Judge this govt by how it treats the poorest citizens

“The PM has already achieved more than every elected Thai leader,” Dusit Thammaraks writes.

So let’s look at what actually has been accomplished. The first thing was to raise taxes on alcohol and cigarettes – exactly as every coup government in Thai history has done. As for corruption, a lot of people have been arrested, but who has actually gone to jail in the past year? (Again, that question would receive the same answer for every previous coup government.) An agreement was made to build a bullet train, yet to get from Ubon Ratchathani to Chang Mai one still has to travel via Bangkok. Meanwhile the vast majority of highways are still two-lane routes, resulting in a very bad accident rate. 

Then came the deal to buy submarines at the same time as the PM was claiming that public health insurance was costing Thailand too much. The final insult was the “crisis panel” – a euphemism for a legal path to carrying out a coup.

The thing that bothers me the most, though, is the time it took to write a new constitution and how quickly the committee rejected the idea that all lawmakers should be elected.

If these are Khun Dusit’s ideas of accomplishments, then he is obviously of the same mindset that affluent Thais have had for decades and we can expect nothing to improve in Thailand, except, as usual, the strengthening of 

whatever regime engineered the coup. 

I am a foreigner in Thailand, and whatever happens will most likely not change my life one bit, but I grieve for my neighbours in Isaan, because it sounds suspiciously like life will not improve for the farmers.

John Arnone