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Context
- The newest twist to the ongoing political turmoil in Thailand is the failure on of the former Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, deposed in 2014 by a constitutional court, to appear for the final verdict in a case relating to a rice subsidy scheme.
The on-going speculations
- Shinawatra absence has fueled conjecture that she may have fled the country, much like her sibling and erstwhile head of government Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006 in a military coup and has been living in exile since.
- The Shinawatras largely symbolize the boiling opposition to the deep-rooted influence of the military and urban elites in a nation where the contemporary record is a continuous cycle of coups and military-inspired Constitutions.
The state of constitution
- The Constitution has little to praise itself in terms of either enshrining democratic principles or popular legitimacy.
- It provides for a nominated upper house, a non-elected Prime Minister, and greater powers for the Generals.
- A 2016 referendum drew a mere 61% approval even from the small 55% voter turnout.
- The plebiscite uncovered long-festering ethnic divisions between the Malay Muslim-concentrated provinces in the south who rejected the Constitution and the remaining majority Buddhist regions.
- Given the systematic suppression of dissent and the introduction of draconian legislation, human rights activists have all too often fallen foul of the Generals.
- Any hopes for a stable democratic government in Thailand will hinge on the conduct of free and fair general elections promised for 2018.
Scheme for farmers
- The government of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha was obliged to offer farmers loans owing to record-low global prices for rice.
- The move was not much unlike the subsidy scheme that Ms. Shinawatra was sought to be proceeded against.
Position at ASEAN
- There is perhaps weight in the assessment that the once-thriving Thai economy could be losing out to competition from ASEAN neighbours who have emerged from conflict and dictatorship of the recent past.
- The country’s leaders should also be concerned that shortfalls in democratic governance may not always go unnoticed, notwithstanding the ASEAN principle of mutual non-interference in the internal affairs of member nations.
