[Tlc] T-politics

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Dr. Bonnie Brereton.
Thanks,
justin

hai protest leader wants to reduce voters' power
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MICHAEL CASEY | September 4, 2008 02:36 AM EST | AP

BANGKOK, Thailand — Sondhi Limthongkul says he is fighting to save Thai democracy from what he calls the corrupt politicians who have abused it to remain in power.

But analysts say that the agenda pushed by Sondhi _ and his comrades who have occupied Bangkok's seat of government for a week _ would severely set back the country's fragile political system.

The 61-year-old media mogul and protest leader for the People's Alliance For Democracy wants to abandon the Thailand's popularly elected Parliament for one in which a majority of members would be appointed.

"Democracy has been here 46 years and we keep getting the same vicious circle," Sondhi told The Associated Press in an interview on the grounds of the Government House, as the prime minister's office compound is known. "Something has to be wrong with the system."

Sondhi's media empire includes a daily newspaper, a popular news Web site and a satellite television station that effectively serves as the voice of the protest alliance and a counterpoint to government-controlled stations.

Thousands of alliance supporters _ who include royalists, the urban elite and union activists _ say their protests are aimed at forcing Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to resign, accusing him of being a proxy for his predecessor Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and has since fled to Britain.

But their real target appears to be the country's electoral system.

The alliance's plan "turns out to be a startlingly reactionary proposal to move Thailand's parliamentary system towards ... what might be called a selectoral democracy," Michael Connors, an expert on Thai politics who teaches at La Trobe University in Australia, wrote on the Thai Web site Prachatai.com in July.

Connors and other academics have said Sondhi's plan would enhance the power of the country's military and monarchy at the expense of the poor.

"The majority of Thais, especially in the rural areas, will suffer the most because they will lose their voices and the bargaining power given to them by the 1997 constitution," said Thanet Charoenmaung, a political science lecturer at Chiang Mai University.

The 1997 charter was billed as an attempt to broaden democracy, but critics charge it backfired by marginalizing the power of small parties and allowing bigger, richer groups _ such as Thaksin's now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party _ to grab bigger pieces of the pie for themselves.

Thaksin and his political allies have won four consecutive elections since 2001, leaving opposition leaders like Sondhi demoralized and struggling to find a way to woo the country's rural majority _ key to political victory in Thailand.

Thaksin's success has largely depended on his populist policies that provided rural residents with cheap health care, village development funds and debt forgiveness schemes.

Promising similar policies, Samak's People's Power Party won elections in December and formed the current government.

Sondhi started a one-man crusade against Thaksin _ a former business ally with whom he fell out _ in late 2005 and attracted followers with his sharp speaking style and media savvy. The movement broadened into the People's Alliance for Democracy in early 2006.

Instead of trying to win the rural vote themselves, Sondhi and his allies have proposed amendments that would minimize the power of the electorate altogether. They say some voters are too easily manipulated by Thaksin and just aren't smart enough to cast their own ballots.

"Somebody said 'don't the poor have the right to vote,'" Sondhi said. "They do have the right to vote. We also have the right to educate them. Give them access to the information. The problem is they don't have access to the right information now."

Currently, Samak's six-party coalition controls two-thirds of the seats in the 480-member House, an elected body. The Senate, which had also been an elected body, was changed under the influence of the coup leaders to one in which half the members are appointed.

Sondhi's plan would do something similar to the lower house, stripping it of most elected members.

It is far from clear whether his vision can be realized. He first must get rid of Samak, who has so far refused to resign. And even then, he would have to persuade politicians to largely ignore their own self-interest and hand over power to a collection of academics, union heads and business leaders.

Samak tried to point out the paradox and rally support by criticizing the plan during a debate with lawmakers who met over the weekend. He criticized it again on Thursday when he told a nationwide audience that he was not resigning in order to protect democracy.

"Ask all academics in the country. Could they accept this "new politics?" Samak asked Thursday during a nationwide radio address. "What would happen to the country next?"
______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu