them connected to the two parties (three candidates) that had turned up, formed the audience. By contrast, the Chaisaengs meant business. The square between sala thai and the provincial hall was full of occupied chairs. I counted 2,000 of them (50 rows of 40 chairs), but two people involved with the Chaisaengs’ election campaign independently told me that they had arranged for 3,000 chairs. It is possible that I had somehow miscounted the number. In addition, there were many people in the back and on both sides of the square. Thus, the audience was probably around 4,000 people. I local stringer told me that 200 baht of “gasoline money” had been paid to many of the participants. This is quite possible as well as usual, but, of course, there is no proof. I suggested to the kamnan, who I had mentioned in my first post on Chaturon, that such a large number of people required some mobilization. His answer was, “We have phoned each other in our phakphuak“ (local informal political clique). Indeed, when the event was over, one could see many pick-up trucks leaving the area loaded with groups of people.
Of course, one of the prominent participants, who did not have to be mobilized by any special incentives, was Chaturon’s father, Anand Chaisaeng. Picture 3 shows him framed by the wife of his mayor-son (right) and her sister (left). The other man in the picture used to be a provincial councilor and was the failed candidate of the family in the Senate races of 2000 and 2006.
The local press was also out in full force. Picture 4 shows a local stringer for a number of national papers in action. In picture 5, we see a group of listeners on the lawn next to the asphalted square.
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
The theme of the banner used as backdrop of the stage (picture 6) had been adjusted to the theme of the leaflet. It reads, “From the heart of Chaturon to the people of Chachoengsao.” She speaker here is Adisorn Piangket. He loves a colorful and attacking style, much different to the more academic approach of Chaturon, and is thus quite entertaining for the audience, which would respond with applause many times. Adisorn praised Thaksin Shinawatra and Thai Rak Thai’s great policies, and he thanked the people in the audience that they had elected TRT. He could not talk about another party, because this might lead it to be dissolved by the election commission. In fact, the ECT should be dissolved instead-a remark that prompted laughter and applause. Adisorn implored the audience that they should not harm Chaturon but take good care of his younger siblings-a reference to Wuthipong and Thitima. If not even one of them would make it to the House, this would be rather bad. He was missing Thaksin, who was not an evil person but a good one. At the end, Adisorn narrowed down the election of December 23 to a choice between democracy and dictatorship.
Picture 6
Picture 7
Picture 7 shows Chaturon at the beginning of his speech, still adjusting the microphone and handling the many garlands he received, while picture 8 shows him making one of the points “from his heart to the people.” Some sections of his speech were similar to what he had said at the earlier event.
Picture 8
This time, however, he also attacked the redrawing of the constituencies by the election commission. In particular, Chaturon attacked the inclusion of Thatakiap district in constituency 2. One could not even travel from the supposedly connected Plaeng Yao district to Thatakiap but had to travel through Sanam Chai Khet district, which was part of constituency 1. Another important issue was that he attacked “the opposition” in the election campaign for having resorted to heavy vote buying. Obviously, he could not mention any names in this context. However, it was clear enough to observers and the audience that this had to be a reference to Phanee Jarusombat, the main competitor of Wuthipong and Thitima. She had not only widely been tipped to come first in constituency 2, but had also been connected by a number of observers to an assumed heavy use of money in the Senate race of 2006, and then in the House election.
The trouble with the likes of Chaturon Chaisaeng in Thai politics is that they always head for the party with the most money. Essentially they are too lazy to build their own parties with real policies for local people. Thaksin treated Chaturon like shit in his last term, and Chaturon still wants to grayngjai the bastard. The unmistakable message – and forget all the folksy nice people pictures here – is that most Thai politicians almost completely lack the ability to act and think for themselves. They always head for the big finance and the fast fix- which always turns out to be a complete waste of time. Chaturon could be a half-decent politician if he could figure out a way to kick his terrible addiction to licking Thaksin’s arse.
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Chaturon does have the ability to think for himself, I believe, but he does so in a rather strange and perhaps non-politician way. One should also not forget that he spent five years in the jungle after 1976, and that he has a decidedly local background, although he used to study in the US. Chaturon does not easily connect to broader phuak or factions, but has remained rather more isolated, except for certain long-time friends, such as Adisorn, with who he once wanted to establish a new party. He has not been able to move beyond certain confines. This can be even less expected from his younger siblings, whose worldviews are rather more limited. In addition, Chaturon has to turn a blind eye, or even support, the dark sides of his family’s political success.
Anyway, I can’t give a political psychogramme of Chaturon here.
On the elections, I am still mostly in the dark, having been concerned with local events, with no access to TV so far. There were two suprises in Chachoengsao. First, Phichet beat Itthi in constituency 1. This is a surprise, although one newspaper had predicted this, and the director of constituency 1 had also voiced this opinion before election day. However, it is expected that Itthi made it and not Somchai, his running mate.
As for constituency 2, contrary to all expectations, Phanee Jarusombat did not come first, and in fact completely missed out, because Wuthipong and Thitima Chaisaeng came first and second.
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