Populist policies imprudent and payouts to reds unwise: Wissanu
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Former deputy prime minister Wissanu Kruengam lambasted the government yesterday on two issues - imprudent implementation of populist policies and paying Bt7 million compensation per red-shirt victim without a legal mandate.
“I question the legality of the Bt7-million compensation package,” said Wissanu, drawing a parallel with a previous case.
“If the government had had a legal mandate, then there would have been no [two or three-] digit lottery case,” he said, referring to the sale of a lottery that was later found to be unlawful.
Wissanu, who served in the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, said he did not entirely oppose populist projects but wanted to question the manner in which such policies were being implemented.
Successive governments had used them merely to sway voters in the short term, and failed to factor in long-term adverse impacts of wasteful spending, he said.
“Populist policies are a form of patronage system to remind voters to show gratitude when casting their ballots,” he said.
He cautioned government leaders seeking to churn out populist projects about their duty towards basic state policies of fiscal discipline, rule of law, good governance and accurate assessment of domestic politics.
He populist policies were merely a first-aid kit for deep economic woes.
At present, the government had to bear the cost of the Bt300 minimum daily wage via subsidies because business operators could not bear the burden, he said, reminding authorities that they had delivered no clear plans on how to finance such subsidies.
The government also had no tangible plan, he said to pay for losses incurred through the rice-pledging scheme.
He was speaking at a hearing convened by the Senate committee on finance and banking.
