Deconstructing Sophon: He Got Something Right for Once

SIDELINES

Somkid's return more than just an unpleasant surprise

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's new political game plan is puzzling, and his latest announcement came as a shock when he named Somkid Jatusripitak, a guru in political marketing and a staunch believer in free markets, as a key campaigner for the sufficiency economy model.

It was a strange twist by Surayud and came as a complete U-turn for Somkid, who was once dubbed a prot้g้ and potential successor to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Somkid was a practitioner of Thaksinomics, now blamed for much of the ills plaguing the rural and urban sectors.

Surayud has not spelled out how he suddenly found virtue in Somkid and how he conveniently ignored the fact that the younger man was among those being investigated for wrongdoings during the Thaksin government's term in power.

Somkid has also not explained how he was drawn to the sufficiency economy model despite his lifelong belief in free-market economy, consumption and debt-driven growth, as well as the privatisation of state enterprises and bubbling stock prices.

People still remember Somkid preaching with gusto about all the goodies in his former party's populist programmes during his political marketing campaigns, which encouraged voters to cast ballots for the Thai Rak Thai Party in exchange for debt suspension, the village fund, the Bt30-healthcare scheme and other alluring offers.

Somkid actually stuck to those populist policies and Thaksinomics and remained loyal to Thaksin until the coup on September 19 last year. His apparent attempt to distance himself from Thaksin in the months before the regime change did not materialise. Nobody asks why, because Thaksin was all too powerful.

The dude must be reading my blog, because he basically makes all the same points I did a couple days ago. Whether he did or not, I don't care. I'm just glad he bringing this hypocrisy out in the open.

Thais must think foreigners are idiotic to accept Somkid as the junta's new international mouthpiece for sufficiency theory. But, quite frankly, I think the international community will probably buy into this bullshit like it does every other piece of Thai bullshit. So maybe the Thais are onto something. Maybe foreigners are idiotic. Thai policy on explaining things to farang: Grin like you are retarded, mangle the English language, and fill their ears with sweet words and insincere flattery. And it works, so why stop now.


My personal feeling is that sufficiency theory is just a cover for the junta's more uglier nefarious agenda. Who really believes the military will practice sufficiency theory? I certainly don't. Is having two airports sufficient? Is increasing the defense budget sufficient? Is raising the budget deficit sufficient? Is giving big payoffs to all the officers who backed the coup sufficient? Were the capital controls sufficient? Is the new foreign business act sufficient? One can make the argument that nothing the junta has done so far is in conjunction with sufficiency theory. Indeed, I would argue there has been no right thinking or right action in any of their activities at all. Like I have argued a million times, there is no correlation between juntanomics and sufficiency theory--and what the junta has produced so far seems to have proven me right.

The junta is just promoting sufficiency theory as a royal trend to hide their accumulation of wealth and power behind the sacredness of the monarchy, which means that this junta will be no different than the military dictatorships of the past.


From where I am sitting, I think the ultimate plan is to repackage Thaksinomics as Sufficiency Theory, which is why they need Somkid. Otherwise, I don't see the need for him, at least for the moment. Will he whore himself to the junta at election time and be their candidate? But what about Thaksin's minions? Isn't this the ultimate slap in the face to old Square Face? Or will they fall in back of Somkid as if he was the new Godfather who just whacked the heads of the five families? The thing about Somkid is that he has neither the money nor the factional power that former prime ministers and king makers had. Somkid has always had a Patron like Sondhi or Thaksin, but he has never been a Patron himself. Who will step up to be Somkid's financier and consigliere? Or will the junta's lackeys and former Thai Rak Thai factions merge together into one happy corrupt all powerful coalition with Somkid as the ultimate frontman?


Regardless, it is a brilliant political move from a propaganda point of view, because basically the junta will take all of Somkid's and Thaksin's Thaksinomic ideas and repackage them as the king's self sufficiency ideas with the military government as the benevolent facilitators.


I mean, will the Thai peasantry really care where their goodies are coming from as long as they keep getting them?


After all, Thais have no loyalty to anything except their own personal interests.