We Aren't Becoming Ungovernable; We Are Getting Enlightened

[Flashermac]

by Suthichai Yoon

 

 

It used to be quite simple. If the powers-that-be wanted any state enterprise to undertake a controversial task, no matter how sensitive or risky, all that was needed was a call from one of the Cabinet members to the top executive there. Things could always be arranged to suit the political bosses.

 

This time around, the tide has turned. The caretaker government is trying to get the first rice-scheme amount of Bt20 billion (out of a total Bt135 billion) from commercial banks, private and public. A total of 34 of them were invited to bid for the loan.

 

Under normal circumstances, the financial institutions would have scrambled to get the deal. Why not? It's guaranteed by the Finance Ministry. It's almost risk-free. And you are doing a favour to the establishment as well.

 

But things have changed, and dramatically. The government is running the country in a caretaker capacity. The Election Commission, whose official endorsement was required for any government action whose consequences would pass to the post-election government, decided not to give the green light. Instead, the EC told the Yingluck government to make its own decision - in other words, do it at your own risk.

 

The government, under growing pressure from farmers demanding payment for their crops under the highly controversial rice-pledging scheme, decided to proceed to get loans. But alas, none of the banks came forward to offer a bid. None - not even the government banks.

 

The reason was simple. This is an age of transparency in which every detail of the deal is analysed, criticised and commented upon in the social media and on the anti-government stages.

 

Once reports leaked that pressure was being applied to the Agricultural and Agricultural Cooperatives Bank, a government financial institution, to lend money to the government for this project, the bank's labour union came out in full force to protest the move, arguing that this kind of political pressure would undermine the bank's stability. Depositors could start withdrawing their savings and the bank's management could face legal action.

 

It was around the same time that the Government Savings Bank was cited as another target. There, the labour union also launched a protest.

 

The scene on Tuesday at Krungthai Bank, the country's biggest public financial institution, was dramatic. Once rumours started flying that the bank's management had approved the loan to the government, employees gathered to show their dissatisfaction. The bank's CEO Vorapak Tahnyawongse had to appear personally to deny a report that the bank had in the past two weeks extended Bt160 billion to the rice-pledging project.

 

His statement was remarkable and probably unprecedented. In the past, most top executives of government banks would have succumbed to political pressure, if for no other reason than to keep their jobs. It is no secret that most of them have benefited from political connections to get where they are.

 

But Vorapak told reporters in no uncertain terms that the bank was being run under strict rules of good governance and was rigidly following the central bank's control and supervision guidelines. He insisted that the management based its judgement on the interests of its depositors and that no loans would be made without proper consideration.

 

Then he said something that few other executives of state enterprises would say - or have the courage to utter.

 

Vorapak declared: "I have been working in this field for more than 20 years. I joined Krungthai Bank as a professional banker, not because of politics. I owe nobody any political debt. Therefore, I don't have to repay anybody at the expense of the national interest."

 

That's the kind of technocrat the government should try to promote. With more and more bureaucrats and former state enterprise officials joining the protest and declaring their "independence" from the powers-that-be, the hope for national reform should shine brighter.

 

No, Thailand is not becoming ungovernable. We have become more enlightened.

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/We-arent-becoming-ungovernable;-we-are-getting-enl-30226135.html

[YimSiam]

This is what I'm talking about - the Nation spinning a story in a way that is deeply skewed in one partisan direction, and has no balance or counterargument at all. It's propaganda, and disappointing. I mean, fucking really? A banking labor union is relevant to this issue how?! These bankers are succumbing to political pressure as much now as ever, and the idea that there's more transparency about their decision that previously is unfounded. Is there such a thing as a bureaucratic coup?

[cavanami]

bureaucratic coup...goes on everyday!

 

The USA gov doubling in size...more oversight...loss of individual freedoms...wipe out the middle class...etc

 

Now there is a bit of middle class in LOS and some people are afraid of it...for years, it was, keep them poor, keep them hungry and keep them uneducated...easier for the upper class to control them, IMO.

[radioman]

Now there is a bit of middle class in LOS and some people are afraid of it...for years, it was, keep them poor, keep them hungry and keep them uneducated...easier for the upper class to control them, IMO.

 

IMPO that's still very much the plan, from both sides of the political divide.

[Flashermac]

This is what I'm talking about - the Nation spinning a story in a way that is deeply skewed in one partisan direction, and has no balance or counterargument at all. It's propaganda, and disappointing. I mean, fucking really? A banking labor union is relevant to this issue how?! These bankers are succumbing to political pressure as much now as ever, and the idea that there's more transparency about their decision that previously is unfounded. Is there such a thing as a bureaucratic coup?

 

That it why it's called an opinion piece. Since when are opinions supposed to be balanced? It is Suthichai Yoon's own personal opinion. That is why it has his name on it.

[YimSiam]

But you've got to admit - the whole paper reads similarly, to greater or lesser degrees, with a pro-Thaksin opinion piece thrown in here and there. I suppose one shouldn't be surprised. Perhaps it's just that the paper seems, visually at least, to be a fairly standard and presumably non-partisan news outlet, and then it turns out to be relatively supportive of the Bkk elites, more than I can countenance as journalism.

 

This time, the coup will succeed, in one form or another: corruption court, rice scheme, Suthep assassination, bad hair day, who knows - Suthep's puppet masters still have such overwhelming control of administrative and judicial organs, not to mention army backing, that democracy doesn't really stand a chance quite yet - government will be dictated by an aristocratic elite as it has for the past 80 years. But eventually... there will be change, not just another appointed government. Shame that Suthep and his jaundiced friends had to cause such traffic jams and economic losses, though. Would have been smoother to just take over quickly and absolutely, like the Generals in Myanmar have done now and then.

[Flashermac]

I love your positive attitude.

 

p.s. I've mentioned before that Thaksin actually tried to shut down The Nation. Why should they love him? (He also got the chief editor of the Bangkok Post demoted and did put at least one smaller Thai language newspaper out of business.)

[WorldFun]

so as it says...we're all becoming more enlightened...something will have to give and its probably not.....

[YimSiam]

Right - Thaksin is a square-headed little prick, that is well beyond dispute - and he's no friend of your standard human rights, free press, etc (plus he crimped my nightlife style). The airport alone is enough to damn him eternally - that thing is an embarrassment. No love lost for Thaksin on my side; I despise all sides equally...