Abhisit, elections and the poor
In BusinessWeek (21 March 2010), this headline “Abhisit Hails Gains for Poor Thais as He Targets Thaksin’s Base” appears for a story where Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says that “his party has gained traction among the poor in opposition strongholds and blamed rivals for creating a violent atmosphere that makes an election untenable.”
Abhisit, speaking from his army base headquarters, is quoted as stating that: “Rural people have a legitimate voice in saying they have not had as good a deal as they should…. We are actually moving ahead with some very successful programs in rural areas, which is why he’s [Thaksin Shinawatra] so anxious to cut it off…”.
The article further quotes the embattled premier: “We look at the voting patterns, the votes in the last election, and there are enough marginal seats that we can potentially pick up…”. Being BusinessWeek, it adds that Abhisit’s “father is a director of Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl, Thailand’s 13th-biggest company by market value.”
The article claims that “Thaksin and his allies won the past four elections with support from northern Thais attracted to a platform of cheap health care and village loans. Abhisit’s government has aimed to build on those policies by offering free health care and school supplies, cash payments for the elderly, income guarantees for farmers and low-income housing.”
In an interesting reflection on this story, the Bangkok Post (23 March 2010) has a story on local administration organisations “threatening to stage a protest if the government refuses to give them enough money to cope with rising expenditure in the 2011 fiscal year.” They say they are going to “scrutinise state subsidy allocations to see whether the government gives them 25% of tax collected as required by law…”.
What’s the problem for these locals?”Last fiscal year, the government loaded local administrations with more special assignments such as the distribution of welfare money for the elderly, the disabled and the underprivileged, the 15-year free education scheme and special payments for health volunteers. Local bodies were forced to use their own budget of 28 billion baht for the three state schemes…”.
Neat idea on the part of the Democrat Party-led coalition. Implement schemes in local areas, fleece local budgets for paying for some of it and then claim credit for “welfare policies.”
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