Mega-projects for the rich won't bridge national rift
Re: "When one feels inferior, one does things that keep one poor", Tell It As It Is, February 19.
Khun Pornpimol’s column on India’s efforts to develop expertise in physics was beautifully written and very thoughtful, but I disagree with it. Considering the state of housing and hunger in India, it seems to be putting the horse before the cart.
Here in Thailand the government is embarking on a programme to build high-speed train systems. This in a country where 70 per cent of the highways are still two-lane roads – a situation that is responsible for Thailand’s poor highway-safety record. Additionally, there should be a rail link from Ubon Ratchathani to Khon Kaen to Chang Mai so that Isaan people can get to Chang Mai without having to go through Bangkok.
The problem with Khun Pornpimol’s argument is that you must be upper-middle class and rich to think this way. She believes that such projects “lift the spirit” of citizens in the countries that accomplish them. But precisely whose spirits – the Isaan farmer or some stockbroker in Bangkok?
Khun Pornpimol cited the moon landing achieved by America’s scientists. Does she really believe that it improved the lot of some coal miner in Appalachia?
It is this sort of thinking that spawned the rise of the Shinawatras and, ultimately, the red-shirt movement. All of it could have been reversed had the current crop of coup-makers corrected the electoral process in Thailand so that anyone could aspire to high office. They could have improved the infrastructure by upgrading the existing highways and rail lines so that all citizens’ lives would be improved. But, like previous coup-makers, they instead chose to keep the door of politics closed to the poor, and build high-speed rail lines, thus “raising the spirits” of those who have the money and time to worry about such things.
The powers in Thailand believe they have rid themselves of the Shinawatras, and most likely they have, but they have not rid themselves of the red-shirt movement and never will as long as they continue the policies of the past. The wealthy in this country believe that the poor are ignorant because they voted for two obviously corrupt people, but they did not do so because they believed they were righteous. They voted for them because at long last someone gave them something. And to them, a healthcare plan and village loans made a lot more sense than a high-speed train line.
John Arnone
