Thai people frustrate Royals and generals
The election by the Thai
parliament on Monday 28 January 2008 of Samak Sundarajev, leader of the People
Power Party (PPP), to serve as Prime Minister of Thailand, at the head of a
six-party coalition dominated by the PPP, climaxed a major victory for the Thai
people in frustrating a conspiracy against democracy by the most reactionary
sections of society, namely the monarchy and its feudal hangers-on, together
with the military-bureaucratic elite.
Samak won 310 votes as against 163 for his only
rival.
Samak’s government is overwhelmingly
composed of supporters and often close associates of Thailand’s former, deposed
Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who is currently in exile.
Thaksin was deposed in a military coup on
19 September 2006, undoubtedly with royal complicity if not outright
instigation, following several weeks of street demonstrations in the capital
Bangkok by sections of the urban middle class, protesting at unproven
corruption allegations against Thaksin and members of his family, in the
fashion of the now well-scripted “colour revolutions”, much favoured by
imperialism for purposes of “regime change” when sovereign governments refuse
to do their bidding.
Thaksin is a billionaire
businessman whose fortune was largely made in telecoms. However, as his
policies combined popular measures to alleviate the plight of the rural poor
(to whom no previous Thai government had ever paid the slightest attention),
along with an economic development programme that stressed close ties with
neighbouring economies, especially those of China, Singapore and Vietnam,
rather than with the imperialist countries, he won a devoted and abiding
following in the countryside as well as strong support from sections of both
the working class and the national bourgeoisie. It was these practical policies
that earned him the hatred of monarchists and militarists and led to his
downfall.
The formation of Samak’s
government followed a general election on 23 December 2007 in which the PPP, formed
after the military junta had banned Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai party (loosely
translated as Thais Love Thais) and barred 111 of its leaders from political
activity or office.
The junta had been forced to call elections owing
to its lack of a sustainable base in Thai society, and growing popular
discontent at the worsening economic crisis sparked by their incompetence (in
2007 the country’s rate of growth was the lowest in southeast Asia), but it by
no means meekly accepted the outcome.
In a 24 January 2008 editorial, The Economist
summarised the junta’s post-electoral manoeuvrings as follows:
“The junta tried its utmost to thwart the
relatively benign outcome that now seems possible. It had Mr Thaksin and more
than 100 colleagues banned from politics for five years. His Thai Rak
Thai party was dissolved. It re-formed as the People’s Power Party (PPP) and,
to the generals’ dismay, won far more seats than any other party in the
election, just shy of an outright majority. The Thai people – particularly the rural
poor who benefited from Mr Thaksin’s development policies – spoke loudly. They
told the military-royalist elite in Bangkok that, for all his faults, they
still wanted Mr Thaksin, or a like-minded alternative…
“Legal shenanigans since the election might
still have frustrated the people’s choice. The Election Commission held an
extravagant number of inquiries into allegations of vote-fiddling, mainly
directed at the PPP. And the Supreme Court decided to hear several cases
calling for the party’s election victory to be annulled…The Supreme Court,
sensibly, rejected the idea that the PPP itself should be banned.”
The new government intends to restore Thaksin’s
popular economic policies. The newly appointed Finance Minister Surapong
Suebwonglee is not only a close associate of Thaksin, but was formerly an
activist in the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT), which was extremely strong
until the early 1980s, but is now generally considered to be defunct.
Samak’s government is pledged to high levels of
public spending to promote economic growth, especially in infrastructure and
public transport. They are also pledged to reinstate Thaksin’s policies of
generous village development funds, a low-cost universal health care scheme, a
debt moratorium for some three million indebted farmers, the purchase and
distribution of two million cows to poor farmers, educational loans for poor
students, establishment of a “village bank” to provide cheap loans, and a
crackdown on drug traffickers.
Among the first measures announced by the new
government were the reimposition of price controls on 35 essential goods and
steps to monitor the prices of 200 other necessities.
Speculation is now rife that Thaksin will return
from exile to clear his name and re-enter the political arena. His wife has
already returned home and been bailed on corruption charges, which she denies.
The people of Thailand have won an important
victory in their democratic struggle, but one may be sure that intrigues are
still being hatched in royal palaces and barracks to frustrate their will. It
is noteworthy that the Thai generals receive none of the opprobrium that
imperialism reserves for their counterparts in neighbouring Burma. The working class movement should take a stand in support of the democratic struggles
of the Thai people, who have made clear their support for the policies of
Thaksin Shinawatra.
Post Script
As we were going to press,
as expected, Thaksin made an emotional return home on 28 February, to be
greeted by thousands of supporters, including leading members of the
government. He expressed confidence that he would be acquitted of all
corruption charges, on which he has now been bailed, but stuck to his previous
public assurances that he did not intend to re-enter political life. His
supporters, however, may well have other ideas and the political struggle in
the country is expected to intensify.