Trapped in a vicious circle of the same old bedlam

August 7, 2008
By Pornpimol Kanchanalak
The Nation

The Preah Vihear border skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia has caused controversy recently, but it may not be the last such dispute. People in the know cannot openly talk about it in any detail; most people who are talking about it are only vaguely in the know. One gets the feeling that the worst is yet to come.

THE new Cabinet is worse than old wine in a new bottle. It is like throwing the putrid liquid in our face for a Roman Holiday. And the silent majority or minority, or whatever, of Thais are feeling that things in our political scene are back to where they have been over the last five months - bedlam.

It is hard to comprehend why, given all the protests and dissenting voices, it did not occur to our leader that maybe he should try to turn a new page by making his Cabinet less unattractive; that he should fill just half the Cabinet seats with more competent professionals who are known for their integrity, like the new foreign minister. It would have been the best revenge, served cold, to the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), and the fire-extinguisher that would have effectively quelled the political temperature. This reshuffled Cabinet may not last long, given the blitz of court cases against the prime minister and members of his administration, but it could have given him a different legacy.

But it is not to be. It confirms once again that people can only change the size, not the sort. For the last five months, our leader has clearly demonstrated his ability to blow hot and cold, and not much else. We are usually our own worst enemy.

Tuning out and turning away is perhaps what many Thais are doing. But the world does not stop while we are not looking. And the direction our politics is heading in, if we care to look, is enough to make your hair stand on end.

The looming crisis will come when the move to amend the current Constitution goes into full motion. I am one of the 'No' voters against the 2007 charter, but Article 63 was not one of the reasons for my opposition. Just as the 1997 constitution was an honest attempt to remedy one of the Achilles heels in Thai politics - one that that renders political parties weak - the 2007 Constitution was an attempt to put in place mechanisms to prevent a repeat of parliamentary domination and outright cronyism. On many points, it went too far and managed to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Amending a constitution is a serious undertaking that requires serious consideration and maximum transparency of the motives and procedure. The goal of the amendment must be to improve the political fundamentals of the country and to strengthen democracy, not for the benefit of any particular group of people. Due process must be respected and the amendment must not be done on a whim as a reaction to certain political inconveniences of the ruling party.

Eighteen charters and constitutions since 1932 signify inherent and systemic political volatility. It is a spectre that reincarnates itself and haunts our future, as we continue to stumble on the same rock over and over again.

It is not possible to legislate for all human behaviour or political manoeuvring. Any attempt to do so would curse us to be in search of the ideal forever. But the rule of law is the heart of democracy. And so are participation and dissent, and civil society and people making decisions about how they are governed. Democracy is not about shutting up and shutting down dissenting elements. It is about how to incorporate them into a meaningful democratic process of give and take, of checks and balances.

The butthead approach taken by both the government and the PAD leads the country into further disarray. It is no longer possible for the government to do its job, and violence is poised to become the weapon of choice in our political malaise. The voice of reason and of conscience finds no place among the political players, nor does it find many willing ears. Meanwhile, "subservient forces" are going in for the kill, for a major change in our traditional political structure. The vacuum, perceived and real, of government authority and/or its lack of a clear legitimate mandate become a breeding ground that, only a few years ago, these forces could only dream about. There is no way we can put them all in jail. But right now nobody can come up with an effective way to neutralise them without inadvertently enhancing their fervour.

As if we have not had it bad enough, we are seeing the fraying at the edges of the ruling party. Fingers are being pointed at their very own "Gang of Four" and "two leeches" and the undisguised threat of "exposing" them. The public will have a ball watching them wash their dirty linen in public, but not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Nobody seems to be in charge or in control.

The Preah Vihear border skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia has caused controversy recently, but it may not be the last such dispute. People in the know cannot openly talk about it in any detail; most people who are talking about it are only vaguely in the know. One gets the feeling that the worst is yet to come.

Blame for the country's current political afflictions is being apportioned to one single individual or a group of individuals. Many of the accusations are baseless and unfair. One dreadful thing about it is that more people on each side of the conflict seem to entertain the notion that "taking out" the "undesirable elements" is what is needed for a resolution, even it means blood will be spilled. It reminds me of a story that took place in another part of the world about a boy who found God. He wanted to please God and found that his father was standing in the way. The father was pulling the rug out from under him when he went to pray. The boy shot the father and felt exonerated. It had to be done, even at that price.

We are a country on the ropes. That is not the worse part. It's our cluelessness about what is heads and what is tails, and the widespread pugilism as the first and last resort for conflict resolution. Our mindless fisticuffs will land us in the "cuckoo's nest" where people like "Nurse Ratched" are lurking behind the torn curtains.