Citizens call for more say in local affairs

“We’re not calling for decentralisation. We’re calling for our power to be returned,” the native of Chiang Mai said. “Can we govern ourselves?”
Chiang Mai is much older than Bangkok and the time has come for devolution, he said at a deliberative forum held by Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
Today, the appointed Chiang Mai governor has little power to decide on major policy issues and when complaints come in, the governor often says he will forward the matter to Bangkok for consideration. This meant Provincial Hall was more like a post office.
The old administrative structure was still essentially based on a model introduced over a century ago and no longer responsive to local needs.
“The world has changed so much since then,” he said.
Power continued to be concentrated in Bangkok under either a parliamentary or military dictatorship.
The claim of corruption in elected local administrative bodies was an excuse to prevent more decentralisation did not hold water, as the national government was also believed to be corrupt, he added.
Another speaker said decentralisation may in fact take a leap backward under the current reform process, judging from the number of conservative bureaucrats appointed to the National Reform Council (NRC).
Political scientist Assadang Panikbutr said many bureaucrats continued to be distrustful of rural and less-educated voters. Without naming names, he said a number of former and current senior bureaucrats have also been appointed to the NRC, so progress made in decentralisation over the past years could be rolled back by a few decades.
Elected local administrators were often viewed by sceptics as being wasteful in the spending of taxpayers’ money, while local administrative bodies should have more say in more matters.
Provinces like Phuket, for example, should be able to decide whether a foreign tourist entry charge should be introduced to raise money for local development. There are 4.4 million foreign visitors to the island province each year and charging Bt100 a head would automatically raise Bt440 million.
There was a need for greater local checks and balances of elected local administrative bodies, however. An elected body of 25 people at provincial level could be formed to scrutinise local elected administrative bodies. It would receive complaints from local people but would have no power to punish.
“If we want democracy to reflect equality, we must consider this,” he said.