Chapter NINE." Governance " in Thailand (original) (raw)
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Since the early 1990s, Thailand has experienced two decades of movements toward more decentralization—i.e. the transfer of authority, responsibility, and resources from the central government to local ones. While local development is flourishing, there are a number of challenges impeding the moving to more local governance, noticeably the central government bureaucrats’ attempts to maintain and protect their power and interests (Chardchawarn, 2010). Relations between central and local governments in Thailand are those of fluctuation due to political instability caused by a series of coups over the past sixty years. Once again, the latest coup on 22 May and the subsequent military junta have posed a new threat to the already vulnerable local governments. The objective of this short article is to provide an overview of the evolution of decentralization in Thailand, articulate problems impeding its progress, and address the potential threat under the junta rule.
Some Observations on Democracy in Thailand
Hong Kong: Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong. (Working Paper Series No. 125) , 2012
Thailand's political system, similar to other sub-systems of the Thai social formation, 1 is often seen as being a hybrid, which means that it includes both authoritarian and democratic elements. 2 Contrary to the usual assumptions found in the literature on transitions to and consolidation of democracy, 3 political systems with hybrid characteristics can be understood "as alternative directions, not way stations to liberal democracy." However, this does not mean that such countries "are doomed never to achieve well-functioning liberal democracy" (Carothers 2002:14, 17; for a similar position, see Merkel 2004). Scholars working on the history of democratization in Europe note that this was not, "a process that was achieved in single moments of wholesale regime transition but rather [has to be seen] as a protracted and punctuated 'one institution at a time' process … it is crucial to emphasize that the complex institutional configuration of democracies rarely emerges all at once. On the contrary, different institutions often emerge at different times, often for different reasons" (Capoccia and Ziblatt 2010:940). In other words, even the "established" democracies of contemporary Europe have a past in which they often looked like present-day hybrid systems. Indeed, one may say that Thailand is a good illustration of the benefits of an approach that, "conceptualizes democratization as an inherently long-run chain of linked episodes of struggles and negotiations over institutional change" (ibid.:957; italics in the original). 4
International Journal of Arts & Sciences, , 2012
The purposes of this research were to study the political leadership in the globalization era of Pol. Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra to study his governance which mainly focused on the utmost efficiency and to study the factors which affected the good governance in his government which later led to a coup d’état in September , The research was conducted with a mixed method design in which data was collected from literature research, in-depth interviews with key informants and a set of questionnaire distributed to the focus group. The research results have identified Pol. Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra to be a modern day leader who has a lot of experience as a businessman equipped with a progressive vision and is a very talented strategist. His policy and goal setting are realistic and can be accomplished via modern administrative technology. He uses integrated researches to investigate and evaluate the projects that have been implemented in a regular basis. He is considered to be a Master in terms of business which was able to overcome the Tom Yum crisis in 1997. Before he was given the position, the Thai economy was in bad shape leading to requesting a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). When he was given the position of Prime Minister, he was able to completely change the situation of the economy by using the Dual Track Economy Policy. An urgent policy implemented after forming the government in 2001 is the “Village Fund”, “Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) Improvement Policy”, creating jobs for the communities with the “One Tumbol One Product (OTOP) Policy”, opened international connections with “Free Trade Agreements” (FTA) leading to the most business connections between countries ever made in Thai history. He improved the economic system under the name of “Thaksinomics”. The improvements worked resulting with the payoff of the debt from the IMF before the end of the agreement. He was able to increase the national income by 6.9% in 2003. In the social terms, he established Thailand’s first National Healthcare System with the “30 Baht to Heal All Illnesses” policy. Now the poor citizens can get in touch with the public health system. He built the “Eua-Arthorn Housing Project” giving a chance for the low-income citizens to own their own residences, 601,727 units were built between the years 2003 to 2007. The elimination of drug dealers in 2004, lead to the arrest of 205,679 criminals. However, the weak point of the policy was the murders involved in the policy, which was identified as the violation of human rights. As for the policies that failed were the ones involved in national securities of the southern provinces of Thailand. Nevertheless, the administration under the governance of Pol. Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra finally led to instability in the administrative system. The coup d’état in 2006 allegedly resulted from Thaksin’s accumulated problems in political ethics, namely his first and second false asset declarations, 157 158 Busabar Sinsomboon Thaksin’s accumulated problems in political ethics, namely his first and second false asset declarations, direct and indirect restrictions of press freedom, taking over of free electronic media, buying advertisements from private media agencies, interventions in independent organizations namely Election Committee and corruption in government housing projects. However, the major allegations were based on the conflicts of interest involved with his business networks of Shinawatra family (Shin Corp.) In January 23, 2006 Shinnawatra family sold all securities they hold in Shin Corp. (49.595%) worth 73,000 million baht to Temasek Holdings Ltd, an investment fund of Singapore government. All these problems in political ethics led to instability of the government under the leadership of Pol. Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra and resulted in the September 19, 2006 Coup d’état The research found that Thai society has overlooked the leaders’ ethics. Thus, the research suggested that to develop morals and ethics in Thai leaders should start from developing conscience in Thai adolescents. The fierce competition in current Thai society causes Thai adolescents to neglect morals, ethics, mercy and conscience. These good characteristic should be re-promoted. When the youth possess these characteristics, they will think, do, understand, analyze and solve problems by themselves. This will positively result in virtuous Thai political leaders in the future Keywords: Thai Political Leadership, Thaksin Shinawatra, Management, Strategies, Good Governance.
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Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of …, 2009
The "People's Constitution" drafted in 1997 was seen as a watershed event in Thai constitutional history due to the breadth and depth of its reforms. Yet just ten years later, in August 2007, a new Constitution was promulgated, the 18th since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
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Hong Kong: Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong. (SEARC Working Paper Series, No. 79) , 2005
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