Charter Of, By and For the Elites Via Bangkok Pundit: Good Article on how the Thai Feudal Elites Systematically Oppress the Poor

Charter Of, By and For the Elites

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, May 4 (IPS) - As they makes half-hearted attempts to restore democracy in Thailand, the country's elites that profited most from last September's coup are in two minds about the role of elections and public participation in the future.

Thai democracy can do without either goes the thinking among a section of the country's political leadership, sections of academia and even the judiciary -- members of which were hand-picked by the junta that staged the country's 18th coup with plans to redraw its political map.

This oligarchy is leaving no room for doubt as to who it has in mind in attempting to erect this wall of exclusion -- the rural poor. Anti-poor and anti-election rhetoric is visible in the newly released draft of the country's 18th constitution and the arguments that support it.

Little wonder why this ‘'constitution for the rich,'' as some are describing it, has provoked a debate about how serious the junta and its supporters among the urban elite are in moving the country forward as a developing democracy. The clear limits placed on the popular will in the new charter -- including replacing an elected upper house with an appointed one -- has become hard to ignore given the democratic spirit of the 1997 constitution. This ‘'people's constitution'' was shredded by the junta after grabbed power on Sep. 19, 2006.

'Fear and loathing of elective democracy is the dominant theme of the new draft constitution,'' argues a respected political analyst, who writes under the pseudonym Chang Noi, in Monday's edition of The Nation. ‘'Never again, the drafters hope, should real power be based upon the people's vote.''

‘'This is a way to keep the poor out of the political system because the elite favour a patronage system, where they can retain their status,'' Bantorn Ondam, advisor to Assembly of the Poor, one of the country's largest grassroots networks, told IPS. ‘'They would rather deal with the poor through welfare schemes than strengthening their political and democratic rights.''


Bread and circuses, bread and circuses. Or, in the case of Thailand, rice and television, rice and television, with yellow shirts, Jatukarm Ramathep amulets, a royal cult of personality, and right-wing nationalism thrown in for good measure.

Read the rest here.